Intuition

It seems to me that all writers would like to think their work is intuitive, but I don't think it is. Intuition usually grows out of experience. Doing or seeing or experiencing something -- things that are similar or in some way related -- more than once, often many, many times.

A writer is not likely to choose a word she is unfamiliar with. Nor is a writer likely to take a character or follow a character down a  path the writer has not in some way traveled before. The choice may feel intuitive, and it is, at least in the sense that the writer has felt that feeling before and now sees a reason to feel it again.