[Plotting About] Back to my roots*…

*Uttered by one of the RI Wrimos after delving back into her Harry Potter fanfic on our last Write In of 2011.
At our TGIO Party we passed around pages of our NaNo Novels and one of the members of the Rhody Writing Group suggested that Chapter Six was better before I changed it.
The change was not so subtle instead of crashing on an alien world, our hero is snatched away from certain death by pirates, dumped in the brig and later their ship comes under attack, bordered by suicide bombers, subsequently blow up and tumbles out the sky with our hero watching in horror. The idea is still sound but its too much for the book even if it expands the universe.
I looked back on the original Chapter Six, found it, edited it back in and looked for Chapters Seven and Eight which I wrote this summer but removed once Chapter Six took a new route.

Slight problem, where was Chapter Seven and Eight, again?
I had gone through my folders recently, organized things or so I had thought and figured it was in the edits file. No such luck. A search of specific words brought nothing until I found it in Time Machine.
And, so, the shuffling of chapters, again, around until the two protagonists had their own block of chapters.
The original idea of flipping back and forth between them was ejected after putting a page cap on chapters. My hope was to give enough room in the chapters for detail and keep the flow moving without giving too much. I personally don’t like talking heads and don’t like info dumping all over the audience.
So Chapters Six, Seven and part of Eight were pasted back in and we currently stand at:
The WIP DEATH BAR count is:

The beat sheet I wrote out still stands, the pirates may be gone but planned events are still rolling forward.
Overall the 55k I wrote for NaNoWrimo this year is not a complete waste. Judging from the beats I wrote down I think I have most of the second act, it’s just linking the two together.
I figure once I hit the end of Act I I’ll throw it under the bus for Rhody Writers and see how it flies.
With the Rhody Writing Group going so well I’m going to try and branch out and attempt plan a Write In once a month for those who are still working on manuscripts and such. Probably sometime after the New Year and after my brother’s wedding.