The Writing Cycle

Does this happen to any other authors?

So you write a story or a piece one day on a whim that is pretty rough, okay plot, half decent characters. Not really much.

And then when you read it the next day, it sounds good. Better than you expected.

And suddenly, now you have expectations for yourself. Even if you don't want them, they just hover on the sidelines, a constant reminder of what you can do.

The next piece you write might not be as good, or to your standards that have been elevated, so you feel more hadicapped than when you first started.

And everything you write feels flat or lifeless or sad.

So eventually, after the wave of misery has left, you throw out normal ideas out the window to write a creative, abstract piece.

And it repeats.

As it goes on, more expectations become more evident, you are stuck in a cycle. Of tighter and tighter ideas of how you should and can write and it just gets crazy hard and everything feels resticting even though it is all in your mind?