: Re: How do you deal with burnout? How do you break through writer's block? I've been working on a book for about four years now. Every time I reach the middle, I get stuck and I go back and

@Megan928

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It seems like, if reaching the middle of your story is sapping your motivation, that your stories may suffer from 'saggy middle' syndrome. I'm not judging you for that, my projects have often suffered for it (and like you, I work full time, which limits my writing time). The second 'act' of a book is easily the hardest to get right, and when you feel like your efforts are going towards a part of the story that feels like it's just going through the motions until the climax, it can kill your motivation entirely, leading to burnout.

Here are a few tips from my personal experience (may or may not work for you):

Do NOT follow the 'write every day' rule, but instead the 'think about what you're writing every day' rule. This allows you to foster and refine ideas, and give you opportunities to spice up the saggy middle. Also gives you some much needed rest and renewed passion for the story.
Second acts are setup, but that doesn't mean they can't be spontaneous. Allow yourself to be a bit of a gardener instead of a plotter during this section and heck, you may even end up altering the payoff in the third act from what you initially planned.
Use your thinking time to address what exactly is making your saggy middle boring or hard to approach. Is it lacking entirely and needs to go back to the drawing board, or can it be salvaged? The answer to this should in turn make sure you use your actual writing time well.
Read other books with good second acts to see what they did right.
Remind yourself that the payoff is just around the corner, that once you get through the necessary setup, your final few chapters are gonna kick ass, and nothing will stop that.

I don't know if this will help you, per se, but it's what I've got.

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