Stephen King once said there are two kinds of authors, the architects and the gardeners, (People who plan books, and people who go with the flow)

I'm definitely the architect, I've planned a lot of books and two series because as much as I love writing, it does become exhausting to improvise. However, occasionally when I write I notice tiny gaps where an amazing story could sprout from, and I just love it when that happens because among all of my concrete and steel beams I've set, what's a proper building without a little bit of fauna?

Of course, Stephen King also said "Kill your darlings" and I find that really hard to do, because most of my characters are loosely based off situations I've been in with REAL people and if I kill the character, I feel so sad about it, but I'm learning to take his advice a bit slowly.