Am I a Novelist?

For quite some time now, I have been thinking about trying to write a novel. I have written little stories here and there, and they probably suck pretty bad, but I always had this desire to try my hand at writing a novel.

Today I did a quick google search on "how to write a novel" and found quite a few websites that give what appears to be decent advice on how to go about it. All the way to publication if that is what you want and I'm not sure that is what I want yet, but I really want to see if I can do it.

The first site I read talked about a snowflake method of creating a novel. It gives you little steps to start out with and slowly build all these things into a novel. It seemed like it made sense, so I tried my hand at a little plot development. It directs you to write a one sentence statement on your story. I came up with this:

A military man struggles to find his family in a post-apocalyptic world.

And that is where I will start. From there you expand on that one sentence into a paragraph, create and develop some characters and scenes and start expanding on all of it until you have something of substance.

After writing that first sentence I expanded it to this: (I'm leaving the ending off to create suspense)

Sergeant First Class John Kindel has been in the Army for 17 years. During one of his many training evolutions, some very bad things happen. The war that brought on this new world only lasted four days, but it really did the job. John is now separated from his family; his wife Lori, son Shane and daughter Britney by a landscape that looks like hell on earth. He decides to forsake his duties and get back home, where he hopes to find his family still alive and waiting for him. As he makes his away over the 1000 miles he needs to travel to get home, John encounters many challenges along the way. Some are easy to overcome and others threaten to take his life. John finally gets back home and finds...

And that is basically where I am at now. I'm excited, but a little scared. Can I do this? Probably not, but I will at least answer the question and that will still get it checked off my bucket list.

Another site I came across in my search was How to Write a Novel in 100 Days or Less

I will try to go to it each day and see what it has to say. I don't plan on doing this in 100 days, but who knows what will happen. Jump on and enjoy the ride.

Day 1
On this your first day of writing your novel, make a promise to yourself that you are going to do it. This is critical. Without that commitment, you may as well save your pencils and paper. It isn’t going to happen. Remember, write as often as you can. That’s what writers do — they write.

Ok, check off day 1. Promise and Commitment made...