In an article from the Philadelphia Inquirer, novelist William Gibson (Neuromancer, Johnny Mnemonic, Pattern Recognition), talks about his writing process. It sounds familiar to me:

The creative process for him has two stages. The writing is preceded by a long period of "sitting grumpily, staring out the window." That explains why his nine books, all of which are still in print, have appeared at unpredictable intervals. "The typing on the keyboard takes about a year. The staring out the window can be any length of time and is usually harder." He's now grumpily contemplating his next novel, another present-day tale.

"Grumpily contemplating" . . . how true of many of us writers!