I’m part of a writing group and in the process of writing a novel. The feedback so far seems positive, but I still have a lot to learn.
I have discovered that I do things a little different to many of the people in my group. As Elliot Finer below said, I too search for images on Google when required to describe even the most basic of objects or scenes.
For specific location settings throughout my story, I have assigned them to real life locations nearby and have visited them with a note pad taking down real time observations, noting the sounds, sights, smells etc.
In regards to plot and storyline, I wrote the whole thing from start to finish with no thought to structure and then once finsihed the first draft spent a lot of time planning, cutting and moving things around to make it work. I find that the Scrivener app cork board is very useful for this.