Well, bang out 100,000 words and you have a novel. (Also known as the James Joyce approach.) You can't fail at novel writing. A weld or solder joint can leak or disconnect, but a novel can't suddenly stop being a novel.
Whether you can write a novel that is compelling or sellable or worthwhile is another story (pun) altogether, of course.
The more detailed point I'm trying to make is that there's a reason that development is a profession. Even the masters have to spend some serious time to build things.
In CS programs I've seen many students that expect to leave with the ability to just sit down and code up a Facebook clone off the top of their heads. It's similar in IT roles. There is no class that is "what to do when network is slow 101".
Whether you can write a novel that is compelling or sellable or worthwhile is another story (pun) altogether, of course.