I can haz inspiration?

Last night, I talked with a woman who's life story would make a GREAT movie. It would be Erin Brockovich meets Slumdog Millionaire, and it really surprised me how much the movie-ness of what she's been through came out and smacked me in the face.

I find I often struggle with fostering my creativity. Though I want to make movies, write stories, be imaginative, whatever... actual characters and plots don't pop into my head that easily. One of my goals this year is to see this as a skill that I can develop. Hopefully being in my first film production class (last semester, I was only taking critical studies film courses) will contribute to this, but it an ability that I really want to foster.

I often find that I don't know what to write about, even though the truth of the matter is, you can write about ANYTHING. I've been keeping in mind an exchange from the movie Finding Neverland:

Peter Llewelyn Davies (the young boy in the story): I still have no idea what to write.
J.M. Barrie (played by Johnny Depp): Write about anything. Write about your family, write about the talking whale!
Peter: What whale?
J.M. Barrie: The one that's trapped in your imagination and desperate to get out.

It's so easy for me to see stories in people's lives, or the possibilities for a film in a good book (Tamora Pierce movies NEED to happen, people)... but I really want to work on getting inspiration from a good story from all around me, in everyday life.

When I see things like the MoMA exhibit about Tim Burton, I am astounded by the kind of creative visions some people like Burton have. It's like they see a different world from you or I; or like they have this imagination of steel which processes everything and churns about amazing ideas.

Anyway, this is just a random little blog post to get some thoughts out there. If you're a creative person, where do YOU get inspiration from?