I'm serious. It's a serious question. One I've begun thinking about quite seriously.

I mean, if I intend to write successfully, I think I need to know what I'm about. What kind of audience do I want to write for? Do I just want to write for personal pleasure, do I want to be commercially viable? Can I write commercial fiction? Do I think I'm literary or an entertainer?

Yes, yes, 'literary', 'entertainment', black and white, overly simplistic, I know, I know. But I do think there is a different attitude for a writer coming from the one camp compared to the other.

I mostly read for pleasure when I read fiction. I like to be challenged, to have my thought provoked and suchlike, but I like to enjoy my fiction at the same time. I like books that manage to balance the drives of plot and character.

Back when I was more active on here, people seemed to polarise into two quite different camps. One lot tended toward the literary, to the extent that the notion of commercialism would have been black heresy - a trashing of the writer's craft. There's a certain justification for that position, but it is too black. Lots of commercial writers are very good, even if they will never attain the rarefied heights of literature's greats.
The other lot tended to be younger, and fell into the hubris of simply believing that anything they wrote was worth something. They tended towards the immediacy of having others say 'wow'. They were the kind who didn't like to be told about plot, character and especially structure and grammar. They couldn't see the point of such things. And with no craft, they will never become good writers.

Okay, Todd, you definitely didn't fall into either category. Neither did you, Oliver.

I'm a fairly successful academic/commercial business writer. I even have a PhD in the area.

It doesn't help my fiction writing.

I'm not getting any younger (I just turned 38, and 40 is looming on the horizon). I've always dreamed about writing a novel, and I still haven't completed one. I have enough maturity and experience to recognise that a dream doesn't happen because it's a dream. The dream is a spark and it's still there. I still believe in myself. So I think I need to figure out why I've never finished a full-length story. And to do that, I need to go back further than plot/story-line etc. I need to figure out, given that I already have the dream to write, who to write for, what to write for, and whether it's really worth continuing to devote time in a very hectic life, or whether the dream is just that - something nebulous, unwilling to resolve into a vision, to move from that enticing spark to the flame of real work and passion.

So, I'm thinking about what type of writer I am. I have every intention of taking this further.