Learning to Write: wanna-be-author in progress

     I have always had the desire to write, to create a world all my own and share it with everyone.  But I lacked the right motivation to propelling me into action.  This past year I have been very inspired (thank you Pinterest!) and eager to write a story and not just poems or letters or very short short-stories.
     Last week I called my mom and told her that I had the itch.  "The what?!" she asked.
     "The itch.  Sometimes when you get the itch, you just have to scratch it.  Well, mom, I'm ready to scratch!"  This followed with the conversation that usually 'the itch' relates to a different topic entirely.  Afterwards, I called my dad.  "Dad, I'm finally going to do it.   I'm going to write a book.  While I'm in college, taking tests, trying to graduate and pass board exams."   Yeay me.
     So here I am, getting excited about writing my book.  I researched names I liked and their meanings, finding perfect matches for the type of story I'm going for.  I wrote a few paragraphs in different scenes that may happen.  But, as I write scenes, I realize I'm missing so much.  I don't want to take months and months planning out a book before I actually start writing (because that's the kind of person I am: having to have all the details and preperations done before I even start with a project, any project).
     I stop and pause, mid-sentence.  I am trying to build my house without any foundation, without even a plot of land to place it upon.  I have no setting, not really- no country or kingdom names, maps, rules, traditions.  The few characters I've created have no character themselves.  There's hardly a plot, twists, climaxes, etc.  I realize that all this will come over time and even while writing the story, and some things will change a little or change completely... that's where editing comes in- they say writing a book takes a third of the time that editing does.  But I also realize that I can't bake a dessert if I don't have at least an idea of what the ingredients are going to be.
     This is going to be a lot harder, take a lot more time (months and months!), and require a great amount of effort on my part if I want to get this ball rolling.  But I am ready, I am so ready!  I am spreading my wings, preparing to fly.