I have always wanted to write a novel, but I don't know where to even start.
Well, a Novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, why don't you start with something shorter? 
Hmmm, that's a thought, but I really had my heart set on a novel, maybe romance.
 You mean a Novel about love and relationship?
Yes, exactly. Although, I'm not much of a romantic so maybe I should pick another genre. Any suggestions?
I like mistery.  Of course since Novels have been around for 2.000 years, there are all sort of genres.
I was curious about the difference between a novel and I've also heard the term "novella". Is that the same thing?
author of "Don Quixote" (the first part of which was published in 1605), is frequently cited as the first significant European novelist of the modern era. Ian Watt, in "The Rise of the Novel" (1957), suggested that the modern novel was born in the early 18th century.
Walter Scott made a distinction between the novel, in which (as he saw it) "events are accommodated to the ordinary train of human events and the modern state of society" and the romance,
is reported to have told them "I don't know where you can find one, but if you do, burn it." Copies of the book offered for sale online start at $1,300 and go up to $7,500.
Abbey's disgust with the novel was immediate. According to James M. Cahalan's biography, "Edward Abbey, A Life", he could barely get through the galleys before the book was published. He said it seemed "even worse than I had thought," too "juvenile