Six years ago, I was a recent MFA-grad who had completely stopped writing fiction.

I was freelancing as a copywriter for local businesses and also writing for a couple of online sites. I didn’t love any of it. The writing itself was completely underwhelming, and the pay sucked.

And for the life of me, I couldn’t write fiction anymore. I had no ideas, no inspiration, nothing to say. The muse was gone. The stories had dried up almost as soon as I finished my two-year-long MFA program. Suddenly, I had an advanced degree in fiction writing, and not a single ounce of desire to write stories.