What variable changed the equation?

This isn't the first time that I've said to myself, "I should write a novel", but it's certainly the first time I've ever been even remotely successful.  I can remember a story I wrote back in my first years of college.  It was about two old men at a nursing home who had rich fantastical life stories.  The plan was that they would go back and forth telling their tales, each chapter growing more and more unbelievable.  The idea came from a short story I wrote that was published in the University literary journal, Carbon World.  When it came time to expanding it into a novel, I got a few pages in via stream of consciousness then puttered to a halt.

I'm sure that document is still floating around my computer somewhere, abandoned.

There were other times, but they all met the same fate.  I can look back now and understand that I was doing several things wrong.  First, I was grasping onto a single clever idea, rather than a character's journey.  Second, I was aiming too high for my first time out of the gates.  And third, I didn't set myself up for success.

What really changed the equation for me was a chat with my friend Karen.  She is a novelist with eight books and counting under her belt.  She probably doesn't even remember giving me any advice, but she did and this is what she said.  She told me that she did the exact same thing, knowing she had the ability, but lacking the conviction to see it through to completion.  She carried on like that until one day she read a cozy mystery and said to herself, "I could have written this".  It wasn't an epic work of profound literature.  It wasn't Ayn Rand or William Faulkner.  It was just a simple story that turned pages and put a smile on her face.  So she decided to prove it to herself.  She set out to write her own cozy mystery, reveling in the tropes and cliches rather than trying to redefine the genre.  When she came out the other side she had the first in what would become a successful mystery series four novels strong and growing.  From that genre she's branched out into a second series closer to her heart.  Each new book helps her grow as a writer and as a brand.

But, at the core of this conversation, the key was starting small.  Just prove it to myself.  I don't have to open anyone's mind up to new and wondrous ideas.  I just have to tell an entertaining story.  So with that in mind, I'm trying to prove it.