I left Odyssey for about a year to have time for myself and it was the best and worst decision I have ever made. By leaving Odyssey, I sort of stopped writing altogether. I'm not gonna go into what had happened but basically, I had to reevaluate what I considered truly important to me. Therefore, I took some time off to focus on school and other stuff at the time.

One reason I stop writing was that it seemed like everything had already been done, every idea had already been taken and written about several times.

I couldn't come up with the simplest sentence because time and time again I was told I would never be a writer. They told me you're either born a writer or you're not.

Do you want to know what I say to that?

It's total bologna. You aren't going to be ANYTHING if you don't work at it.

I think while I was going through all the hardships in my personal life, I was also experiencing this lovely thing called BURNOUT. I'll admit it, I was exhausted. I was being weighed down by school, weighed down by what was supposed to be fun, weighed down by everything.

I had to make a change.

I obviously couldn't leave my university to go out into the wilderness and write the great American novel. So I had to take a break.

When I started to write again, I was on a roll in no time.

I have a file on my computer that I am hoping to publish as an actual novel one day and I have so many notes in my phone of things I want to do with my writing. It turns out if you're purposefully searching for something, anything, it won't come. The saying "a watched pot never boils" is completely true. The best ideas come out of the blue, you just need to keep your mind open.

The best advice I could give you when it comes to writing is:

1. If you feel like writing, go for it! Don't stop.

2. If you don't feel like writing, don't force it! This is where burnout comes from.

Later this month I'm going to be attempting NANOWRIMO. I will go into more detail on what this is later. And even though I say it every year, I'll say once more that this is the year I will accomplish my goals!