More seriously, if life is getting you down in other areas, seriously consider a combination of exercise plus some sort of creative routine, even if it is starting a blog where you post every day for a month. I find that the combination of a physical outlet plus a creative outlet plus discipline/routine is a cure for most forms of the "blues" (please note: I chose to use the word "blues" to differentiate this from a major depressive disorder or something clinically similar where professional help may be required - it's not to make light of these sorts of situations).
I was planning to say more or less the same thing, good advice!
So this has been my experience too. Particularly forcing myself to do things I'd prefer not to do, dobbing myself in to work an extra day or do some exercise really worked because it really made me want to be doing it more, and from these things come some of my best inspiration. Anyway, sounds like you got an opening, hope it works out.
I think it's a different situation, but my falling off the DM horse came about from the looking back at cool stories I'd run and seeing how much it could have been better, but regretting lost opportunities hamstrung me because I could never complete preparation. My desire to get every aspect of detail just right meant I'd revise anything I'd written a million times and still feel that the feel or atmosphere of my work was somehow not quite what I wanted; I hadn't adequately conveyed the sense of tragedy in that dungeon or really expressed a feel for the culture of this race in the architecture of their lair, or... you know, whatever. to get all narcissistic, I felt that I couldn't adequately conceive the story that wanted to be told. Or something...
And then there was encounter balance. To make the game enjoyable I had to have 5% of encounters be "overpowering" 50% at equal CR, (et cetera, et cetera, et cetera!) and when I'd meticulously calibrated my encounter proportion by cr breakdown I had to reconcile it with my ideal encounters, making sure that creatures were available by given cr that would fit in with the prescribed theme, feel and culture. But, you know, its also said that for a game to be engaging, you need to make sure that there is a balance of encounters; trapfinding, puzzles (ffs!), problem solving, diplomacy. Hmmm. More recalibration. And don't forget, those encounters all need to be engineered so as to present interesting challenges, risk and dilemma to your player's characters...! of course conforming to the DM advice from the various publications over the years by all the star writers who told me that if I didn't implement these pieces of advice, my game would suck, I came to realise that my two greater priorities were probably absolutely irreconcilable, and while its obvious to read, I didn't actually realise this until I had quite burned out. And were it actually possible, the time demand would be too great. Now it's my firm belief that advice given, even from the biggest D&D prophets should really be taken with metaphorical grain. Of bullsh..
Now I'm playing Pathfinder under a new DM who is pretty good, in fact, but I'm already developing an appetite for my chance to spin my own yarn
To be honest, I think that when I do, I might be giving the "on the fly" style a go. Probably a good knowledge of the rules and an idea of how I want the game to flow, session-by-session, as well as an ability to read my players will be more useful to telling the story than all the preparation time in the world.
