The one ironclad rule is that I have to try. I have to walk into my writing room and pick up my pen every weekday morning.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Writing has become such an outlet for me that when I don't have it, I just get pent up.
The only strategy I know of is to write every day, which I don't always do, because sometimes I just can't, for various reasons that seem out of my control.
I have to write a first draft with a fountain pen before I type it up as a second.
I always write on unlined typing paper and write the first draft in longhand, using cheap Bic pens. I try to write about four pages a day, which usually yields a first draft in six months. I don't plot ahead of time, so I'm flying by the seat of my pants for the first draft.
I was writing fantasy as soon as I could hold a pen.
I write every day weekdays for about 5 hours, mostly longhand on legal pads. It has gotten neither harder nor easier, sadly or happily.
The habit I've developed is to write in any free half hour I might find.
I write for three or four hours and then hopefully I'll have something. Then I draw for the rest of the afternoon... I literally block out Wednesday-Thursday-Friday - I more or less disappear.
I've always written by hand. Mostly with a fountain pen, but sometimes with a pencil - especially for corrections.
I don't use a pen. I write with a goose quill dipped in venom.