Further characterisation and plotting exercises for NaNo participants this morning!
Characters
Using your storyline, work out the main GMC for each character. That is, their goal, their motivation for that goal, and the conflict they have that stops them achieving it. This needs to be done twice for each character. There’s the external GMC - involving things you can see, the tangible things, and then the internal GMC - those which the characters feel but can’t see. You might not be able to do this for all your main characters, but doing it for the most important will help you later in writing your novel as the GMC for each is what will motor them through the novel. As a general rule of thumb, your protagonist will achieve his/her goals by the end of your novel - the reader (and probably the publisher!) will expect that, and your antagonist will fail to achieve their goals.
Plotting
You are aiming to write a 50,000 word novel in the month. You already have (or should have if you completed Tuesday’s exercise) some idea of the beginning, middle and end of your novel. Today, stretch that a little further. Split the 50,000 up into approximate chapters - perhaps 2000 per chapter, or 4000 per chapter if you prefer longer ones - or cut it to 1000 if that fits your novel better - and then using your beginning as chapter 1, work out the scenes you could fit between the beginning and the middle, and then from the middle to the end which will fill those chapters - remember to weave in your characters GMCs and to have closure for all characters in some way by the end of the story.
Yeah, this could all take some time …but you’ll thank me next week when you look at that first blank page and wonder where to start! LOL

