I have no idea where to even start LOOKING to write down and create a variable

Hello.

Do you want a local variable?

Or an object attribute (acting as a global variable)?

https://docs.textadventures.co.uk/quest/scripts/setting_variables.html

https://docs.textadventures.co.uk/quest/using_attributes.html

If that doesn't help, might I advise following along with the tutorial?

https://docs.textadventures.co.uk/quest/tutorial/tutorial_introduction.html

Are you using the online or the desktop version of Quest?