Novel writing

I have been writing my novel for 10 years as I have restarted so many times and I keep changing the story as I don't like which way the story is going or how I have written it, my first attempted at my novel it was all jumbled up and some of it didn't make sense I typed up on my laptop which wasn't the greatest idea so I decided to go old school and hand write a rough copy so that I could look back on what I had written when typing it up so I did not repeat myself and than I didn't like the way the story was going so I changed it many of times. I had no idea how much work it would be to write a novel when I sat down 10 years ago to write it I am now on my fourth attempt of writing and hopefully this time I will finish it I just struggled getting my novel going as my story and writing wasn't great on my first attempt and I lost the plot of my story so many times as I lost focus between my novel and my everyday life, on another attempt I got too quickly into my story and didn't stretch it out so many attempts and so many different problems but I won't go into them all now. I have always been a short story writer and it is very different when writing a novel you have to stretch out the story and brainstorm ideas and outline your characters and their background if you have ideas for the story later on it best to have a notebook to write it down I purchased a writing journal to help me outline my characters and my storyline it comes in handy too as there are pages to make notes so I can write down ideas I have for later in the story, my writing journal has been a great help. I have also read books about people and their writing novel adventure. My favourite novelist is Nora Roberts her novels inspired me to want to write a novel I even called my lead female character Nora. I still have a long way to go with not only my story but my characters as I haven't quite got their background and ideas on where I want them to go in the future. Wish me luck as I hoping one day to have a complete novel it doesn't matter if no one wants to publish it accomplishment to have eventually finish it, if you have written a novel I would love some tips in the comment section as it is of great interest to also hear about other people's novel writing their ups and downs, I have always loved writing short stories since I was a child and wanted to always write a novel to me it is adventure writing as you get really into your characters and that is what I hoping will happen with my characters in my novel that I will get into them and their lives. When I have read novels I have always gotten in to the characters and their lives that is what I want my novel to be to me and if it ever get published to whoever reads my novel I would love to here about other peoples writing experience as my has been a bumpy road and scary at times but for me writing is way into someone soul whether it is a short story or a novel, here I go back to writing my novel.