This is going to be a bit of an off-the-wall suggestion, and if you're feeling burnt out on the actual act of DM-ing, it won't work. If the root of the problem is writer's block, though, sometimes the best thing to do is just start the campaign. Pick out what kind of game you want to play in terms of system and tone, cobble together a first adventure however you can, and just kick it off. Sounds weird, but I find my creative juices often get jump-started by having the events of the last session to spin new ideas off of. (Having a deadline to work to doesn't hurt, either.)

As far as an actual creative process. To the extent that I have one, it kind of goes like this:
-Pick out a tone/setting for the kind of game you want to run
-Get a hold of as much source material as you can (books, movies, games, anything relevant to the genre of your game). Start going through it, prioritizing things you think are likely to give you multiple adventure ideas, or that you can get through quickly. Keep this up as you do the other steps.
-While reading/watching source material, jot down anything that sounds like a good idea for an adventure, magic item, character, anything. Don't worry about details. Even if it's one sentence, write it down, and you can build out from it later.
-Obtain or make a general campaign map (if playing on a VTT. Playing in person, you can probably leave it for later)
-Sort out your character creation rules and any homebrew you know you want to use.
-Hack out an introductory adventure. Preferably something self-contained, that doesn't lock you into any long-term implications for the campaign, but also something that will take at least a couple of sessions.
-Start the game. 
-Let your adventure prep be dictated by what your players say and do in the session. Any NPC who survives an adventure is a possible seed for something later. Don't be afraid to throw down hints that you have no idea what they'll lead to, or items you don't yet know the exact purpose of. Having it out there will likely give you an idea on how to use it later.
-Periodically go back to your notes and see if you've got the energy/inspiration to flesh out one of the ideas. 
-I also find "mini-adventures" very useful. Some ideas are no good for a full adventure, but you can drop a single well-crafted encounter in between adventures and get a whole good session out of it. You can often do all the prep-work for one of these in a couple hours or less. All you often need is a lead-up, an encounter, and some minimal loot.
-Try to partially start two or three adventures at a time, so that you can pivot to a finishing a different one depending on what your players decide to do.
-Steal from modules! I almost never use a full module as written, but I lift encounters, NPCs and puzzles all the time. Almost all my adventures have something from a module in them, and occasionally I take a whole module, copy and paste it, and then go through and re-write it for my game.
-Fill in important NPCs, locations, etc. during your downtime when not doing adventure prep. 
-Also try to have some travel procedures, random tables, etc. in your back pocket, so you can stall for time if you have to.
-Tables and procedures are your best friend, when you draw a blank on ideas. Put named NPCs with bios (if you have them and it makes sense) on your random encounter table. You'd be amazed what you come up with if you suddenly find that an interesting NPC is just bumping into your party on the road.

As a general rule, work on whatever you have the brainpower or energy to do at that time. If you sit down to work on the campaign and think, "Fuck, I do not want to make a dungeon map today", write up some NPC bios, or fill out your loot table or whatever. Everything ends up being useful eventually.

Admittedly, this is a system I've started up pretty recently, and it works best for sandbox games run in fairly short sessions, but hell, it's working so far...

EDIT: Also, I tend to start this up after I've already been mulling a game around in my head for a bit, but not getting any actual work done. All the half-formed ideas knocking around my brainpan might make it easier to improvise if than if you're genuinely tapped out creatively.

Quote from: Brooding Paladin on September 15, 2022, 11:06:38 AM

I find reading blogs and listening to podcasts on the subject sort of keep my head in the game but don't require a commitment from me until I'm ready.  I tend to mentally swim around in RPG books and supplements until something strikes and then usually the Muse returns and I get back after it.

This is something I also do on regular basis. It is said that children learn languages by immersion (listening fx.) and when I keep myself "immersed" in the gameworld outside the session also by listening to podcasts, Youtube videos and reading gaming material, I tend to get excited when I find something interesting, which sparks my motivation to come up with a plot or encounter for a session or campaign.

However, I have personally noticed, that when I´v endured a lot of stress for extended periods of time, which is really easy in the hectic world we live in,
I also tend to lose the interest to GM. I do not know what your life is like, however for me the stress decreases the creativity and relaxation increases it.
The worlds is a strainful place to live in and the struggles from another part of your daily life might seep in to your hobby, or maybe not.

