I've always been shy about soloing. A few things/ideas I have been working with to improve my creative juices are as follows:
Start with a 2 or 3 note riff, play that until it feels like a part of the song, then add something before that riff, then add a little something after that riff. Treat the 1st riff as a small tree, then add branches to that tree, that's the stuff before and after. Sometimes change the last note of that riff, play that change twice, change the last note again and play that change twice, then play the original again. I never looked at solos like this, since I have been lately, I've been coming up with new ideas to throw into my playing. It's given me numerous ways to improve my approach. I've still got a ways to go but this idea really helped me out. Last but not least, the lighter the touch, the quicker to move to the next note. One mistake I've always made was playing the notes to hard, or rather pressing to hard when it wasn't necessary.