Thank you for your feedback. The game is not well balanced yet, that's for sure. I've received a lot of comments involving inspiration.
Currently there are 5 ways to regain inspiration in the game:
- Spend XP (+25%)
- Topic books (+50%, 2 per year)
- Buy Vacation (+100%)
- Gain Awards (+25%)
- Wait
You obviously want to avoid #5, not just because it's boring to wait, but you also have to keep writing to keep up with your expenses - especially in the early game. Furthermore, you should use #1 rarely, because you want to be saving your XP to improve your skills.
Inspiration drops X percent every day you are working on something, so the faster you complete your work, the less inspiration you'll spend. My strategy when I play the game is to invest on Speed. I never write Short Stories with less than 1 Speed EP, Non-Fiction with less than 2 and Novels with less than 3. Also, when I take Freelance/Opportunity jobs I maximize Speed, and then whatever EP remains I allocate to the rest of the slots.
By the way, there is an inspiration indicator to the left (red when < 25%, else yellow), just below your character's name, unless you meant something else with "There is no clear way of knowing your % of inspiration"?