NaNoWriMo: Training for the Marathon, Part 3

A major recommendation for NaNoWriMo is to plan the majority of scenes. 
 
I began by listing events, things I wanted to happen or to reveal. Then I made a chart like this and began to fill it in:

Scene	Where	Who	When	Point of scene	What happens
1
2

I knew that classic story structure requires escalating dire straits at the quarter, half, three-quarter, and end points. So I filled those in early on. I put in the rough page number I am estimating those scenes to end on. ROUGHLY, being the operative word. You can see, at this point, it’s a work-in-progress. I have a long list of events/info to get in that I need to incorporate. Fun isn’t it?
Here’s part of what I’ve done so far just to give a flavor. I am still working on it, so this may or may not be the final product. I have one more week to tinker.

Scene	Where	Who	When	Point of scene	What happens
1	Offices of I.Q. Security	Isabella Riley	Anniversary of 6th mon. after his murder; Riley’s 42nd birthday	Intro MCs Riley tries  to convince her he is real-just ghost-real Intro plot point of finding his murderer	Drunken Isabella discovers Riley sitting on her desk
2	Trini’s apartment for dinner	Trini, Isabella, Bobby, and Stan	Day after Riley’s appearance	Isabella doesn’t believe Riley is a ghost; wants Stan to run a check without him knowing what it’s about; afraid her bias will change results	Stan questions why he should check but agrees to go to Radio Shack for the stuff Isabella identified from an on-line article on ghost hunting; include stuff on their backgrounds and relationships; bring up big contract they’re going for--her rationale for Stan’s check
3	Offices of I.Q. Security	Isabella Stan	Next day, evening after work hours	Isabella finally convinced	Stan runs a check; picks up vibes he can’t id or explain; suspicious of what is going on; does some investigation on his own to uncover her reasons; have Riley there messing with the energy field and threatening to appear; Isabella torn bet wanting him to/or not
10--50 pp Plot Pt 1 ¼ point crisis					Bidding for contract at airport; underhanded tactics throw her company out of contention; bills piling up
20  100pp Midpoint Crisis					Bringing pressure to bear on Isabella to sell; loans called in; tax guy shows up; lawsuit filed against company
30 150 pp Plot Pt 2 ¾ point crisis	Offices of I.Q Security	Isabella Riley Bobby			They figure out that the people trying to buy her company are the ones behind a massive security breach; they killed Riley; they need proof
38					Security door breach at Terminal during testing; Riley finds it
39					Confrontation with Riley’s killer; Isabella struggles with him and shoots; self-defense but implicates FiveStar Security
40 200 pp Resolution				Sets up there will be a next book	Riley disappears; will he return? Neither knows

For another author’s take on NaNoWriMo prep, check out Wendy Ely’s blog at http://wendyely.blogspot.com/2012/10/national-novel-writing-month-baby.html

8 days and counting!