Novel in November

Ok, so it's Nov 1. Time to start a novel.

First off, I'm NOT doing NaNoWriMo this year. As I've stated elsewhere I do want to write my first novel without the added pressure of an artificial goal on top of it. I'd much rather take my time on the first one as I'm still figuring out my process and what works for me. Also, I still have a novella and two short stories in various stages of completion and waiting on feedback, so I may be interrupted to work on those and get them out to be published (hopefully).

So what's the plan? Well, this week is going to be spent getting characters and plot squared away. I have an idea about what I want to do with both but need to get them written down so I have something concrete rather than the random fuzzy firings of my brain. Once I've got the characters sketched out I can get a rough idea of the plot for the book and then start writing to fill it in.

I don't know if this will ever get published. I may write this and then hide it somewhere to never be seen by others, or it may be the first thing of mine that actually gets published. All I know is that I have to do this, I have to do it now, and I have to keep at it. I want to be a writer, and the only way to do that is to write.