Janus Writing tech: the starting process in a nut shell

Most people at one point or another in their life say "You know what I should write a book." Even my brother Ed has thought of this at one point, and he normally doesn't go for the artistic creating thing. (He is in banking.) So thinking about it is the first step naturally, since most people don't do this thing while asleep.
If you actually decide to sit down and work on it, you are doing the second step. 95% of people that do the first step never do the second so you are already above the average. Since thinking of writing a book will make you an author as fast as thinking about playing baseball with get you a contract with a professional baseball team. This is where the work begins...
1. Get your big idea Ok this might seem very obvious, but I have to say it since it is the most crucial step. You need your one (or two) line summary that says what you are trying to write. For example mine is today's title "The Starting Process in a Nut Shell." Everything will be related to this one theme, so I do not start writing about How to write and eventually change my subject to "How to make Grandma's Green Jello Salad." half way through.
2. Inspiration and Brainstorming Now that you know what you are going to write about it is time to do your starting notes and ideas. Find a place that you can concentrate and think of ideas and write them down. Find a place that will free you of distractions, for example it probably wouldn't do you good to write these down while you are working in a room full of screaming children or while you are driving down the interstate in heavy traffic. I also suggest having a notebook or a tape recorder with you at all times, because ideas can come at any time. Jot them down, you can always use it later possibly.
Brainstorming (at least my way) involves writing down little notes about things I want to say in a particular work. You don't need any structure here, you can write in a spider web, you can make random notes all over a notebook, you can write about 3000 post-it notes and stick them all over your computer screen. It doesn't matter. Don't worry about organizing it until you are done brainstorming either, this is just a time for thinking of ideas, if you worry about organizing when you are trying to create something you will forget things while you are worried about dotting "i's" and crossing "T's" so tell grammar and structure to go to hell. Just create.
3. Your table of contents/outline and possible character profiling Ok now that you are done littering hundreds of notebooks and scraps of paper with brainstorming you need to put them together. I still suggest you don't worry about grammar so much here, instead you need to take all your ideas and put them into a sort of order.
If it is a chapter book, this is where you map out your chapters. If you are writing a complicated essay or short piece you can write out a general outline. (You also need to write an outline if you are in an English class...because they like to make you do that.) This basically puts your storm of your brain (tired of saying brainstorming over and over) into the general layout it will be read.
If you are writing a fictional story and have plenty of characters it is good to spend a day or two writing out the notes on them. The more important the character, the more notes you write. Describe the physical details well, so that you don't change your character mid-story or series. For example Janus can't be a blond in one book, and black haired in another in the description unless he decided to color his hair. Consistancy is very important.
The other character notes are very vital. You write down some of the inner workings of the character so that you can develop who they are for the whole book or series. Developed characters is what seperates a high school composition class and a published work of fiction. Your readers must see depth and complexity with your creations. This is why a drama movie will get high reviews, and a slasher movie will get bad reviews in most cases. Your audience must connect and relate with your characters, in order to be impacted by your story.
4. Finally, start chapter 1 and keep going. If you get to Chapter 1, you have exceeded the 99% of the of the people that got to the serious brain storming step. So you are already in the bottom 0.5% of the pool of possible writers. Doesn't that feel good? If you finish chapter 1 you have put yourself into the even more elite percent of 0.025 of possible writers. That is something to really be proud of.
5. Two tips before I shut up and make this a novel that you will need to know. The important thing is you need to do several drafts, the first time you write your chapters out you should not be concerned with grammar and perfection. If you are bogged down with that, you will never finish. Just let your ideas flow, and then have someone else proof-read it and write it as fast as you can. You can fix it all later, the important thing is getting it down.
The other important tip is not to let yourself get discouraged. Some people, particularly some close family and usually people that are not artists or writers themselves will not be as excited about your writing as you are. They may regard it as waste of time, and figure you might be better of making french fries at Mcdonalds. Don't give up. If you feel the creative juices flowing, don't let anything get in your way. The only person that can stop you from writing and force you into the fast food industry is you. Find people that support you and your craft, and lift each other up. Writing is real and serious work, and don't you forget it.
Besides that way when you become the next Stephen King or J K Rowling, all those people that told you that you wasted your time will be green with envy as they hear about you while they are stuck where they are. Creative arts work is about the only way people still can go from rags to riches without having to take out a student loan.