What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

amidst-reality — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 04:19:38 -0600

I think we all know what I'm talking about. I'm 25,000 words behind, and I'm currently pulling out all the stops in order to make that word count, because the concept of this novel is something I'd rather not lose. Some of my worst has been inserting school work into novels, haha.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

mollyyymo — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 05:50:58 -0600

My worst has probably been having my character write and re-write a letter four times to correct for mistakes. Each time, I typed the letter in full with revisions. So... yeah.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

miakakiri — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 06:13:01 -0600

Hmm.... not sure it counts as a cheat, but one of my characters speaks in a sing-song tone and has a tendency to repeat part of his sentences, that he does...

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

amidst-reality — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 06:38:07 -0600

that sounds amazing.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

SSambucci — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 07:48:29 -0600

Recount a series of dreams that a character had the night before as part of a coffee time conversation.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

golfgal08 — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 07:51:37 -0600

I was watching a movie with some friends the other night... and one of my characters was watching the same movie, providing commentary. In my defense, it was one of his most favorite movies that we were watching, and his commentary was more relating the movie back to his own current circumstances. But some of it was also "Man, I love this part!"

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

UpBeat — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 07:55:28 -0600

My MC went to his old neighbour house and there they improvised a theme song to MC and then there was a old man with very bad hearing... I have sitated diffent articles (and translated them) and written other stuff that I have put into my NaNo as someone's writing. Many thousand words with these. And many moments of rnadom craziness... Good times.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Dark_Angel72 — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 08:17:34 -0600

My main character thinks a lot to be honest. It wasn't intentional at first, but when i had her think a lot about what was happening around her and how she felt, the word count flowed brilliantly xD

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

AmosTFairchild — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 09:30:43 -0600

30 years writing experience. