My Five Step Campaign Creation Process

So, I'm a brand new GM. I never GM'd a long-term campaign at all. It's something I wanted to do for a long time, but I never really got the chance to do. Part of it was a lack of time. And part of it was a lack of confidence. Not about ideas.I always have those. I was more afraid that I couldn't get the characters to interact with the plot that I wanted.  I had always heard that players will inevitably marr the story that the GM wants to tell, so I decided to abandon this idea and work with my gaming group to develop a story that was based off of the characters wanted to make. These were the steps we followed, and I thought it has turned out smashingly well.