We had a guest writer on Newer national literature on my University who wrote around 90 novels. It was kinda impossible for me because I tried to write at that time as well. He told us that the key thing is not to write from the head (thinking about novels) but to write the complete structure on one big paper (big as a wall) with everything around. I remember good that he said that he leaves this to stay for three months and then he would start to write. And he would need one month for the complete novel. It is hard to write from the head because it puts you in a different mood. I like movie Smoke (mid 90's) also, where there is a writer as one of the main characters...