Goodreads asked Dean Whitlock:

How do you get inspired to write?

Dean Whitlock My inspirations come in two forms: story ideas and the impetus to sit down and write. They are never the same. The ideas come from chance events, items read or heard, the juxtaposition of happenings that at first glance seem to have no connection. The idea for my first pro SF story, for example, (The Million-Dollar Wound) appeared when I listened to a newscast about the implantation of the first artificial heart right after listening to "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda," by Eric Bogle, an anti-war song in which the main character/narrator loses both legs. It takes me a while - years in some cases - to accumulate the background, setting, characters, and plot points that turn these ideas into stories, but it was actually a very quick process in this case.

As for the impetus to sit down and write, I try to make it a daily thing - an hour at least in the morning - but the press of day-to-day life makes that difficult. I do know that I can't afford to wait for the muse to strike. I have to pull myself to my chair by the scruff of the neck, grab my wrist and make my hand open the file, force my eyes to read the last scene. Once I'm there, the inspiration almost invariably hits.

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