My first playthrough is slowly creeping on it's end.

I look through my strategy guide, and find little left to do. At least little that i have left that I would do to my character.

The thought of ending after 180 hours+ eats at my very soul.

I guess I should start a new character, but I've become a bit attached to the one I have thank you.

I think I'm suffering from create new character anxiety.

Any suggestions on how to get over it?

I never use strategy books- waste of money, but more importantly, I don`t like knowing when the end is coming. I play till it just finishes.

Come up with an interesting RP and a very specific character build that is not what you're used too.

I think I did like 30 quests.

All I do in Skyrim is roam around aimlessly, killing anyone that attacks me. Sometimes I'll hunt down the forsworn, and sometimes, I'll visit a Dragon site and blast a dragon that is perched onto of the word wall.

If Im feeling evil, I'll and snack on people.

There is just so many ways to play this game without even touching the content..

A proper hero's death. That could help you lay to rest the character you have invested so much time into. Find some interesting way for your character to die and kill the character. For example, since my character dual wields war axes I'd like to find an enemy that could best me in combat and fall at the hands of someone of equal or greater skill. But after 180 hours in you may be the most powerful one out there, so that might not work for you, but still I think a hero's death may be your answer.

I do not read guides as well.

Though my partner got the strategy guide and I will use the map to find places to visit (I have taken my compass out of the game so I cannot use that any more to find any places to visit)

It will be good to find any interesting side quests.

I will not follow any advice on how to develop the character as I will develop my character however I want.

Either give him a hero's death as stated above, or incase you don't want him to die i suggest...

retire him from combat and create his apprentice ? his apprentice who just happens to do everything absolutely differently from your first.

Do like me, marry and settle down.
Buy regular clothing, store away your weapons and end the game inside your house.

I've spent the last 20 hours of gameplay just roaming around looking for un explored areas.

but my map is now full... and there's no uncleard area left to explore.

RP the ending of your adventures where you become a suburbanesque spouse that ends your story happily.
I am personally going to do the above, live in Hjerim for awhile, having slain Alduin, ended the Civil War and retook Skyrim for the Nords, and helped the country's individual citizens to the best of my ability. After living like that awhile, I am going to RP that a Volkihar Lord has taken to attacking Windhelm at night, so I'll put my armor back on, kill him, but become a vampire and exile myself from society, wanting to never feed on people that were my friends

Just because you stop playing a character does not mean they have to die or get deleted.

I always give my characters a nice place to live, set them up with provisions like food and drink. Usually I give them a fishing pole and let them retire. They are always happy to see me again when I load them up again in a month or a year. For them, the passage of time is nothing.

I will try to visit them with my new characters, but they are usually out and about enjoying their retirement. I leave them something at their house. Kind of a gift from a new character to an old one.

currently, i can't play skyrim due to several reasons. that means the character i have that has over 200 hours clocked into it plus the other 2 i have with 50 hours each are probably going to be deleted when i can start playing again, why? because i simply don't have that connection to them anymore because it's been so long since i've played. i am going to start over and just wipe it clean with a clean slate and start fresh. i cannot just rp a character for a while and then just stop playing and pick it back up. it just doesn't work that way. i have no problem with this either, well because like i said i don't have that connection with the chars anymore, they are just so distant and forgotten now, better to just start fresh.

I'm over 400 hours (yeah, scary), and I still find new things, but part of the reason is that I join different factions with different characters.

Do a new (or several new) character type: pure warrior, pure thief, pure mage. Create a personality for that character, and behave according to that personality. Also, even for pure warriors, sword and board is reasonably different than dual wield or two-handed. Or you could try a sneaky character who doesn't fight at all, unless cornered. You could add to that by avoiding perks and trying to survive purely on potions and/or followers/conjures.

There aren't many branches in the game story, but there are a few. Stormcloak, Imperial, or neutral. Good or evil, to some extent. Blades vs Greybeards. Try a couple different characters with more limited scope who go a different way on your previous game decisions.

Unless you were incredibly efficient and thorough, there's probably a fair amount of content that you haven't seen yet. You'll run into a lot of the same content, but I bet you'll find a few surprises, too.

I know that feel. My character Kratos is now retired, and I don't even know what sort of playthrough I'm gonna do for my next character.

creating an apprentice to your current character is a great idea. I think I will use that when my thief/smith is old and gray. But that'll be a long time from now. I'm over 100 hours into my game and there are entire towns and regions I've not even been to yet.