OK, got the ideas. . . now what do i do?

The answer is both simple and hard.  What do you do?  You pick up your pencil, put the tip to the paper, and start scratching out words.  Put your hands on the keyboard, start typing, and stare at the wall.  Don't read what you're writing.  You can do that later.  For now, just write.  Then write some more.  Then write some more.  When you're ready to stop, go for another half hour.  Then put it away, and don't look at it again for the rest of the day.

If you have to, read it over the next day.  95% of it will probably stink, but, in spots where you don't expect it, there'll be something you barely even remember writing that springs off the page, grabs onto your earlobe, and dangles there, its feet thumping against your jaw.  It won't be the sentence that gave you that "damn, I'm the KING WRITER!" feeling when you wrote it yesterday; it'll be something that you just cranked out in that last dash to just keep getting some damn words out to fill up that last bit of time.

Take that piece that you just found, crumple it up, stuff it in your mouth, and chew on it for a while.  OK, not literally.  But digest it, figure out what it means, what's alive there that wants to be told.  Go from there.

It won't be what you're planned.  Your story will fight with you, it will have to kick your preconceptions' ass, and if you don't figure out what it wants, you'll smother it.  The best stories fly out of your fingers so fast, they slam you in the shoulder and spin you around so that you fall out of your chair and land face-first on your shoes.  But you keep typing the whole time.  Then you type some more.  Then some more.  And, when you feel like taking a piss break, you keep typing for another half hour.  Then you put it away, and don't look at it again for the rest of the day.

If you have to, you read it over the next day.  93% of it sucks, but, another nugget will beckon coyly, wink, run its tongue over its lips, and offer you a Ho-Ho.  Don't be deceived by the snack cake -- just sit with this new, seductive little minx, and figure out what she's about.  And then write.  And write some more.  And then some more.  When you're ready for a nap, keep going for another twenty-five minutes.  Then put it away, and don't look at it again for the rest of the day.

That's pretty much how I generally go about it.

--
Ah, the joys of metaphor!

especially a first novel, is a big bag of elbows.  for me, the answer is to dive right in, but i've never come to the table particularly prepared either. the best advice i can give is that you don't start writing and get discouraged by how far away the ending is. novels are long, uncomfortably long for the first time novelist, and sometimes that can prove overwhelming. my other piece of advice is to read writing down the bones by natalie goldberg, it is one of the only two books about writing that ever helped me, and it does a great job of priming the well.

if you don't read that book, then take this piece of distilled wisdom from it, write - don't edit. the rational parts of your brain will fight progress at every step by insisting that you stop and perfect what has been written.

also, given the fact that you already have a good bit of material prepared, you might benefit from working out a loose outline, nothing so heavy that it takes the fun out of the writing, but just enough to help you out when you get stuck.

and finally, avoid telling your story to friends and family, i have a bad habit of this myself and it often will defeat you, tricking your brain into thinking their is no reason to write the story since it has already been told.

unfortunately their are no universal axioms when it comes to writing, so in the end you'll have to figure it out on your own, just try to have fun doing it.

 
 
-c.a.
construct-d

Should I dive right in? Should I wait and develop my writing techniques more? Should I just grab another composition note book?

Well, you'll never finish if you don't start, so dive right in. You certainly want to develop your writing technique more, but using your novel's first draft as practice time is perfectly acceptible; it will be edited - first drafts are never perfect. And a writer can always use another composition notebook :-)

I agree with cachilders - you have a lot of material, see if you can get a loose outline going. Don't worry about making a tight plot, just figure out what your characters' main goals are, what main things are in their way, and how they eventually achieve their goals. Tightening and weaving in subplots can come later.

I'd like to add a bit of a modification to the "write, don't edit" comment, though. Don't do both at the same time, but taking a break from writing to edit, even if the draft isn't finished, can be helpful. For one, re-reading can remind you what has already happened; for another, having the previous parts fresh in your mind while writing will let you tie parts together more, and make it more consistent. I've been printing my novel out for an "editing pass" about once a year or so (I don't work on it much when school is in session, so it goes slowly) and it's really helped me keep it consistent, and sometimes move it forward, because I can see what's missing and what themes were showing up in the past and should be revisited.

--
Who needs to be big and burly when you can just apply physics?

try to get a schedule and stick with it no matter what - a set number of words per day, set number of pages, whatever. Henry Miller advised that on days you didn't have new material flowing out of you, you could use the time to polish and work on what you already had.

One of the biggest things, though, is getting into the routine and sticking with it.

Cool site, by the way. ;)

-kpaul