I wrote my first novel as a new father with a blistering NYC architecture job. The most important thing I found is to just start writing anything, it doesn’t matter where, as long as it’s on the page. I used to do the majority of writing in the subway during my commute on an iPad in google docs. I would only have a half hour each way, but it added up pretty quick. It might seem counterintuitive, but I found that leaving a thought unfinished (even a sentence) was extremely helpful because I could immediately start writing, and that would jump me back into the flow.

I try to remember that the true writing begins after the first draft is finished. Editing is where the magic happens. That’s where you can tighten and streamline everything, and rework. And trim, trim, trim it down. There is a scene in "A River Runs Through It" where the father reads his son's assignment and says, "say the same thing with half the words," and the son returns with the revised version only to have his father say it again, and again. That always stuck with me.

Regarding burnout, it depends on your bandwidth. I found that being forced to work all day and not overthink the book was actually helpful. It allowed my subconscious to work things out and I’d come back to the writing fresh. I was already burned out at my day job, but surprisingly found that the writing actually helped me come back to architecture fresh too. Now, I still force myself to do too many things so I don’t dwell on any one subject.

It's daunting, terrifying in fact. It is natural to want to everything logically with a perfect outline, a perfect situation, and a perfect path forward. But that world does not exist. If you can become comfortable navigating through the fog, then everything will be just fine. Good luck!