Now that you have figured out what type of story you want to write, how much prep should you do?
This year my novel is loosely based on a real life person, a woman in the Spanish War who lost her fiancee and became a bandit. My heroine lives in a fantasy world but there are some real details that I am copying over. There is a little research and reading involved, but I don’t take notes.
As a software engineer and a quasi type A personality, I am goal oriented and the goal is to write 10K words. On the first day, I will write down my thoughts and notes and then create a very high level outline on what I want to write. It all counts towards that target.
Others have a more literary goal in mind, and work differently. The spectrum runs from the plan-a-head people who create detailed outlines, character maps, regular maps, notes etc. to the free thinkers who show up on Nov. 1 with out even a genre picked out and just let the magic flow!
No matter your goal, 10K words or the next great novel, the key is to figure out what works best for you.
Ad victoriam!