Thread: Does anyone get down when they finish their novel?

I have worked on my book for over 6 months non stop. I have finished a 2nd draft and am handing it to my brother for him to read. I am leaving that story for a while now and feel very deflated. I figure this is normal, like an anti climax. To get of this I am going to start writing a second story about the same characters.

I feel kind of sad that I am not going to work on the other one for a while. Does anyone else have similar experience when they finished a story?

Every time!

If you have been working non-stop on a project for six months without a break, you have a habit of working on that project. What you are now experiencing is withdraw. It's as bad as quitting any other habit, like smoking. The best cure? Get a new habit - your next project.

When I saw the thread title, I completely misunderstood. I thought you meant celebrate. But you are probably too young to remember the 50's and 60's use of the term 'get down' to mean 'to party, dance, celebrate'.

Gosh, I'm getting old.

Originally Posted by garza

When I saw the thread title, I completely misunderstood. I thought you meant celebrate. But you are probably too young to remember the 50's and 60's use of the term 'get down' to mean 'to party, dance, celebrate'.

Gosh, I'm getting old.

LOL I think the term 'get down' was used in the eighties too. I remember it! I think I'll get down if i ever get a book published.

Nope. I just feel excited to start a new project.

Originally Posted by Robdemanc

I feel kind of sad that I am not going to work on the other one for a while. Does anyone else have similar experience when they finished a story?

Not really. When I start sending one story out for critiques it's time to begin revising the next one and writing the one after.

Originally Posted by garza

When I saw the thread title, I completely misunderstood. I thought you meant celebrate. But you are probably too young to remember the 50's and 60's use of the term 'get down' to mean 'to party, dance, celebrate'.

Gosh, I'm getting old.

I must be old too. I thought exactly the same thing.


When I work on a novel, I usually have one or two back ups.

In other words, I have the novel I am 'dedicated' to finishing, and then I have one or two more on the back burner. I turn to these when writer's block hits or I just need to separate myself from my novel for awhile.

Once I finish my manuscript, one of the back burner manuscripts moves up and I usually have a new idea for another 'secondary' W.I.P.

Not at all, I move on to the next one. I have finished three and the fourth is in the hands of my coauthor/editor my wife. She comes up with great ideas that I add as I work on the next one. In the last two, the title comes to me late in the book.

In "Goldfish" a typical couple discovers a sunken ship laden with treasure. Trying to move the artifacts out of Mexico leads them on a pretty wild adventure. They cross paths with some really bad people who want to kill them and take it all. They have to hire the distant relatives of the original pirates as protection. In the end of the book Felipe looks at them and says, "Goldfish."

"What?" Barbara smiled.

"Goldfish, have you ever noticed that if you keep a goldfish in a small tank it just stays small? But if you move that same goldfish to a much larger tank it grows large? Nothing else does that, only goldfish. Your tank just got a lot bigger, here's to the goldfish." he raised his glass for a toast."

In the new one, "The New World" the same thing happened. Toward the end of the book they manage to capture the entire fleet while the guards and troops slept by darting them with the poison from dart frogs. They now rule the entire coast of the Yucatan as the king has no warships. Felipe mentions "this new world" and the title was there, "The New World."

I'm going right into book five, the title will come. I did get a little emotional when I was proof reading it and Andreas, a really lovable character was killed. But to make it real he had to go, he was getting very old. I also still get emotional when the freed slave Batu see's his first child that will not be sold for the first time.

Like any published book I liked, I do feel like I will miss the characters.
But for at least one of my books I have plans for a follow up book, so I can visit them again.

Of course, I haven't finished editing even one of my books yet. So I will probably read about them several more times.

Ditch - When are you going to include the pirate base on Crooked Tree Lagoon in one of your books? Pirates, mostly Scotsmen, were the first Europeans to establish settlements in what is now Belize.

I have been on a downer for about a month now and have been wondering if what I have written is a load of rubbish. I have tried to start a second story but seems my heart is not in it at the moment. I must have gone through a long period of flow while wrting it and now have to put up with an inactive and uncreative brain.

I like endings. While a story is something to be enjoyed, it can't be finished till you reach the end. The end makes it possible to move on to a new beginning. When I finish a story, I start another. The characters are not forgotten, but their story is over, I let them finish out the boring life they will have afterwards and leave them in peace.

I finished my second novel last week. I was on an amazing high for 24 hours, so excited that I was done. The next two days were the big crash, where I thought it was all rubbish and that I'd never write again. Now I'm beginning to look around for my next project. I think the only cure for feeling down is to start the new work and keep writing because that is where the fun is for me.

I think I am coming out of my downer. It has been lasting a while, but that is not unusual for me anyway. I am thinking of a new project, but also thinking of experimenting with the old one. I figure all I need do now is sit and write and the downer will go completely. I hope thats the case!