Writers have been described as those who drive a car at the same time as wanting to look under the hood and see how the engine is working. Writers are curious about what works and why it works.
Here is a short piece about one short by one of the preeminent figures in the genre Lydia Davis, showing stages in her compositional process:
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/07/lydia-daviss-very-short-stories/372286/ (Links to an external site.)