"But I need to step back a minute to explain how a writer falls into a book. Because–at least for me–that tumble down the rabbit hole of verse or story is a necessary part of writing.

 I have often told anyone who would listen to me that the Japanese have a word for it: saku-taku-no-ki.

 Saku–the special sound a mother hen makes tapping on an egg with her beak.

 Taku–the sound a chick makes tapping from within.

 No-ki–the moment the tappings come together.

 Saku-taku-no-ki–the instant a chick pecking on the inside and the mother pecking on the outside reach the same spot. The egg cracks open. New life emerges.

 In just that way a story begins, with a physical tapping on the outside: a line of a song that won’t leave your head, an article in the newspaper that strikes a chord, a fragment of conversation that loops endlessly, a photograph or painting that touches you deeply, a repeating dream. And then the answering emotion that taps within, sometimes days, weeks, years later. The moment they come together, the story starts."

-          -    Jane Yolen

http://janeyolen.com/wellesley-speech/