The difference between Novels and Fanfictions.

Well, I'm writing a novel, so I can give you the tips that I got from some others, and of course, I have a bunch of tips from Last Year's NaNoWriMo, from professional authors. x]

I know what you mean about not planning, normally I wouldn't do that either for anything, but novels are a bit, different. If you have an idea, jot it down somewhere, and then make some key points about it, trust me, that'll help you a bit in the long run. And if you ever have a new idea whilst writing your novel, don't ditch the one you're working on, jot that idea down and keep going - else you'll never finish anything.

I think that having a general outline, like a basic plan, for your novel would be helpful. Key points that you want to follow, and you can improvise in between, as long as you get to those key points withint a certain amount of chapters or something. Helps me. =)

And and, my tip for writing characters, which you definitely already know, most likely, is to get a very detailed character sheet out, and fill it all in for the main characters. You get a feel for them and you can decide what about them you want to share, and what you don't want to share, etc. ^^

Other than that, for actually coming up with ideas for your novel, hmm, that's a toughie. Mine usually come out of the blue, to be honest. I would think that if you have a general idea, come up with a couple little ones and expand them a bit, and then pick the one that seems easiest for you to expand even more on and write about.

But meh, I'm not very good with helping out with that sort of stuff. That's just how I work on my things. x]