Cultural train wreck

Very tentatively, I 'officially' started my novel yesterday. I've done about 9000 words planning and working on my characters, and the narrative is as clear as I'll be able to know it at this point. That's to say, the narrative often has to be earned by the experiences of the characters. Starting is not something I'm eager to do, as previous attempts have often been written too soon, and the thinness of the characters becomes obvious. However, I feel relatively confident and excited by these characters and the narrative has, to me, a natural trajectory.

My aim, at this early stage, is to do about 8000 words a month, or around 2000 a week. The frustrating element of writing whilst working full-time is that I can only use my days off (which inevitably can get filled up with other things I need to do) or my evenings, and I never seem to get a decent long stretch at it. Oh well, thousands of other writers have had to contend with the same problem; hopefully that tension will give me more determination to stick at it.