I once did an essay about my Muse(s). I'll have to dig it up.
The upshot of it was that my brain was populated by writers I admire (all of whom were sitting behind me and writing much more and better than I was - demoralizing) and then my characters tried to do the job, but they were all fighting for attention (except the one I needed to work with), and by the end of the essay was was feeling like I was in Groucho's stateroom in Night At The Opera. (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3MtT6FajGI)
I wanted my muse to be Tommy Lee Jones (in character as Deputy Sam Gerard ) or William Daniels as John Adams ( pacing behind me as I wrote, saying "Get on with it woman!") But in the end I had to admit that I thought my Muse was really Calvert DeForrest - the character actor who played Larry Bud Melman on the old NBC Letterman Show. Sitting in a lazyboy, eating cheetos and whining about what was on TV.
Camille