Okay, the dreaded second week. Your characters aren't speaking to each other and your plot's going round in circles. You're never going to stretch this idea out to 50,000 words and you wish you hadn't agreed to do this stupid thing called NaNoWriMo.
Well. we all hit the same wall at some point, so this thread is for people's ideas on how to squeeze a few thousand more words out of your story. Use enough of these devices and you'll soon be ahead of target. Trust me - I'm a writer!
My all-time favourite plot stretcher: kill someone
Nothing like bumping off a character to keep the others on their toes and it takes a lot of description to cover a death properly. If you really can't bring yourself to bump a character off, what about a nasty accident or terrible illness? They can recover from it later on - that'll be another few thousand words.
Okay, what else do people like to use when they're running out of plot?
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2008 The Second Time: Milk and Honey - 202,246
2007 The Second Time: The First Year - 195,966
2006 The Second Time - 145,943
2005 In the Middle - 51,998
2004 Ape-x - 52,288
57,030 / 50,000
Nov 9, 2009 - 04 37
Aliens appeared in my first Nano. Nothing to do with the plot, but Pirates vs Aliens was soo much cooler then pirates vs ninjas.
This year, I've got emergency dream sequences planned out. And I'll throw one of those in when I hit writers block.
----------Tommy Bowe, Tommy Bowe, Tommy Bowe! Tommy Bowe, Tommy Bowe, Tommy Boooooowe!
Support the K.E.N. campaign: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmaW4zHcgy8
15,062 / 50,000
Nov 9, 2009 - 04 43
Well I have four main characters but I'm following only two at a time. When I run out of ideas for one pair I simply switch to the other. It's like having two stories on the go, the break from one allows a fresh start at the other. There's also nothing wrong with introducing characters to be bumped off. I had a leader of some thieves introduced, only meant to be a minor player but a ball got rolling and he's become likeable, noble and therefore the perfect target for a bump off. It adds words and hopefully impacts on thereader.
Sometimes all you can do is slog it. If it isn't flowing don't worry get past that bit and an diea will jump at you. You can edit the crappy piece at a later date :P
----------Democracy is non-negotiable
12,167 / 50,000
Nov 9, 2009 - 05 04
JayWalker you are STEAMING ahead!! I've got a kill sequence loosely planned for that point. Strangely last night before sitting down to try and up my word count I looked out the window and an ambulance went down my street turning on the security lights as it went so I'm lookig forward to describing that.
----------NaNo '08 - A Meadow on the Moon (unfinished)
Nano ' 09 - Losing Lottie (In Progress!)
10,000 / 50,000
Nov 9, 2009 - 08 22
I, Welshcakes, hereby do promise to kill off at least on MC by the end of the story.
It'd be ridiculous not to in my case...I have a septagenarian (sp?) Hobo running about pretending to be Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
----------Nano induced cups of coffee: 4
Freakouts over lack of coffee in house: 1
Because some things just require coffee.
63,038 / 50,000
Nov 9, 2009 - 10 40
LOL.
The attack/attempted kidnapping/stabbing of my hero has taken me 10,000 words to cover, including , of course , the tense hospital vigil by his family. He is now recovering, by the way. Couldn't face writing about another funeral........
I am terrified I will run out of words and ideas in the very near future though !
----------8,129 / 50,000
Nov 10, 2009 - 03 12
I'm still stuck on just over 5000 words as the last few days have been really hectic and I was already behind on my word count. I'm just really struggling to find the time at the moment. I'm hoping to catch up a bit wednesday/thursday xx
234,622 / 50,000
Nov 10, 2009 - 03 17
That's cool, spurs - happy typing on Wed/Thu
----------2008 The Second Time: Milk and Honey - 202,246
2007 The Second Time: The First Year - 195,966
2006 The Second Time - 145,943
2005 In the Middle - 51,998
2004 Ape-x - 52,288
41,464 / 50,000
Nov 10, 2009 - 07 06
Ive already killed off a minor character - or rather had his dissapear (who knows I may need him later!)
Im writing historical fiction - but Im verring much more towards fiction than historical at the moment - I seem to be rewriting history :-)
stormy x
----------Lost the plot already!
