Tuesday's Inspiration - Toni Morrison

While reading a book on writing, I came across this quote by Toni Morrison. She's a brilliant writer and her stories take the reader into the world fueled by her life and imagination. Though I've never met her, she lives in the next town over on the Hudson River from where I live.  Here's the quote.

"If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it." Toni Morrison.

When I began writing, there were stories I wanted to tell and I wrote them, but they were short stories. Then I was ill and my sister-in-law, knowing I loved to read, sent a shopping bag of nurse romances. I started reading them and realized they weren't the books I wanted to read. That book hadn't been written yet. So my quest began. I wrote and wrote. The first novel, a "sweet nurse" romance was written and re-written, while I read books on writing and took a few courses. With help from editors, and multiple revisions, the book was accepted for publication. If it had found the book I wanted to read, I wouldn't have begun writing novels. I would have perhaps continued to write short stories for markets that had begun to dry up.

Taking that first step led to many more writers but all have begun with that thought, this is a story that hasn't been written yet, and I'd really love to read it.

How about you? Are your stories born because you wanted to read a book that hadn't been written yet?