My approach is a little more visual and nonlinear. Some of the stories I'm writing now have been incubating for years. First I come up with an image of the main characters, some key scenes, and the overall atmosphere of the setting. Then I replay those scenes in my head until I decide that I should create a story around them.
During the outlining process, I list out the major plot points and write paragraphs of commentary about the characters' backstory, motivations, and feelings. I generally know how the story begins and ends, so it's the middle parts that need to be filled in. Even though my current stories are fantasy and sci-fi, I do some historic research to add a bit of realism to the plot.
Lastly, since I have a long backlog of story ideas, rather than wait for one novel to be completed before starting the next, I work on multiple novels simultaneously (while also working intermittently on my comics). Hence, the update schedules are a bit irregular. It keeps the writing process interesting, since I can switch to working on different story if I get bored of the first one.