I have some friends who swear by this. I think it's a good idea and I'm having fun snowflaking my NaNoWriMo novel idea.
ETA: My paraphrased version:
Step 1) Write a one-sentence summary of your novel.
Step 2) Write a full paragraph describing the story setup, major disasters, and ending of the novel.
Step 3) For each of your major characters, take an hour and write a one-page summary sheet that tells:
* The character's name
* A one-sentence summary of the character's storyline
* The character's motivation (what does he/she want abstractly?)
* The character's goal (what does he/she want concretely?)
* The character's conflict (what prevents him/her from reaching this goal?)
* The character's epiphany (what will he/she learn, how will he/she change?
* A one-paragraph summary of the character's storyline
Step 4) Expand each sentence of your summary paragraph into a full paragraph. All but the last paragraph should end in a disaster. The final paragraph should tell how the book ends.
Step 5) Write up a one-page description of each major character and a half-page description of the other important characters. These "character synopses" should tell the story from the point of view of each character.
Step 6) Expand the one-page plot synopsis of the novel to a four-page synopsis. Basically, you will again be expanding each paragraph from step (4) into a full page.
Step 7) Expand your character descriptions into full-fledged character charts detailing everything there is to know about each character.
Step
Make a spreadsheet detailing the scenes that emerge from your four-page plot outline. Make just one line for each scene. In one column, list the POV character. In another (wide) column, tell what happens. If you want to get fancy, add more columns.
Step 9)
Step 10) Write!
