To locate currents of emotional meaning under the facts is to create art, rummaging in memory's jumble. If you have difficulty getting to that bargain basement of surrealistic pictures, you will have difficulty finding a shape for the writing. Emotional memory gives narrative a personal edge and spin, the resonance that makes it exciting and recognizable. Poets pursue the elusive mood state in long bouts of daydreaming, walking, napping, whatever they do to prepare. Chasing ideas is an oddly inactive activity.
Many writers do little else but sit in small rooms recalling the real world.
This explains why so many books describe the author's childhood. A writer's childhood may well have been the occasion of his only firsthand experience. Flippant, but true. In this passive occupation, you observe with great attention the ongoing wrestling match between emotional memory and literal memory, waiting until you spy an outline that has meaning, one unique yet universal. The act of creating, is one of the best tools for discovering personal meaning.