I am a teacher, a writer, and father to a precocious little girl who keeps me on my toes most of the time.  In the quiet of the night, I put words to paper (or rather, I put words on a screen).  I tell stories about people.  What happens to them and how it happens is the journey, but you have to start with the people.  Too many times, authors write fantastical characters that we have no way with which to relate.  Sometimes it works, but most of the time it doesn't.  
The stoic stranger whose past is a mystery and motivations even more so doesn't work for me.  I want to read about the woman who rises out of an abusive relationship and comes into power.  I want to understand the man who seems to have everything and can never be satisfied.  Why does a person dream of death?  Is it tied into their own fears of mortality, or are they being hunted in a realm where the subconscious has real power to create and destroy?  Does one ever get over true loss?  What makes us strong, indomitable?  What makes us weak or afraid?
This is what I write about, because life is what I imitate on paper, but the journey...oh that is the part that I truly get excited about...