Books don’t come into the world out of nowhere, even if it seems that way sometimes, to the author as much as the reader. Something must happen that makes an individual think: I want to become a writer.
A sudden yearning for easy riches?
I hope not. You’ll probably be disappointed.
Celebrity?
Think about it. How many bestselling authors would you recognise if you saw them in the street?
Books come from somewhere else. An odd, subterranean desire to invent stories, to play with your own imagination and share the results with the world at large. There’s no point in trying to analyse the creative urge. You either have it or you don’t. But it is worth trying to work out where it comes from, and to set down a few basic strategies for how you intend to pursue the elusive goal of a publishable novel.