29,505 / 50,000
Nov 10, 2009 - 07 58
Thanks for the ideas JayWalker...the story has a fairly firm plot now, but I am struggling a little to keep the pace up. The protaganist has narrowly missed an attempt on his life, so I expect I can happily bump off (or at least hospitalise) a minor character....
11,210 / 50,000
Nov 10, 2009 - 15 03
Getting my main characters arrested seems to have helped me move things along a bit after a stint of being a little stuck word count wise. It has the advantage of letting me use up words by having my characters repeat existing plot points to incredulous police officers in questioning rooms for a while ;).
52,871 / 50,000
Nov 10, 2009 - 15 18
I was a bit stuck the day before yesterday, but then I blew up one of my main characters, and made his best friend (the main character) watch. That got the ball rolling again. I like the steampunk genre. For a first time writer, I thought I'd stick with a genre I was comfy with. Wearing a flying helmet and goggles whilst typing seems to help. My wife won't let me smoke a pipe in the house though :(
----------With a crew of drunken pilots
We’re the only airship pirates
We’re full of hot air and we’re starting to rise
We’re the terror of the skies, but a danger to ourselves.
"airship pirate" Abney Park.
81,500 / 50,000
Nov 10, 2009 - 15 30
I had a similar thing on Sunday! In the end I set fire to the Workhouse the characters were working in.
Some of them are still sulking about it..
I'm trying for steampunk here too but the characters keep getting in the way. Grr.
----------234,622 / 50,000
Nov 10, 2009 - 23 12
Great to hear steampunk making an "in" - love the idea of wearing the helmet and goggles. I'd try dressing the way my characters do, but their laptop's history and the only writing they can do is longhand - until they run out of scavenged paper, that is. So maybe not.
----------2008 The Second Time: Milk and Honey - 202,246
2007 The Second Time: The First Year - 195,966
2006 The Second Time - 145,943
2005 In the Middle - 51,998
2004 Ape-x - 52,288
10,000 / 50,000
Nov 10, 2009 - 23 13
Bah! Steampunks! Always messing up my lawn! Humbug!
----------Nano induced cups of coffee: 4
Freakouts over lack of coffee in house: 1
Because some things just require coffee.
52,871 / 50,000
Nov 11, 2009 - 01 56
Gotta park our airships somewhere. ;)
Seriously though, getting dressed up a bit really seems to have helped. The fact that I normally look kinda steampunky also helps with the dressing up aspect.
Nilynrae, should I send my main character (a police detectorist) round to help.
Oh yeah, i somehow ended up having a very brief cameo by Harry Flashman, in part two, chapter one. :o
----------With a crew of drunken pilots
We’re the only airship pirates
We’re full of hot air and we’re starting to rise
We’re the terror of the skies, but a danger to ourselves.
"airship pirate" Abney Park.
3,891 / 50,000
Nov 11, 2009 - 02 18
I've taken the original main character out back and had him metaphorically shot, owing to desertion in the face of story-telling. He was such a shiftless oaf. I've now got a new improved main character who actually does stuff, and have finally got some much needed momentum. I'm hoping to make up for lost time through the rest of this week.
This is way harder than last year, that's for sure!
----------2008 Nano Win - No Place For Magic, 50,365 words. Phew.
8,129 / 50,000
Nov 11, 2009 - 15 12
I'm still only on just over 7000 words and it's nearly day 12! Help! :-(
15,062 / 50,000
Nov 11, 2009 - 15 55
It would help us help you if you posted some novel info :P have to given the stuff already mentioned in this thread a go? Killing a character, introducing a love interest etc?
----------Democracy is non-negotiable
52,871 / 50,000
Nov 11, 2009 - 16 09
Awesome! two more characters dead, one gone stark staring nuts, and a cook drowned in some soup.
----------With a crew of drunken pilots
We’re the only airship pirates
We’re full of hot air and we’re starting to rise
We’re the terror of the skies, but a danger to ourselves.
"airship pirate" Abney Park.
50,000 / 50,000
Nov 11, 2009 - 16 12
Write or Die (http://writeordie.drwicked.com/) has saved me today. I got home at 9.20, still having to cook, eat and put washing on, and had almost convinced myself I wouldn't be able to do today's word count, let alone yesterdays (I had no time on sunday and am still a day behind). Got myself to write or die and have cranked out nearly 2000 words! Might keep writing til I make it 2000 just for good measure.
