You learn a lot more from the lows because it makes you pay attention to what you're doing.
No one ever confides a secret to one person only. No one destroys all copies of a document.
A novel's whole pattern is rarely apparent at the outset of writing, or even at the end; that is when the writer finds out what a novel is about, and the job becomes one of understanding and deepening or sharpening what is already written. That is finding the theme.