The makings of an 'unusual story' - of, where does inspiration come from?

That's interesting to me as it is totally opposite to the situation I often find myself in: I usually have the characters and the opening scene, and have to figure out where to go from there. The feeling I have is that there is a "right" continuation hidden in the scene and the characters, and that my job is to figure out what it is, but I suspect that it is just a feeling, and that many continuations might actually fit the same opening.

Having just spent the last few minutes reading this whole thread all I can think of is "Where do I start?"

Isn't it amazing how much we all think alike?

When inspiration hits me, a story almost seems to write itself. And anything can be that inspiration, a sign for an insurance adjuster, a Chocolatier's truck, or the constellation Orion and a hot tub have all been successful catalists for me. Without thinking before hand, these stories seemed to write themselves as fast as I could type.

Without that sudden burst of inspration, a story may take weeks to form, running around in my head at the oddest moments until its almost written in its entirety, only needing to be fleshed out, filling in the descriptions that pull it oll together. These, however, tend to be one of those little movies I see running through my head, as I do not "write" it in my head as words, but see it in my head as it happening. Then, when the movie comes to its conclusion, its up to my fingers to translate it into words. I had a comment on one of my stories that said that they, the reader, could almost see it happening as they read. A successful translation, if I do say so myself.

The stories that I concider inspired by real life, are really what I wish real life would be, not what it is. Many, many have aspects of my home life intertwined, my home, a wooden spoon collection, my computer station is clearly described in one, illness, in in another. Bits of family history too, but in the happy ending, its all just imagination.

The challenges are always fun, to find what each of us sees in the same image or idea.
Of course, we all write out our own fantasies, no matter the theme, each of us infuses our own work with those things we crave, be you top or bottom, male or female, happy or sad, whatever, it comes out in what we write.

The hardest part was learning to feel and write something that is totally alien to me, aside from what I read. So all of you have been an inspration in one way or another.

There are also my fractured fairy tales, and a few inspried by a friend, so maybe inspiration and the desire to put words down forothers can come from anywhere. We just have to keep an eye out for opportunity.