Writing a novel can seem like an arduous task.But there are ways to make it easier, especially with a bit
of pre-planning and organisation.
This is what I learnt writing Vile City
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| Plan or you'll fail. |
1. You need to be
able to tell at a glance what's in every chapter. That includes plot and
character development.
Unless you're blessed with a photographic memory (if you
are, I envy you) there are a few ways to do this. You can have a timeline on
paper or a spreadsheet on your computer.
I prefer to have a summary to go with each chapter on a Word
document. I constantly update this and when I’m editing I print it out and
constantly refer to it.
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| Get those character details right, or they'll be trouble. |
2. If your characters
are going to be in a series do a character profile for each character.
This should cover character, background and appearance. I
reserve several pages in a notebook I keep for DI Waddell, his coma stricken
pal DC Stevie Campbell (who talks to Waddell even although nobody else can
hear) & Co for each character in my Detective in a Coma books. I add
details as I write each book. I've just finished book three.
You need to have pertinent details of your characters
quickly to hand so you can access them without slowing down your writing by
having to search through text for that one detail that you need.
How many times have they been married? Do they have kids and
if so what are their names? If they were in an accident who'd be their next of
kin? What colour is their hair?
You need to know these things so you won't suddenly change
your balding, thrice divorced, childless bachelor into someone with enviable
hair, two kids and a first wife.
3. Keep a firm grip
on the continuity.
You need to be consistent. No changing characters names
halfway through your book. Keep an eye on the details - is your character
sitting down when they've recently complained of a back injury and said they
couldn't sit down?
In one of my earlier versions of Vile City
4. Save your first
draft and subsequent drafts to at least three places (or four or five...).
We've all done it haven't we - toiled over our writing only
to forget to save the new changes we've made or lost it all when our computer
went nuts/was hit with a virus/decided that it hated us.
There is nothing worse than losing hours, days and even
weeks 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 a
day to at least three places - I send my work to two different emails, save it
to Dropbox and save it on my laptop and tablet. That way if something goes
wrong I won't lose work. I also save my WIP to all these places every time I do
any revamping or substantial writing.
5. Always edit on
paper.
Trust me on this, when you read on a laptop or tablet screen
you miss mistakes and because it's your writing your brain can trick you into
thinking you've written something different to what you have.
For example - I once wrote that a character was wearing a
violent jumpsuit rather than a violet one. Major difference. Don’t let your
jumpsuit get violent:)
