My essential question is how does an out of practice writer become an active, disciplined writer?

I know that writers need is free time which is something that I haven’t had since eighth grade. I know that there is a lot of focus involved and rarely have I been in the right mindset required for the amount of focus that creative writing requires. I also know that good writers read a lot, and I haven’t had the time or motivation to read that much when school is in session. Therefore, my writing hasn’t been as good as since I was an avid reader in middle school. At least with in the creativity aspects.

I didn’t know was what wacky times creativity struck me. I almost always get the motivation to write at 1 AM to 3 AM. Also the mediums which I create stories through changes my creative process and mind. We were talking about this in my cohort group, but when you hand write things, and then transcribe them onto a Word document or Google doc, we tend to edit as we go. While this is very helpful in many situations, when we want just a rough, first draft to share or have, this phenomenon can become quite pesky.

This essential question is important to me because this question directly relates to my situation. I used to be a creative writer in middle school, but recently I have had neither the mindset nor the opportunity to creative write in high school, except for one trimester in junior year. I think that this process will also help me in the future, because I know that I will go through another dry spell of not writing in the future. But I also know that I plan on pursuing creative writing, probably not as a career, but at least as a passion. And therefore I will want to know how I successfully got out of my first dry spell and got motivated. I know that a lot of other writers also suffer from years of not writing, and therefore my experience could help them. But I keep in mind that everyone is an individual and not all processes work for everyone.