planning my novel

This venture into planning my novel has not worked out particularly well.  My heroine's profile seems to come through as I am writing, rather than when I am structuring.  The author Susan Price uses a lot of post-its when she is writing and I am going to adopt that idea as I go along, to keep up with the profiles and the plot.
Today I have gone through writing magazines and jotted down competitions for entries over the next few weeks.  the idea is to work on my novel alongside short stories and poetry.  It will be rather like my reading, I always have more than one book on the go.
I have also sorted my desk out.  On it I have a mug given to me when I retired from a University.  It says, 'I used to write with CLaSS (letters stand for Centre for Learning and Study Support)   Now I write with class.'
Every time I look at it I feel inspired.  I also have an egg timer for exercises and to beat procrastination, a notebook that reads I could've been a novel and a smaller notebook titled hopes, dreams, ideas.'
So no excuses Linda, write!  You call yourself a writer, so write!