When it comes to finding what you want to actually express, it's worth spending as much time as possible listening to music. Before that, scales are just scales that you go up and down. Spending some time with whatever your kind of music is can teach you a lot about the inflections, timing and common moves that make it into the sound that appealed to you (and that you want to express) in the first place.

Also, transcription. Sounds boring, but gets pretty fun when it becomes a problem solving exercise. If you're transcribing something close to the sound that you hear in your head, hearing the same lick 20 times is obsessive, but by no means painful.

Justin Sandercoe has blank tab sheets (and standard notation, if you're capable) for transcribing on. Wonderful bloke, really should donate something at some point in the future...