Realistically, I think the "answer" is different for everyone.
I've been writing all my life, but there have been long spells - years - when I've written nothing at all, not even journal entries. Looking back, those were times when for various reasons I was unable to be honest with myself about what was going on in my life. Writing - even fiction - is all about honesty, at least for me.
What do you get from writing?
How much do you need what it gives you?
Is what's stopping you from writing more important right now?
There are no proper answers to these questions. They are going to be different for everyone, and they can change day to day.
Habit.
In early 2010, for reasons unknown, I started writing every day. I'd tried to get into the habit before, but this time it stuck. Three years later...well, I don't write EVERY day
, but I rarely skip more than a day, sometimes two. And when I do skip a day, I feel weird.
The hardest part for me was getting over the idea that what came out had to be any good. Writing is Art[tm], sure - but it's also a form of exercise. Lousy workouts are just as important as the ones that go well.
I just feel like I don't know what I want to write at all most of the time. I've genre-hopped so much since I've been here. I originally started in Romance (mostly unsuccessfully) then I moved to Urban Fantasy and now I'm also writing(or trying to write) M/T/S. Not that there's anything wrong with genre-hopping. I think it's fine. It's just now I can't figure out what makes me happy to write. I mean they all make me happy. They just make me happy at different times I think, if that makes sense. Or I show interest in them at different times I think. Something similar to that.
I mean I enjoyed writing my Romance stories, mostly because they were short (think like 2K - 5K at the most, but mostly 2K), pretty much plot-less/point-less, and I was usually done with them in a few days, if not an entire day.
Then I wanted to try to write longer stuff and incorporate other things into my stories besides just Romance or whatever it was I was writing. And so, came in Urban Fantasy. And I wanted to try to do a short story for that, but that I was harder than I expected because I had/have a hard time pushing a plot(that make up for a UF) into that kind of small space or word count limit.
And then I wanted to make sure that I didn't get bored with UF so, I "dove in" and said "why not try M/T/S too", mostly because they're similar. Writing M/T/S makes me nervous still. Mainly because I feel they're so difficult to write. Nothing I write feels "thrilling" and/or "suspenseful".
But that's just my opinion and I know I'm my own worst critic.
And this all leads back to, I just don't know what I want to write. I feel like there are so many options out there, and because there are so many options out there for a story to go, especially an un-plotted, lengthy, even un-synopsis/summary written story one, that my brain just overloads with what could happen. Even when I'm writing, and I do have a synopsis/summary and/or idea of where I want to take it, my brain still plays the "Well, what if this happened?" or "What if it turned out to be this instead?". It's like I'm given a bunch of options and because of that I can't tell what I want to do just due to the fact that there are so many out there. It's like I can't decide; everything looks good or at least
looks like it looks good.
So, in short, again, I just can't tell what I want to write/do. It's like I want to write everything(Romance/Chick Lit, M/T/S, and UF) all at once. Or something close to that.
ETA: Before when I wrote, I guess I would give myself limits on what I wouldn't/couldn't do, and because of that, it limited what happened in the story. Now, however, I don't give myself any limits, or I only give myself a select
few limits to what can happen, thereby, giving everything a possibility/chance for plausibility.
ETA 2:
Yet, at the same time, I usually manage to have the same/very similar plot idea and/or opening lines/paragraph/chapter whenever I attempt something M/T/S or UF. Which is truthfully,
very strange, especially given all of the M/T/S I've read. I've been reading it a lot,
lot longer than I've been writing it. I can't say the same really for Urban Fantasy. But Mystery, Thriller, and Suspense I can.