As I got a few private notes from folks considering joining the rest of the writing "marathon runners" this fall, I thought that this set of articles that I ran across might prove informative. It's a nice summary of a bunch of the issues surrounding writing a novel. Many of the books on novel writing don't cover much more than this and it's free here. Of particular notice for those who think that authors writing books make "movie star money" is the sobering reality that paperback sales net the author about 4% or less, meaning less than $0.50 per book sold.
Advice on Novel Writing
If that wasn't enough or just got you started, check out these other resources:
100 tips for writing your novel
Removing "writerisms" from your writing