Here's something I've recommended to quite a few people that actually worked wonders. I myself thought it was common sense, but I guess not.
Don't leap right into writing
novels! Even if you only want to be known as a novelist or etc. Start with short fiction. Become proficient with telling a complete story, with beginning middle and end. While short fiction is by no means
easy to write (some consider it to be more difficult than novel length), by its very nature it allows the beginner a very helpful thing: a reachable goal while that white hot 'oh-lordy-I-gotz-a-great-idea' passion is burning brightly.
Short fiction allows you to practice, in miniature, all the important tools of novel writing: structure, character, plot, dialogue, integration of backstory with action, etc.
And the best part of this as a training technique is this: your short fiction doesn't have to really be all that good! It just has to be completed and analyzed and what you learn from it used to better your
next story.
Give it a shot.