Published writers understand this
Anyone one else could see it too, I suppose, a priori.
But only a writer who has been published has felt it.
It’s this: Shortly after you get published, you will feel unfulfilled.
I would add that, to one extent or the other, all great accomplishments are like this though.
Achieving something you have been pursuing for decades has a habit of refocusing your priorities in an unexpected way.
The point is that you will eventually discover that the pleasure of writing is in the work.
So enjoy the moment. Take a second.
You are awesome.
Now get back to work.
The reward is in the doing. Most published writers will tell you that the moment they hold the book, or the prestigious magazine piece, or the good review, or the whatever in their hands—that moment is curiously hollow. It can’t live up to the sweat, the solitude, the bloody battle that it represents.
-Dani Shapiro, Still Writing