N is for Novel

Ah the great American novel. The dream of every aspiring author across the globe, me included.

Webster's defines the word as follows:


a fictitious prose narrative of considerable length and complexity,portraying characters and usually presenting a sequential organization of action and scenes.
Novels are all shapes and sizes, some fast paced, fast moving while others are pulling you in and leading you down the rabbit hole, so to speak.

Starting one as a reader is easy. As the writer...well, that's a different story. 

As a reader, what pulls you into a novel? What causes you to lose a nights sleep just to find out how the story ends?

As an author, what causes you to create the story that draws the reader in? How do you create the world that readers get lost in?