Great advice in here !
I guess everyone goes through calligra-slumps every once in a while... I know I do have to battle these at least twice a year.
This happens to me when I lose the joy of practicing, when my writing feels forced and when I get the feeling that I'm always doing the same thing.
When I started out, I would just stop repeating always the same bothering mistake over and over again (like writing rows of a's) and go on to having fun with the pen, writing words, studying a different letter, writing a whole alphabet just to see that I can have fun and sometimes surprise myself in doing so. After that, I was able to go back to more serious practice with a lighter heart.
Nowadays, I tend to try and learn a specific movement that I copy from the Universal Penman or any other master example. I just focus on a flourish, deconstruct it, focus on proportion and movement, try to copy it as perfectly as I can and then I end up making it my own. Then it shows up in my work all the time, but I feel good and confident about it.
The most difficult thing for me right now is that I have the feeling I'm always posting the same boring kind of design... As I'm doing a 365 challenge, I guess it's inevitable to repeat myself. Since the beginning of the kids' holidays I am exhausted and I just can't spend as much time on my daily headlines as I would like. I know it will get better and I will eventually get out of that slump, but I have to fight the need to apologize every day for posting the same thing...
That being said I know I am still learning something new about myself and my calligraphy everyday, I can feel that the things I have learned during the first 6 months of my challenge are being imprinted in my brain during this down time. I just have to learn to feel good about not "revolutionising" my calligraphy every single day as that is just impossible
Don't worry, you'll have fun with your pens again ! You will find your own way to cope with these slumps and you will learn that they eventually allow you to evolve.