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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Art of Writing by Robert Louis Stevenson: Sooner or later, somehow, anyhow, I was bound to write a
novel. It seems vain to ask why. Men are born with various
manias: from my earliest childhood, it was mine to make a
plaything of imaginary series of events; and as soon as I was
able to write, I became a good friend to the paper-makers.
Reams upon reams must have gone to the making of 'Rathillet,'
'The Pentland Rising,' (18) 'The King's Pardon' (otherwise
'Park Whitehead'), 'Edward Daven,' 'A Country Dance,' and 'A
Vendetta in the West'; and it is consolatory to remember that
these reams are now all ashes, and have been received again
into the soil. I have named but a few of my ill-fated
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