Rebuilding my writing habits AKA How Ruz Got His Groove Back

Back in 2010-2014 I was writing a lot. 3 novels a year, 3-4 drafts each, plus time for side projects like X-Com fanfic (I promise to revive the B-Team one day!), all while working as a design contractor and teaching part-time. I felt like I’d cracked the code to productivity. That the energy would never fizzle out. Then, in 2014, I went back to school to get my Masters of Teaching. In 2016, I began teaching high school. Surprise! I fizzled. This is partly because teaching consumes your entire life (80 hour work weeks, every week, forever.) But what I also found was that, even when I did have the time, I couldn’t make the words come. What’d once been so easy was now a struggle. I’d sit down with three hours to spare and end up with 200 limp words and a Youtube playlist of AGDQ speedruns. Writing wasn’t an escape any more. It was extra work, and it was somehow harder than the real work. From 2015-2018, I wrote one book (Rust Four), edited two others (The Ragged Blade, which I’m immensely proud of, and God Factory, which is getting better), and abandoned a lot of half-finished drafts along the way. At the end of 2018, I looked back at my output and decided this was officially Not Good Enough. So, over Christmas, I decided to take a serious look at my work habits, figure out what was holding me back, and reboot. It worked. For the past weeks I’ve been writing non-stop. Projects […]