How did you know what would be your (or the subject of your) first novel (novella)
Was it an idea you had and growed for a long time ?
Was it something (for differnt reasons) obvious to you (you knew that it has to be that subject)
Or, did it came by chance, without paying much attention (you were writing disparate things and then gradually you find yourself writing something that could be a novel)
I, probably like many, for some reason had to put pen to paper. The story was there in the either, I think, and I seemed to be the conduit. Sounds daft, but other ideas for stories I have had and not written have been written by "propper" writers, so are we the writers or just someone's laptop. Sorry going into fantasy writing mode there lol. But it does seem that some stories have to be told and I for one have no idea how mine form, or where the first inkling for the work comes from. So far the genre is not the same for each piece for me, I don't plan, not in the proper sense of the word anyway. The idea once it comes grows and I mull it over then start to write and let it flow. The chapters seem to place themselves, I just wish the punctuation would!!!
I had to read a lot of historical non-fiction for a project, and as I read got the distinct impression a particular group of people came in for a lot of unwarranted criticism.
I'm no historian, but I got the notion I'd try to set the record straight. In fiction, though.
I'm writing the third story now. Not sure I've succeeded with the record-straightening yet. :?
Depends on what counts as my first, really!
My first first was a novel I finished when I was 12 or so, and that one was started because writing stories became cool between girls in my school. I was always into making up stories, so I decided to try - I was the only one who finished it, everyone else gave up after a week or so, when it stopped being cool.
I don't consider that one to be my first real novel, though.
My first real novel was finished when I turned 17, it was way longer and way more original. I started it with a character in mind, and a vague idea about something that ended up not happening at all =P
Then, after many unfinished things, came my current project, which is the first novel written in English, which I can see myself writing all the way till the end. And I wouldn't have started it in the first place if a friend of mine hadn't challenged me to get me out of a pretty dark place my mind wandered of at the time. So, that one came by chance, but it feels like it's something I always had to write.
I always let my stories unravel before me more or less by themselves, though, told by their characters, and to tell me which genre they should be rather than letting me label them before even starting the writing process.