So, for the last five years, I've had this premise of a story stuck in my head, slowly evolving and, uhm, maturing if you will. It has evolved so much that I'm seriously considering writing it down in book form, if not to publish then at least to my desk drawer so I can say I actually finished it.

I've spent the last week scribbling down notes, pieces of dialog, general plot, characters, scenes and overall "feel" of the said story, but...

..how do I proceed? Should I keep writing these little snippets down and hope in the end they'll form a cohesive story? Should I just start writing scenes and edit them later to fit the story in general? I've never done anything in this scale before, so I'm a bit lost.

Any advice is appreciated :D

Not a published writer by any means, but I'll tell you what has helped me:

Just keep writing. Don't try to edit your work, there'll be plenty of time to do that after you feel the story is complete. I'm personally in a spot where I've spent so much time editing my original I've completely failed to continue writing, and have since "lost" my inspiration for the story in the first place.

*edit*

Yes, keep doing what you're doing. That's really what I was trying to say. If little snippets are keeping you writing, keep doing so.

Practice thinking like your individual characters. Each needs to have their own unique voice and perspective. When the story progresses you create the world events but the characters' reactions themselves should feel organic to their mindset. Something that has always bugged me in some books and movies is when characters have an epiphany and 180 without any sort of reason or build up simply for the sake of the plot.

I'm a self-published novelist (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HCZVCTO).

Each writer has his or her own methods. Find your own scheme, just don't give up.

I treated it as a job. An enjoyable one, but still a job. I defined myself reasonable daily quotas, stuck to a schedule. I did a detailed high-level design for about seven months before writing the first word. I wrote the entire novel slowly over more than a year. I used pen and paper, with my wife typing it into the computer at the end of each day. Only when I wrote it all , did I go back and edited and re-edited it. I did seven major passes and probably a dozen minor passes. All in all, it took me 39 months full time (I quit my daytime job to write the novel). But I'm probably an extreme example.

How easy is Amazon publishing? Does it give you a breakdown of how many purchased the book and such?

My goal is to publish at least one novel, just to say I've been able to write a book (and because I enjoy writing).

Definitely this. I've read lots of different stuff by all kinds of authors (published, amateur, hugely successful and not so much) and every one is different. Do whatever works for you.

I think jcosmocohen's advice about not editing your work is definitely something to think about as I pretty much did the same thing when I was writing, got so lost in trying to fix and perfect what I'd already written that I stopped writing altogether. But it may not be the same for you.

Yeah, the little snippets keep me writing, as I write them down as soon as I come up with them. And it's not even forced, since whenever I'm alone and away from distractions (computer, wife, things like that) they just keep coming. Really weird, to be honest.

But they're just that, little pieces from here and there, jumping everywhere in the timeline. But I do have a clear grasp of what "scene" they belong to.

I once wrote "The future is in your hands" in a public toilet in a park. Does that count ?

Yes.

Very easy.

The only very minor hurdle is that you need to buy an ISBN (from Bowker). IIRC, 1 costs $125, 10 cost $250, 1000 cost $1000 (talk about bulk discount). I bought 10.

I published electronically, so had to convert my Open Office file to Kindle format, but there's a pretty good converter supplied by Amazon. Took a few iterations to get the format exactly as I wanted it. Not too difficult.

You need a cover. I had one designed professionally. Cost me $750. But there are many much cheaper or even free options out there.

Once you have the file, the cover and the ISBN, it's just filling in an online form and a day or so later the book is online across the world.

Amazon supplies you with a web dashboard for managing your books and you get a breakdown of how many copies were sold each day (on each Amazon website). Very convenient.

You also get royalty payments electronically to your bank account and quarterly/yearly reports for tax purposes.

Have you ever read anything by Kurt Vonnegut? He liked to play with the idea that a novel doesn't have to follow a set format. One of his novels, can't remember which one, read like it was written on scraps of paper. He says that's how he wrote it in the novel, but it's hard to know how much truth is in it. Still, I always thought it was both a neat and unique way to write a novel.

Maybe someone else remembers which novel it was...

Write down your ideas, then periodically re-arrange them chronologically (in the order they're supposed to be in the book), and you'll fill the blanks in as you do this .

Just curious, is it possible to resell those? I mean at 125$ one costs 125, but for 8 times as much money you get 1000 times the amount??? Unless you skipped a 0 somewhere?

On the good ship Venus,by .................................
Everyone know this one?