It's an iterative process, Ted. The basic story starts first: Who is doing what to whom, and why. If there are new characters I'll build a bit of a back story for the important ones and use that to flavour the main story.
If the story is really time sensitive (i.e., multiple character threads happening at the same time), I'll build a swim lane chart in excel to keep track of everything.
Once I've "broken" the story and know how it all needs to pan out I'll break it down by chapter.
Then, as I write, I inevitably discover more depth that goes back to the story planning and more iterative changes.
In "Target: Australia", for example, the final eighth of the book changed half a dozen times as I wrote the first half. I didn't really nail it down until I go to the 75% point of the first draft.
If the story is really time sensitive (i.e., multiple character threads happening at the same time), I'll build a swim lane chart in excel to keep track of everything.
Once I've "broken" the story and know how it all needs to pan out I'll break it down by chapter.
Then, as I write, I inevitably discover more depth that goes back to the story planning and more iterative changes.
In "Target: Australia", for example, the final eighth of the book changed half a dozen times as I wrote the first half. I didn't really nail it down until I go to the 75% point of the first draft.