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@Phoenix Brother (or sister), I don’t know if this will comfort you, but I will do my best. What the others have said is all helpful and true, and I would counsel you to breathe and pray – I am familiar with your place of panic and angst, and it is not a good place to stand – not even if you’re “taking care of business.” I have tried many times, and I can’t scare myself into writing more and better; it comes when it comes. All I can do in the interim is prepare my notes and stretch my brain for when the inspiration does come.

You are not alone in this. I have been in your shoes for quite some time. Without blaming it on ADHD – I understand your frustration of wanting to write, having the opportunity, and utterly failing to make use of it and producing nothing. I also remember when I used to be able to write a stupendous amount, or at least consistently write every morning and over time produce a great quantity of words and progress – and now that progress often seems sluggish and infrequent if indeed it appears at all. I’m not as devoted to completing my own projects as I used to be, and I can’t even chalk it down to just being busier than I used to be, because I’m not.

Take a breath and take a tally – not of the reasons why you can’t write (that comes later), but of your priorities. What is best in life? What is most important? And what is most important to you?

God comes first. Consider where your writing fits in there; it may well be that in your heart (as it has in mine from time to time) writing and accomplishment has come to supersede God in priority, and to draw you back to Him, He has for a time taken away your pride and joy that you may find lasting pride and lasting joy in our Father who provides all that we need, He who in us always perfectly accomplishes His will. We should not martyr ourselves for our writing, but only ever for God, and believe you me, you’ll know when a martyrdom is in the works. This is not it; I used to believe my writing was my holy gift to God and He has corrected me many times since. As the Lord through Samuel to King Saul, “Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.” (1 Samuel 15:22). Though we may get our kicks and our highs from crafting our worlds of fiction and fantasy, there is no higher joy nor catharsis more exhilarating than confronting ourselves with the earth-shattering reality of our Lord’s very existence, what He has done for us already, what He works in us day by day, and what He still has waiting for us.

I won’t make the error of Job’s friends by saying that your drought of writing is divine punishment for sin. But regardless of the season or reason, no harm can come of taking a moment to breathe and draw near to and draw upon the grace of the Lord our Father.

After God comes your responsibility to your family, your employer, your friends. Do you have others who depend on you for support? Are there others who (consciously or not) are watching to see if you are acting like the Christian you claim to be? Your original post does not suggest that work is the greatest constraint on your writing abilities, but it’s still something to consider. If you’re working an exhausting 12 hour shift of physical labor, you may have to modify your approach and timing to writing.

Like Taylor said, ritualize your writing. Habit is a powerful tool, one which we may harness for much good (and much foolishness).

There’s more I wish I could write but the words escape me at the moment. I will be praying for you.

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1). You are not a slave to your work and your writing, even if you see it (rightly so!) as a gift from God. Live free, not in chains.