I've been reading fantasy and SF since I could read, starting with the Narnia series and The Wind in the Willows. (I taught myself to read because my mother wasn't getting through Wind in the Willows fast enough.) I went on from there to Heinlein and Asimov and LeGuin. 

My favorite advice about writing came from C.S. Lewis, somewhat by accident. He was talking about how people always assumed he started the Narnia books as a Christian allegory and that wasn't the case at all--he started them because he had a picture in his mind of a faun under a lamppost with an umbrella in the snow, carrying a package. He started the book to explain that image. Aslan, he says, only showed up much later.

That was transformative for me--the idea that you could start a book with nothing but an image, like launching a boat on an unknown sea. So that's how I write. I get the characters and the situation, then let them run and take notes. I usually have an idea of the starting situation and where I want to end up but everything in between is hazy. 

I've been writing with some focus for 10 years or so now but never had the oomph to get things out there. I'm hoping WattPad will be the kick in the pants I need to get moving.