Story burnout is a real problem, and many authors have had to struggle with it (Hemingway even wrote about it once, though he didn't call it that). But there is a light in the story itself that keeps burning even when circumstances (how much money/time/resources you're losing) are not entirely favorable. Sometimes even having a lot of energy and drive can actually be a minus -- because it can lead you to overwork yourself and/or commit to too many things on the one hand, and also because it can be kidnapped by other things in your life that suddenly demand said energy and drive. (In my case, all the crazy stuff concerning the election and my attempts to help out are consuming a lot more of my time and energy than I had expected and planned for at first. I can barely find time to do the translating I had promised to do in another f95 thread.)
Still, there is this light... It's not just believing in your story -- it's also seeing that it can be part of whatever mosaic one (under one's own circumstances) decides to make of one's life. You already seem to be pretty good at balancing time and resources (the physical aspect of the mosaic); but there's also the other side of the mosaic: the patterns of interest and contentment that the various pieces of one's life can bring. The joy inherent to each of them. Connecting these pieces, including the stories one wants to tell, from that other side is... a curiously rewarding challenge. Even when they seem to be just a random collection of islands of various interests, there is... something deeper to them, and if one can find it and see how the stories one wants to tell fit in it, in this "red thread of personal fate" so to speak, there is an unexpectedly rich reward to be reaped. An extra source of motivation.
But maybe you already know all of this.
I'm glad your IRL business is booming, and that you're even giving employment to new people in an economy that is clearly going to go through some very tough times next year. Some of it may even mildly resemble corresponding aspects in the world of Karlsson's Gambit, who knows.
I'm trying to do that, too, and it's been so far surprisingly more pleasant than I had anticipated -- I'd encourage anyone who harbors doubts to just up and try it. Fortunately, I've also discovered someone who is incredibily good at these things and who may collab with me. That's still very iffy because she is only marginally, if at all, into femdom as a genre, but who knows... I have some modicum of hope.
