Love NaNoWriMo
I tried to write a novel with NaNoWriMo at least four times before giving up. I imagine planning before hand would be useful.
Good work and I hope something good comes out of it.
How to write a novel
It made me
Thrillled 
"It was a whirlwind, amazing journey."
How I did it: Well, I used NaNoWriMo(National Novel Writing Month) for motivation, and wrote my novel in the month of November. The daily goals, and the deadline actually really motivated me, and since I'd outlined the story to start with, it made it a lot easier.
