In the summer issue of The Threepenny Review Javier Marías (The Infatuations, etc.) offers Seven Reasons Not to Write Novels and Only One Reason to Write Them.
The reasons against can seem a bit strained -- are the possibilities of fame, riches, or immortality really determinative factors why people write novels ? -- but I can appreciate what he's getting at. And I'm always for any bashing of what he calls the 'real novelist' (who: "has confused his role with that of the historian or journalist or documentary-maker", i.e. pretty much misses the whole point of fiction-writing) .....
The reasons against can seem a bit strained -- are the possibilities of fame, riches, or immortality really determinative factors why people write novels ? -- but I can appreciate what he's getting at. And I'm always for any bashing of what he calls the 'real novelist' (who: "has confused his role with that of the historian or journalist or documentary-maker", i.e. pretty much misses the whole point of fiction-writing) .....