She was wearing a violent jumpsuit - 5 Lessons I've learnt writing a novel (so you don't have to)

Writing a novel can seem like an arduous task.But there are ways to make it easier, especially with a bitof pre-planning and organisation.

This is what I learnt writing Vile City,the first book in my Detective in a Coma series.
Plan or you'll fail.

1. You need to beable to tell at a glance what's in every chapter. That includes plot andcharacter development.

Unless you're blessed with a photographic memory (if youare, I envy you) there are a few ways to do this. You can have a timeline onpaper or a spreadsheet on your computer. I prefer to have a summary to go with each chapter on a Worddocument. I constantly update this and when I’m editing I print it out andconstantly refer to it.
Get those character details right, or they'll be trouble.

2. If your charactersare going to be in a series do a character profile for each character.

This should cover character, background and appearance. Ireserve several pages in a notebook I keep for DI Waddell, his coma strickenpal DC Stevie Campbell (who talks to Waddell even although nobody else canhear) & Co for each character in my Detective in a Coma books. I adddetails as I write each book. I've just finished book three.
You need to have pertinent details of your charactersquickly to hand so you can access them without slowing down your writing byhaving to search through text for that one detail that you need.
How many times have they been married? Do they have kids andif so what are their names? If they were in an accident who'd be their next ofkin? What colour is their hair?You need to know these things so you won't suddenly changeyour balding, thrice divorced, childless bachelor into someone with enviablehair, two kids and a first wife.

3. Keep a firm gripon the continuity.

You need to be consistent. No changing characters nameshalfway through your book. Keep an eye on the details - is your charactersitting down when they've recently complained of a back injury and said theycouldn't sit down?
In one of my earlier versions of Vile City,I had Shelley Craig who gets kidnapped in the book, deliberately leaving behinda necklace with a charm based on a Monopoly playing piece in one of the placesshe'd been kept. When my main character DI Waddell finds it the charm on thenecklace had changed.


4. Save your firstdraft and subsequent drafts to at least three places (or four or five...).

We've all done it haven't we - toiled over our writing onlyto forget to save the new changes we've made or lost it all when our computerwent nuts/was hit with a virus/decided that it hated us.
There is nothing worse than losing hours, days and evenweeks of hard graft and somebody saying: "Hey didn’t you back it up?"when you sit there looking sheepish because you haven't.
That's why it's important to save your work at least once aday to at least three places - I send my work to two different emails, save itto Dropbox and save it on my laptop and tablet. That way if something goeswrong I won't lose work. I also save my WIP to all these places every time I doany revamping or substantial writing. 

5. Always edit onpaper.

Trust me on this, when you read on a laptop or tablet screenyou miss mistakes and because it's your writing your brain can trick you intothinking you've written something different to what you have.
For example - I once wrote that a character was wearing aviolent jumpsuit rather than a violet one. Major difference. Don’t let yourjumpsuit get violent:)