It's always a good idea to follow the music.

Regardless of the direction from which you decide to approach it, just ride the stream - whether it's on a technical, emotional or spiritual level - to wherever the creative process takes you.

That might sound vague and general, but the imagination can to be that way before an idea or feeling is brought into focus.

As an improviser, this process is always at work. It does, however take consistent practice over time for one to be able to routinely manifest what's imagined - and happily, the ride never ends.

Discovering new and different (for one's self) melodic, harmonic and rhythmic pathways is one of the rewards of this consistency. What once seemed complex and difficult, becomes basic and easier to incorporate.

An example of this process is shown with the four examples below. Starting with Ex.1, each subsequent example morphs slightly in terms of its melodic rhythm. The notes, chords and chordal rhythm stay basically the same. 

Ex. 1 shows a 4-bar continuous, descending melodic sequence, resolving to the 3rd degree of C Major, the home key of this example. The chord symbols identify what is essentially a common iii-VI-ii-V-I harmonic progression (with modifications to the V chord, in bar #4). In each case, the 4-note melodic cells (two per measure) are seamlessly connected at each chord change by virtue of a descending half-step.