Canadians are Americans with no Disneyland.
You can't say you want things to be simple and then in the next breath ask me to be honest.
I, personally, have found reading a continual support to writing.
Fear can give you urgent wings.
There are certainly times when my own everyday life seems to retreat so the life of the story can take me over. That is why a writer often needs space and time, so that he or she can abandon ordinary life and "live" with the characters.
Every writer has to find their own way into writing.