I've never considered writing a novel, but I have an entire universe filled with characters and a storyline that I've imagined. I started it when I was eight, and I built off of it mentally until I was seventeen. The way I "Emoted" the story is... Weird, so I'll go in-depth if someone is curious, but I continuously moved the story forward for literally a decade. The only reason I don't do it anymore is because I need to be doing a specific sort of activity in a certain place for my mindset to be correct to continue the narrative, but I don't have that "Special place" here at college.
It's not so much that I want it to be a novel, it's more like something I'd create if given a TV series with, like, a fucking infinite budget. And it's a weird feeling having this entire universe of events and characters, and I'm literally the only one who knows anything about them. I can't imagine how many weeks... No, probably months of my life I've personally dedicated to moving that story forward just in thought.