As a writer and a novelist I agree that writing a novel doesn’t resolve your life’s problems or transform you into anything you’re not. I’d like to vomit on the shoes of every wannabe novelist making smug statements like “I know I have a book in me!” And that goes double for those whose idea of writing a novel is penning a thinly veiled navel-gazing memoir.

It’s OK to write novels, read them, and enjoy them. It’s OK to not read novels if they’re not your cup of tea. It’s even OK to pretend you’re some kind of expert and declare novels dead, if you don’t mind looking like a fool.