long, torturous bouts of writers block interrupted by sudden and very brief moments of inspiration. For me, nothing really stimulates it, i just wait for a song to come naturally and then pull my hair out for another few months. I still record during that time though, but i don't show anyone the awful things that end up being produced. Even if what you're making now doesn't feel inspired, it's definitely preparing you to take advantage of those moments when you have something really great. So i say keep playing, keep recording, who cares if it sucks. And try playing without a click track. A lot of great records were done with no click and you can obviously tell but they sound great anyway. I record with one some of the time, but when i want the song to feel more natural i record without it. I completely understand that there's an element of humanity missing when you have every note placed perfectly. Imperfections can be cool, they just make your later tracking efforts a pain in the ass.