50,329 / 50,000
Nov 11, 2009 - 16 20
I'm flashbacking at the moment. MC's telling her husband how her new employees are doing, and they're crazy, but I can't recount the craziness... She's probs gonna have a dream. Or I'm gonna just write 10k about the vamps, without thinking of the human peeps I have running around as if they own the place.
Did kill off a minor character (he was thrown into a cellar full of rabid, feral vampires who are crazy mad! :D), but it was one of those, 'Oh, by the way, you suck, now die,' sort of deaths, not the full blown death scene a person killed by feral, rabid vamps should have. :D
----------I could rule the planet, but I decided to write.
10,000 / 50,000
Nov 11, 2009 - 21 02
Cook drowned in soup? Perfect.
Simon, are you actually a cyborg?
----------Nano induced cups of coffee: 4
Freakouts over lack of coffee in house: 1
Because some things just require coffee.
52,871 / 50,000
Nov 12, 2009 - 06 27
Hmmmmmm. *strokes 'tache*
I DO have a fortunes worth of titanium plates in my skull. Does that count?
It was good soup too. Lobster bisque.
----------With a crew of drunken pilots
We’re the only airship pirates
We’re full of hot air and we’re starting to rise
We’re the terror of the skies, but a danger to ourselves.
"airship pirate" Abney Park.
234,622 / 50,000
Nov 12, 2009 - 06 42
Oddly enough, I've got a pan of pan boiling on the cooker. My favourite recipe - "Veg that Need Using up". Smells great :-p
----------2008 The Second Time: Milk and Honey - 202,246
2007 The Second Time: The First Year - 195,966
2006 The Second Time - 145,943
2005 In the Middle - 51,998
2004 Ape-x - 52,288
10,000 / 50,000
Nov 12, 2009 - 07 55
Count? Why yes. Yes it does.
Make sure you don't fall in while cooking the veg, Jay ;)
----------Nano induced cups of coffee: 4
Freakouts over lack of coffee in house: 1
Because some things just require coffee.
57,030 / 50,000
Nov 12, 2009 - 08 12
I've been attacked by a bunch of plot bunnies today, with have nothing to do with my original Nano. So I decided to do two stories. I wrote down as much as I could and lo and behold my word count has jumped up into the twenty thousands. Yeah! Catch up!
----------Tommy Bowe, Tommy Bowe, Tommy Bowe! Tommy Bowe, Tommy Bowe, Tommy Boooooowe!
Support the K.E.N. campaign: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmaW4zHcgy8
50,048 / 50,000
Nov 12, 2009 - 12 02
Hi,
Just wondered if anyone else gets itchy fingers when not writing? Wrote like mad the other night so that I could have a day off but even then I couldn't stop thinking that I just HAD to write! Eeeeek!
Does this happen to anyone else?xx
----------A well composed book is a magic carpet on which we are wafted to a world that we cannot enter any other way.
Caroline Gordon (1895-1981)
234,622 / 50,000
Nov 12, 2009 - 12 20
I start to feel guilty if I'm not typing. I suspect I even type in my sleep!
----------2008 The Second Time: Milk and Honey - 202,246
2007 The Second Time: The First Year - 195,966
2006 The Second Time - 145,943
2005 In the Middle - 51,998
2004 Ape-x - 52,288
50,329 / 50,000
Nov 12, 2009 - 15 25
:: Head desk :: Why did I let myself get persuaded by my other half to write on his PC? Now cause this one is an old model, I can't get to what I wrote last night. Bugger!
----------I could rule the planet, but I decided to write.
52,871 / 50,000
Nov 13, 2009 - 06 56
Just wondered if anyone else gets itchy fingers when not writing? Wrote like mad the other night so that I could have a day off but even then I couldn't stop thinking that I just HAD to write! Eeeeek!
Does this happen to anyone else?xx
Totally.
----------With a crew of drunken pilots
We’re the only airship pirates
We’re full of hot air and we’re starting to rise
We’re the terror of the skies, but a danger to ourselves.
"airship pirate" Abney Park.