It's can be hard to admit to writing a novel to some people. It took me a very long time to tell my colleagues at work, who knew when I was hired that I wrote, that I was actually writing a novel and what it was about. I've been writing since I was a teenager, and even then I felt that if I told someone about my novel, the inspiration would disappear. These days, I've finished a novel, which is going through one last edit before it goes to my readers, and then will make the rounds with agents. It's a historical novel set in Victorian England, with an eccentric noblewoman trying to save the man she once loved from being hung as a traitor. It was immensely fulfilling to research and a great pleasure to write. And the nice thing is that I've learned to speak quite comfortably with my colleagues about it. My husband is also a writer, so he knew about this from the start--well, once I finished the first draft. I tend to be secretive about projects until I've completed a draft. Perhaps there is something to be said about excess conversation about a novel draining ideas . . .

Matt, I'm sure I'm secretive by nature because I'm a Scorpio :-) But it does build suspense, right? Or at least it prolongs the agony before people can comment!

Great insight into the world of the writer! Could be a book in and of itself!

My dream stage book: the art of entrepreneurship. How to conceptualize and execute your vision.

Debbie, maybe you're a "pantser"--you write first and figure it out later. I definitely did that for my first book (of course, there's probably a direct correlation between my following that method and the fact that it took me about ten years :-) Many many rewrites go with that method!