Where do you find your inspiration?

Where do you get your inspiration? I get my writing inspiration from many different sources. One of the ways I get inspiration is through watching old television shows, reading old books, and watching old movies. I'm sure you get the idea. The reason I go to those things that are old is because they help me see a different perspective than what I would see in what is in vogue today. It helps keep me from regurgitating the ideas of others. I like to look at what was written in the past and see what I like about what I'm reading and what I don't like about what I'm reading. What elements would I like to include in my own writing? What elements don't I want to use or how would I use the events in what I read in a different setting than the one where it is used in the old book?

I love to observe people and I find inspiration from their experiences. I like to try to see things from the eyes of a person that I know who is of a different age group. I can gain insight from anyone. The elderly, the teenager and the child all have unique ways of looking at life. I love to listen to the stories of others. There have been many stories that I have picked up from my father and I have taken advice from my preteen daughter.

I gain inspiration from places where I go. I often like to go into my own backyard and experience the moment in time. I close my eyes and listen and write what I hear, what I taste, what I smell, what I feel. I go through it until I write down every sensation.

I can also use this same sensory inspiration when writing about places that I've been and even places that I've only read about in books. I imagine myself going there and experience the location and write about it through all the senses.

I am inspired by dreams. Several of my books have been inspired by dreams. I have been awakened with an idea that simply wouldn't go away and from it I would create a story. Soldiers Don't Cry the book that I am putting out in June 2011 was inspired from a dream.

I have gained inspiration from my own personal experiences. Many negative experiences that I have had to work through have been fodder for some of my best scenes. I think that 'sharing' these experiences with my characters helps me create not only better scenes but it creates more real characters that not only I am able to identify with but others can identify with as well.

Finally I find inspiration simply by asking questions. I write them down and then search for the answers from within. That is how this blog post was written.

Now I present this question to you. Where do you find your inspiration?