Goodreads
Goodreads asked Margo Christie:

How do you get inspired to write?

Margo Christie By observing, reading, and writing.

I'm a people watcher. Sitting on a park bench or in a coffee shop watching people interact inspires me to think about where they've been; who they are under their laughter; what they may have lost; what breaks their heart. Also, since I write from an historical perspective, old buildings speak to my soul. Near my longtime home in Arvada Colorado, I became very inspired by a rundown motel turned apartment complex, dating from about 1950. Walking by the place or sitting on a wall across the street from it, I imagined the people its walls have seen; the travelers and transients who spent nights, weeks or months inside those box-like rooms. Where did they come from and why were they there? What sort of life would drive someone to actually live in a motel?
I gain a lot by reading good fiction. My writing stems from personal experience, so my favorite stories are those that sound and feel like they were lived by the author. Be it a best-selling novel or a good short story, fiction that carries that sense of authenticity always inspires me to put my own stories on paper.
I also read books and articles about writing. The process of writing can be grueling, but there's nothing like the feeling of having created a cast of characters and an intriguing scene from the deep recesses of my heart. I'm inspired to read that I'm not alone in the process; that other writers feel these things, too.
In writing, one idea often leads to another. A bad idea tweaked becomes a workable idea which becomes a good idea. Writing is a very organic process - The characters breathe life off the page when the writer puts fingers to keyboard and plays around with them.

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