That is a great point! And very true. The things that we do enjoy, while they don't inspire stories, they do influence us.

Thank you for the book recommendation! I do love to read books about the writing craft. You can never read too many. :D

I do enjoy listening to music when I write, it helps calm me and put me in a writing frenzy. At the same time I find the same enjoyment writing in complete silence.  I enjoy reading books, watching movies, and playing videogames. But I have always enjoyed doing all that even before I decided to dig my teeth into my writing. In the end the things I enjoy don't inspire, but help mold the type of work I enjoy writing. They influence more than inspire.

My inspiration comes mainly from the feedback I receive of my current and previous works. Feedback feeds the muse and new ideas flow off the pages. To better understand what motivates me I recommend the book Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande. By thinking of your current work the inspiration comes freely and in large scopes.

Oh yes, people watching. I got an idea for a flash fiction story because of two individuals I saw at Wal-Mart. lol

My muse and your muse sound like they may be related. :P

Celt stories are used a lot in fantasy stories, but I love anything Celtic so I don't mind. ;) But using other cultures is an awesome idea!

I wanted to be a cop when I was younger, but my back issues (I've got metal in there lol) sort of prevented that so now I like to write about cops/detectives. I often give my character's lives I want. I think most writers do because we get to live through our characters. ;)

I've never done fan fiction, but I don't see anything wrong with it if it gets the creative juices flowing. I might dabble in fan fiction just for fun some day. 

Of course, I definitely know Glenn Ford as the original Clark Kent's father. :)

Oh yes! Published authors do make me jealous, and they make me insecure. After I read an amazing book by an author whose talent blows my mind, I get a little depressed and then I push myself to write better. 

 - archaeology/anthropology ie Old, obscure legends, religions, fairy tales, and mythologies; obscure civilizations and ones that most people don't pay much attention to. I love ancient Celt/Arthurian stories, but in fantasy I think they are WAY overused, so I try to borrow from those cultures that I feel I know a bit more than the average person does ie African, eastern European, etc. Persian and Sogdian are my favorites right now.  You will probably see a very strong influence of archaeology/anthropology, if not a character who IS an archaeologist, in my stories. Hey I didnt get to actually be one myself (I have a degree in anthro and thats about as far as it went) so Im going to WRITE about them.

- I have written fan fiction and one of my stories has become a riff off some fanfiction Ive done, although I will not be using the same story idea/set up as was in the original fandom. This story has evolved on its own, thankfully. However, I see no shame in having played around in fanfiction. I consider it akin to playing dolls: children learn/imitate/express through playing with their toys and fanfiction is, *I think* a good way for authors, especially beginning ones, to perhaps put their minds into Other Heads and perhaps see things the way someone completely different does. Its a bit like acting and in the fandom I've played around in, I have developed a better sense for masculine characters. Fanfiction forced me to examine the character and figure out their motivation, therefore, gave me knowledge and inspiration for male characters. Now I have some male characters that are very strong and 'real' to me.

- Movies of course. Ive been inspired lately by 30s/40s/50s film noir, in particular Glenn Ford. YOWZA. He had a horrible personal life (I try not to look too closely these days - it always ruins the movie-watching experience for me to know all the personal stuff about an actor) but he was an amazing actor and did an incredible body of work in Hollywood. He truly was the fastest gun in Hollywood (I love westerns) and was unbelievably handsome well up into his later years. He also was in two of the most well known film noirs: The Big Heat and Human Desire.  If you're my age (mid40s) you may remember him from The Courtship of Eddie's Father and Clark Kent's father in the original Superman.

- dreams have inspired in the past, but they generally inspire scenes rather than stories or books.

- I love reading but sometimes published authors make me very jealous (I wanna be published too!!!!!) so I guess you can say they inspire me to sit down and write more out of the fact that they actually made it...and I havent yet.

- Rocks, gemstones, landscapes, forests, pools, streams, sunsets, cafes, cigars (lalalala these are a few of my favorite things)...they havent so much inspired stories so much as just the desire to write.

See! Just like me, music is your muse! :D

Ha, then all my playlists are muses to me. Without them I simply cannot write!

Anything and anyone can be a muse. The band 30 Seconds to Mars is mine, but a lot of other music inspires my writing too. Maybe you have a muse, but you just don't know it yet. ;)

I hear a lot of people talking about muses. I don't think I have one, let alone even more. Depending on what I want to write, I pick the music. I have various playlists e.g. Suspense, Passion and Ambience. I just take a few moments, imagine what I want to write and there I go!

TV wise, I love series. I prefer them over film. Especially 'old' scifi shows make me want to write. When I have read something that triggers a scene or situation for my characters I'm always careful. Sometimes I tend to write and realize later that 75% I've just written is just simply copied.

Maybe I should find myself a muse...

That's great, Elaine!