An anecdote for you...
Dreamer of Destiny was my first novel, but it came close to never being written.
That which was to become my first novel came to me in a dream, and though I'd written down all that I'd remembered, I didn't quite get around to writing it because life got in the way. Not in a bad way, rather I'd had children and they came first. When my two oldest discovered my 'dream' story, they prodded and pushed at me (in an encouraging way, of course) to turn it into a book. It took years after I'd written that dream down for it to become a novel, but were it not for my children, that novel may never have been and I may never have been a writer. That is why I dedicate all of my books to my children -- with much love.