Conquering Creative Burnout using Crochet and an AI Assistant

Creative burnout is on repeat at this point—it should honestly be my entire bingo card.

For me, creative burnout feels like an off-balance spin cycle. The clanking of the drum banging against the metal box it’s trapped inside is how my mind feels—unable to break out no matter how hard I slam myself against the walls.

Just when I think I’ve gotten through it and sit down to work on a story, imposter syndrome creeps in and takes over.

Writing is supposed to be fun! I keep reminding myself it doesn’t have to be so serious. The struggle made me wonder why I bother to keep trying to write.

Conquering by Reading

A friend started reading romantasy books and asked me to read them, too. They needed someone to talk and/or vent with about the characters, plots, and spicy scenes. I dove in head first to find that I have a love/hate relationship with romantasy in general.

Some books had fantastic plots and character arcs. Others felt like half the story was tossed out to make room for the spicy content. And sometimes, I felt like a yo-yo bouncing between story plots and smut.

Despite the whiplash, I have to remind myself—every writer makes choices, and readers respond in all kinds of ways. Some love the rollercoaster. Others crave balance.

And the most important reminder? There are readers out there who want exactly what I create. If you struggle with this too, just know—you’re not alone.

Everyone is allowed to write what they crave to read, and everyone is allowed to read what sates their needs.

Now that I’m firmly in the “romantasy rocks and I’ll keep reading these various series” camp, I’m happier now. I’ve also learned I have a much easier time if I do audiobooks through LibbyApp than ebooks or paperbacks.

Absorbing all the stories I can by reading, listening, and watching fills my input well and increasing my chances of pushing back against the creative burnout plague.

And yes, I am firmly a member of the audiobooks are reading via listening camp.

Conquering by Crocheting

Crocheting and writing have more in common than you’d think. Stay with me.

In writing, you weave words together to form a story. With crochet (and knitting), you weave yarn together to create something tangible—a scarf, a tree ornament, an afghan.

The best part? Both can be structured or completely freeform. Crochet patterns can be highly detailed, or you can wing it—just like plotting vs. pantsing in writing.

As soon as I pick up a hook and yarn to make something with my hands, I know I’m one step closer to writing aagin.

Conquering with an A.I. Assistant

When ChatGPT first came out, I had little hope it would succeed. I couldn’t stop trying, though, because it was getting better every day.

I kept throwing story ideas and plot questions at it over the past few months. While I played around with character creation and skeleton drafts, nothing grabbed me and told me to write it.

Until the beginning of February anyway.

One simple question to ChatGPT spiraled into something much bigger—a universe, characters I couldn’t stop thinking about, and even an outline with chapter summaries.

• I’ve built a paranormal world I wish I could transport myself, my family, and my friends into.

• A why choose paranormal romance with four MMCs.

• A non-redeemable villain (and a few power-hungry ones for good measure).

• A society with free healthcare, education, and basic income assistance. The government is semi-incorruptible (because why not go all the way?).

The process of building this world took on a life of its own. I started with a simple paranormal why-choose outline, then I layered in the heroine’s journey. From there, I added another layer—the 12 levels of intimacy, making sure each MMC had a unique, compelling relationship arc.

Conquering by Creating a Universe

Somehow, that still wasn’t enough. I needed the world itself to feel just as immersive. So I kept going—creating histories, laws, magical systems, and economic structures.

Now, I have a ridiculous amount of historical data (or at least, ridiculous for me) about this universe. While I may never use every little historical point, it’s nice if I need a character to pull something out of their back pocket.

I’ve given myself until today to fill in any missing gaps and make sure everything fits together, and then I want to start drafting with ChatGPT as my first round editor.

In the past, I’ve always wanted to write paranormal or urban, or fantasy romance and (100% honesty) I wouldn’t even bother without an A.I. assistant to help give me options, directions, and to help me realize just how truly epic an epiphany can become.

While many refuse to use A.I. at all, I am embracing it as a writing assistant. In the last few days, I added more character and worldbuilding that ended up forcing me to redo the outline with the new details, which meant new chapter summaries to help me write the book.

I have to compile all the things that go together to streamline ChatGPT’s speed and search capabilities because it’s getting bogged down a bit. This way, when I load my chapters, it can let me know if I forgot any important plot or scene details.

It’s also excellent for feedback on plot, setting, dialogue, and emotion. I ask it to rank me on each one for every chapter, 1 being worst, 5 being best, then request how to improve anything 3 and under.

The feedback provided helps me see where I’ve left holes in sensory details or potential plot problems.

Once I have the cleanest draft possible, I can send it to an editor. Hopefully, this method will help them focus on the story progression and developments and less on grammar and punctuation.

What About Revelry Island?

I haven’t forgotten about Revelry Island. Evan, Owen, and the rest will get their stories told. Even though Revelry Island is a fabrication of my imagination, it’s also seated in reality, which… have you seen it lately?

Yeah… so I’m taking a tip from Stumbling Toward Serenity and going on a creative sabbatical to a different universe where love is love and equality is actually for all.

I hope you’ll come along with me and all the new fun stuff I’ve got planned. Stay tuned! Patreon and Ream will receive first chapters, side stories, character snippets, and maybe super secret stuff that the characters don’t even know exist!