Things that always boost your word count

I found that whenever I need to get my word count up, I can just get a couple character making out and it adds more words than its worth. It's very useful, because when shouldn't characters make out?

Anyway, what are some of the devices/scenes you always can put in if you have to up your word count?

Angst. Angst always increases my word count somehow--in fact I think that's all my story is so far. I need to actually start my plot some time soon...

I don't know why but I keep having characters playing random games while they talk. So far they've played crazy eights, chess, monopoly, and most recently mingolf. It's great. Kills two birds with one stone. Great word padding and they are actively doing something while talking. ^_^

Random ramblings on some topic or summaries of what have happened to other characters relayed to new characters.

rehtse!! that is a terrifically awesome idea! would you mind if i borrowed such a technique for my own story? :3

The narration on mine is kind of haphazard, I would say, since they still keep an informative tone, but it kind of... etches in some snark and thought-processing things going on in the story? That fills up a big paragraph or two.

If I don't know what to put next, I write something like, "Time passed this way, for weeks, until the weather was too cold (or hot, or wet, or dry, whatever) for them to continue. *insert your character name here* began planning their next move; something had to happen soon. Life was too short for this kind of repetitiveness." Something along those lines.
It introduces a new scene, tells the reader that they were doing boring stuff the reader shouldn't care about, and lets you write fun stuff. :)

I throw in a dream sequence, a flashback or else just random musings.

I make something big happen. I decided when I was writing that a certain character would get poisoned, and now the main character has to go find a flower for an old lady so she'll help them :P Also, ramblings from the character's thoughts-
"I noticed, as we walked, that Tristan had a nervous habit. It wasn’t annoying, but it was noticeable; he’d click the fingers in his left hand, making a sharp but quiet sound, and he’d do this for thirty minutes or more before stopping." for example. I just made up a habit for him to have and wrote about it, which led onto a whole paragraph about Tristan from Tobias' point of view.
My wordcount's still really small though :(

Today my plot was being boring and long and stupid, so I just decided that it was time to give my MC a near fatal injury. That helped.

My characters do a LOT of introspective thinking, which is tricky to write in third person sometimes.

I always manage to milk 500 - 700 words out of a quick punch-up, though. They're so much more fun than musings about guilt or idealism.

I've started to take out contractions. Desperate, I know.

About a week ago I was completley stuck, so I threw in a dead body. THAT got my plot moving.

I expand and explain things so there's no doubt left in a possible readers mind. lol

If things are getting a little stuck, I just jump around. To the next interesting thing that might happen, even if it's years down the line. And/or I switch narrators. I currently have a three-fold narration going on: third person overview, Richard's first person and Cal's first person. If nothing else, it gives ME a lot of insight into what's really going on, thus giving me much more to work with & ending with a higher word count.

I am behind, though. So I'm stealing pretty much all the ideas on this thread for today's big push.

Characters telling other characters what's going on. My MC had to tell her love interest, who came in about halfway through the story, everything that's happened to her so far, then he has to tell some guys he works with what's going on (MC knows about a bad thing that's going to happen, she has to warn her guy, he has to tell these other guys because they're all in a position to be able to stop it, if they want to.) Even if you summarize instead of giving everything word-for-word, it boosts your word count a lot, plus it's actually necessary to move the story along -- always a bonus :-D

I put in a dream sequence when I get behind. Currently, I have an almost-one-thousand-word dream that I'm working on. I need to catch up quickly though, and it's not totally unrelated to the plot, and there's some good imagery in there, so I feel like it's not cheating too badly.

Josie - that's what I do. Dream sequences are awesome.

Or my characters stop at a coffee shop and order complicated drinks.

Having bad things happen to your characters can either help or put you at a standstill. One MC is kidnapped and can't escape anymore. One MC is held prisoner in his own home. My other MC is is invisible and has difficulty getting help. I give them a few words of despair, and then the invisible kid gets an epiphany and tells the imprisoned kid.

Right now a bad guy is telling the invisible one the legend behind their evil plot. Big huge epic with lots of words and the kid keeps chiming in at all the right spots for some humorous dialogue.

Cooking scenes. Food is nice imagery, and maybe readers will like having a dinner recipe and cooking tips injected into their novels.

For me, i have romantic scenes happening more then once. Which i need conflicts and another emotion to work in my novel. Other then romance or intimacy between two characters to boost up my word count.