So I'm writing a long fic (280k as of posting this) and most of my chapters are 10k plus. They become my babies while working on them. I spend weeks writing, revising, discussing with my beta, and all over living in the chapter. It's generally a major push at the end to try to get it out by my self-imposed deadline. I try to frame each chapter like its own short story with a completed arc that moves the overall plot along. Usually, I'm trying in some literary device or major theme. My beta is lovely and helps me hold a high quality standard so we pour over every single world for grammar, accuracy, verisimilitude, ect.
Then, I post it and it's gone. The comments are always amazing! I always feel so lucky to have the community that I do. But, the next few days always feel like I'm at the top of a rock wall. Like I did it. We climbed to the top. There is a sense of accomplishment. But I'm staring at the NEXT rock wall and I have to climb it all over again. Now the goalpost is the next chapter.
I have to restart the writing process. Figure out the next chapter hook. What's my emotional climax of the next chapter? What theme am I working to express? What overarching threads do I need to keep weaving? My chapter titles are always tactical frameworks or puns and now I need to figure out my next one. The story is plotted through the end, so it's not like I have to come up with what I'm writing... I just need to write it.
Anyone else experience this feeling? Anyone else working a long fic that feels like a never ending battle? Anyone else complete something and feel like: oh no, now I have to do the next one?