I do however try to keep up with a weekly RPG schedule so that I keep the "immersion" on so to say. I´v also noticed that if I reschedule or take time off from gamemastering, it becomes increasingly difficult to motivate myself to continue. I do tend to GM even when I don´t want to and 9/10 times I enjoy the session, even when I have almost no prep at all and just wing it. This somewhat lightens the burden of "having to come up with fresh stuff to play" regularly.

One thing I also do is that I read/watch/listen RPG material on different genres, fx. if I GM in fantasy world, I might also delve in to sci-fi material and the
enthusiasm I might get from the scifi might transfer also to the fantasy game we are playing, when I let my mind run free of boundaries of only concentrating on the fantasy game. Personally, I have literally dozens of campaign ideas across the board in various genres that I can´t wait to run at some point, by using this method of "fantasizing of other campaigns" 

Of course, these are just my personal insights, your situation might be completely different. Anyhow, I hope you find your own way of keeping it up 

Quote from: ForgottenF on September 15, 2022, 10:02:22 PM
This is going to be a bit of an off-the-wall suggestion, and if you're feeling burnt out on the actual act of DM-ing, it won't work. If the root of the problem is writer's block, though, sometimes the best thing to do is just start the campaign. Pick out what kind of game you want to play in terms of system and tone, cobble together a first adventure however you can, and just kick it off. Sounds weird, but I find my creative juices often get jump-started by having the events of the last session to spin new ideas off of. (Having a deadline to work to doesn't hurt, either.)

As far as an actual creative process. To the extent that I have one, it kind of goes like this:
-Pick out a tone/setting for the kind of game you want to run
-Get a hold of as much source material as you can (books, movies, games, anything relevant to the genre of your game). Start going through it, prioritizing things you think are likely to give you multiple adventure ideas, or that you can get through quickly. Keep this up as you do the other steps.
-While reading/watching source material, jot down anything that sounds like a good idea for an adventure, magic item, character, anything. Don't worry about details. Even if it's one sentence, write it down, and you can build out from it later.
-Obtain or make a general campaign map (if playing on a VTT. Playing in person, you can probably leave it for later)
-Sort out your character creation rules and any homebrew you know you want to use.
-Hack out an introductory adventure. Preferably something self-contained, that doesn't lock you into any long-term implications for the campaign, but also something that will take at least a couple of sessions.
-Start the game. 
-Let your adventure prep be dictated by what your players say and do in the session. Any NPC who survives an adventure is a possible seed for something later. Don't be afraid to throw down hints that you have no idea what they'll lead to, or items you don't yet know the exact purpose of. Having it out there will likely give you an idea on how to use it later.
-Periodically go back to your notes and see if you've got the energy/inspiration to flesh out one of the ideas. 
-I also find "mini-adventures" very useful. Some ideas are no good for a full adventure, but you can drop a single well-crafted encounter in between adventures and get a whole good session out of it. You can often do all the prep-work for one of these in a couple hours or less. All you often need is a lead-up, an encounter, and some minimal loot.
-Try to partially start two or three adventures at a time, so that you can pivot to a finishing a different one depending on what your players decide to do.
-Steal from modules! I almost never use a full module as written, but I lift encounters, NPCs and puzzles all the time. Almost all my adventures have something from a module in them, and occasionally I take a whole module, copy and paste it, and then go through and re-write it for my game.
-Fill in important NPCs, locations, etc. during your downtime when not doing adventure prep. 
-Also try to have some travel procedures, random tables, etc. in your back pocket, so you can stall for time if you have to.
-Tables and procedures are your best friend, when you draw a blank on ideas. Put named NPCs with bios (if you have them and it makes sense) on your random encounter table. You'd be amazed what you come up with if you suddenly find that an interesting NPC is just bumping into your party on the road.

As a general rule, work on whatever you have the brainpower or energy to do at that time. If you sit down to work on the campaign and think, "Fuck, I do not want to make a dungeon map today", write up some NPC bios, or fill out your loot table or whatever. Everything ends up being useful eventually.

Admittedly, this is a system I've started up pretty recently, and it works best for sandbox games run in fairly short sessions, but hell, it's working so far...

EDIT: Also, I tend to start this up after I've already been mulling a game around in my head for a bit, but not getting any actual work done. All the half-formed ideas knocking around my brainpan might make it easier to improvise if than if you're genuinely tapped out creatively.

Bro, you need to start your own topic on this, this is pure gold!