So here I am in my late 40's a suddenly deciding to write a novel that's been bouncing around my head for the past thirty years. I've tried writing it a couple of times before without any success but now that I'm not working a regular job I figured this was my chance to make a real effort with it. I'm sure this is not an unusual life path but it's not looking like an easy one either. After spending the past couple of weeks working on this novel I've realized that the idea in my head has always been a plot, not a full story. I know the basic beginning and I know the ending but getting from point A to point B is the mystery I'm trying to develop. I've also spent the past few weeks doing internet research on things like publishing, editing, creative writing tips, even some basic grammar. This looks like an interesting site to find some answers so here I am. oh ... Science Fiction
Sounds like a challenge! There will probably be some roadbumps, but hang in there - writing can be really rewarding.
First, I'd suggest doing some reading: Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight V. Swain Save the Cat! by Blake Snyder These two books will give you a solid grounding in building a plot (Snyder) and the scene-by-scene, paragraph-by-paragraph of novel writing (Swain). The Snyder book is aimed at screenwriters, but don't let that put you off. Good stories are good stories, no matter the medium. Then: start with a logline (nailing this means you've got a good handle on what you're writing) either knock out a first draft or do an outline, if you chose to write a first draft, when it's done, put it away for a while and when you come back, then write the outline, no matter if you started with a first draft or an outline, write a page-one draft (this means, write or rewrite it from scratch) based on your outline (but using any insights you garnered from writing the first draft), rewrite rewrite rewrite polish
And I would recommend none of the things @Sack-a-Doo! recommends (well, except for writing a first draft at some point), so... welcome to the bewildering world of writing advice, where nobody can ever agree on anything!
The writing & rewriting part I've been doing. Never been a big fan of outlines but I've been keeping a running file of character details, dates, and made up companies & organizations. The naming of things has been a lot of fun, I've been using foreign (and sometimes ancient) words as names. It would make a fun Easter egg hunt if anyone ever reads this thing and looks up the meanings behind some of the names.
Welcome to WF, @doggiedude I just joined myself and thus far, I really like the place a lot. There is a lot of good resources here!