I finished the final draft of my first novel in mid-July, and while I was working on it, I was crazy in love with the idea and the characters. But now a month and a half has gone by since I finished it, and I know I should be working on something new, but I have yet to come up with a new idea that I love as much as I loved that one.

I've come up with many crappy ideas since then, each of which sounded good at first, but then as I started writing them out, I realized that they were not characters or ideas I'd want to devote another year and a half (or so) of my life to and I set them aside.

Do you always fall in love with your novels/ideas/characters right at the start, or can you learn to love a so-so concept (sort of like an arranged marriage) as long as you work at it hard enough?