Marinating

Sometimes,
often times,
a story begins long before
I ever start writing.

It begins with a scene
or a concept
or a character named Tessa
who interrupts my trying-to-sleep moment
in order to introduce herself
and tell me
just a little bit of
her story.

And then I realize
that I just might
have just met
the main character
in my next book
and I get a little excited about it
and might even jot some of it down
but mostly
I wait
and see
what else this new person in my life
wants to say.