is a writer and educator. She wrote recently that one of her jobs as a writer is to share signs of hope. I don't remember where she wrote that, so I cannot provide a link. I am sorry. Maybe that can motivate you? I hope this helps.

Two very good novels written soon after the times they depicted and describing a world frozen in memories both fond and regretful.

Maybe these are only helpful references if you happen to be writing the great American novel.

Are you?

Why didn’t I think of that?

Working on a mystery series. Have completed multiple drafts of the first, a first draft of the second, and a concept for the third. And it just occurred that I may be more motivated for now to set aside my first story and do some work on the other two.

Thanks so much your reply!

When she first conceived of him, the war was still going on and she was a nurse tending to wounded Englishmen shipped home from battle.

Contemporaneous history for her became an unfolding backdrop for a decades-long relationship between author and protagonist.

My muse is dead. I want desperately to express what I feel, or make a record of what’s happening. And every thought or idea I have just seems trite and unimportant. I can’t even be arsed to go sing old favorites at an open mic night. I just have nothing in me.

Anything that involves planning for the future seems futile. Stocking the larder? Will it be needed by October?

Quick, easy, necessary, cheap repairs will be completed. Bigger projects I'm putting off.

The dissolution of the whole federal government rattles me to the core because it involves the values that the whole country and arguably a good portion of western civilization lives by. The wisdom of our best and brightest over 100-150 years. Gone! Because the richest people in the world want to deceive us into giving it all up for them.

Limit online political sites. They'll sap your energy. What writing goals do you have? Have you read "The Artist's Way?" It's specifically designed for people with creative blockage.