There's nothing wrong with just deciding one day that you want to write.
I did it, at least sort of; it was always something that interested me, something I was good at and wanted to do. And I dabbled at it here and there over the years. (I was always a huge, huge reader, though. As others have said, can't write well if you don't read. Reading is how we learn to write.)
But then I had a baby, and I stayed home to raise her. Which was when I realized I finally had time to write, the ability and freedom to actually do it. So I did.
And the funny thing is, I realized that I loved it. That I loved everything about it. I wanted to do it, because it was fun. Sure I dreamed of being published and blah blah blah, but very early on I knew I wanted to keep doing it just because I was enjoying writing more than I've enjoyed pretty much everything else I've ever done in my life. It wasn't a matter of having to force myself to do it, because I spent pretty much all day dreaming of when my daughter would go to sleep and I could get back to work.
Did I feel that way every single night? No. I took a few nights off here and there. or there were a few nights where I just didn't feel like making new words or didn't know what happened next, so I'd go back and re-read and edit instead. The point for me was that I did some work on the ms just about every night; at least nine out of ten nights.
I still feel just as passionately about it, though I admit as deadlines and pressure have set in I have more nights where I feel lazy and don't wanna. But I still do it. I make myself do it, and once the first couple of hundred words are down I get into it and the fun comes back, the passion comes back. It's harder now, because there is more pressure; I'm not just writing for fun anymore, not just for me. But it's still the thing I love to do more than almost anything else.
You're not published. You don't *have* to write every night. You don't have to force yourself to make words even when you don't want to. You definitely will have to if you want to really write, because that's what being a writer is. But you can work up to that; you don't have to force yourself to do 2k words a day (my usual word goal) right out of the gate. Let yourself ease into it. Try writing every other day, and give yourself, say, a 500-word goal. Don't let yourself take those days off, but don't make yourself do it every night and don't set really high goals at first (I think when I started my goal was something like 2 pages). Writing is a habit that builds, and if you work at it you'll find the habit gets easier, the word counts increase, the enjoyment grows.
It's not all-or-nothing. Personally I think writing every day is best. And I think if you're having a hard time motivating yourself that might be a good way to make it a habit. But only you know what's best for you, and if you don't feel ready to write every day or the idea scares you/turns you off then don't. You can write every day once you're comfortable writing every other day, and honestly, I think after a couple of weeks of making sure you write every other day, you'll either start wanting to do it every day or you'll realize you don't actually want to do it much at all.
But yeah...if you want to write you have to read. If you don't like books or have the patience to read one, why in the world would you want to write one? Why would you spend your time creating art you don't enjoy? And I don't mean to be harsh, I honestly don't, but this is a viewpoint I genuinely don't understand: why would you think you can write something of value when you don't understand what's valuable about books--why would you think you can create something original that other people would like to read when you don't know what's already been created and don't know what readers like, or what you like? Novels are a very complex art form. You need to understand them and the rules of them before you can write one. Natural talent is all well and good, but writing isn't just an art; it's a craft, too, one that requires study and hard work. And just like you can't pick up a paintbrush and create a painting good enough to hang in a gallery without any study, without looking at art, without understanding what's important about art, you can't sit down to a computer and create a novel (or any work of fiction, no matter the length) without studying the craft, reading novels (or other fiction), and understand what's important about them.
But again, there's nothing wrong with just deciding you want to write. We all have to start somewhere; each and every one of us decided one day we wanted to write, and started writing.
I hope that helps! And welcome to AW.
