From King's excellent book On Writing (highly recommended), he makes two observations that I thought were unique, and they resonated with me:

(1) stories are fossils waiting to be uncovered. They are already out there, buried, and the author's job is to dig them out. This thought is encouraging, because it means anywhere you see earth, there will be a story buried underneath.

With practice, you will get better at excavating them without ruining them. Of course, once you remove the top layer of dirt you will see some stories that are not for you. It's best to leave them for someone else.

(2) he doesn't plot out his stories, rather, he creates interesting and believable characters and lets them tell the story. I love this approach, in fact, I was already using it. I didn't realize it was a "legitimate" way to tell stories.

I find it makes writing fun. I have tried plotting out stories and it's boring. Instead I start with a protagonist, antagonist, setting, and initial conflict, and start typing. I let my story entertain me as I write.

After a while I see a conclusion to my conflict on the horizon, and start guiding my characters toward it. But I let them take their own path.