"And Only to Deceive" by Tasha Alexander: Author says the story invented itself

“I knew I wanted to write about an English woman in the late Victorian period and had a strong image of her standing on the top of the cliff path on the Greek island of Santorini, one of my very favorite places. Once I started asking questions about how she came to be there, the story started to invent itself” (1, p. 312).

Comment: The author says that she did not experience herself as figuring out the story, but that the story invented itself, as if the story had a mind of its own, which is a split-personality creative process.

1. Tasha Alexander. And Only to Deceive. New York, Harper, 2005.