The post novel crash

[OctoblocksAssemble]

Does anyone else get this? I finished the second and much improved draft of my novel last night. It's still got a way to go on the writing, but I'm happy with the plot now. I managed to feel pleased about it for about 3/4 of today before the gloom set in. Its still not good enough, it'll never see the light of day, how can I justify spending my mental energy on something so self indulgent when I don't have any real achievements?

It's becoming a regular thing, and it puts a real dampener on a hobby I otherwise love.

Sorry you feel this way but it is a real achievement. Most people can’t do what you’ve done. And don’t think of it as a hobby - you’re a writer. And you have no way of knowing what will come from it - when it’s finished as best as it can be you have to send it out there - either to agents or self-publish, then get on with the next one! Good luck

Thanks for replying @SmugglersHaunt , I appreciate the encouragement. I started poking about the scraps I've got for the sequel today, I'll work on that a bit before I go back to the first one.
I have a bad habit of defining achievement by how unpleasant it was to do and how much external validation you get for it 😅

I get this feeling but it does clear the more drafts you do. I'm on draft nine now of a book I completed the first draft of about 13 years ago and I'm finally nearly happy with it all.

Taking a break from it and starting on something else helps :)

Congrats on completing it in the first place by the way! 😊

Weirdly glad I'm not the only one that feels this, @TheBirdintheCave . Congratulations on getting a book perfected, I find that's so very much harder than the base ideas. I've got 2 finished but not really there books now. The first I put all my effort into polishing, oblivious to the bigger plot and pace issues. I'm not really sure if I'll ever go back to that one, it's a monster (156k words) that took me 7 years. Maybe one day I'll try to fix it.
I'm taking a more realistic approach now, and I know I still need to fix the writing quality and some world building details, before I get into scouring for typos.
Good luck getting your book out there

I'm on my second pass of my ~150k novel. I'm adding chapters to the end which leaves it open for a sequel.

The last quarter is trash because I get fed up and want to start on the next stage of editing before I've finished the stage I am on.

I need to chop scenes then edit for pace world building and character next before I go into working on each sentence. I'm two years in. I do not want to extend beyond another year.

Each time I pass over I improve. But, it still doesn't read like a published novel.

@LuciferRising sounds like good progress to me (I'm on 3 years I think, this one is about 100k words). How many books do you have planned in the series? I'm aiming for a trilogy, have rough outline for the 2nd and 3rd but no details yet.

2 books. Although I'll see how I feel at the end of this one.

I really want this one finished.

Good luck with it.
I really want to do a sequel as I love the characters and there's a lot of growth left for them, but the source of conflict is a bit more nebulous at the moment.