--a definite visit from the suck monkey. There is no known cure except critical acclaim, unfortunately.
I'm currently working on my seventh one of the damned things (not counting the four that I never finished, or finished in only one exceeding sucky draft of juvenilia). I haven't yet *sold* any of them, mind you--but I've noticed that there are themes I re-use. I seem to tell outsider stories a lot, for example. I'm not sure it's a bad thing to do that: I mean, we can only write the books I believe in.
But I do notice that (it seems to me) Wild Swans is structurally a more challenging/complex work, with its interwoven/complimentary plots. So it seems to me that backing away from that complexity may not be the best idea, and maybe you should be pushing it?
Of course, having no idea what you're working on, I'm talking out of a nonoral orifice. *g*
But if you're worried about repeating yourself, it seems to me that the way to avoid it is to depart as much as possible from what you have already done.
Sounds like--
I'm currently working on my seventh one of the damned things (not counting the four that I never finished, or finished in only one exceeding sucky draft of juvenilia). I haven't yet *sold* any of them, mind you--but I've noticed that there are themes I re-use. I seem to tell outsider stories a lot, for example. I'm not sure it's a bad thing to do that: I mean, we can only write the books I believe in.
But I do notice that (it seems to me) Wild Swans is structurally a more challenging/complex work, with its interwoven/complimentary plots. So it seems to me that backing away from that complexity may not be the best idea, and maybe you should be pushing it?
Of course, having no idea what you're working on, I'm talking out of a nonoral orifice. *g*
But if you're worried about repeating yourself, it seems to me that the way to avoid it is to depart as much as possible from what you have already done.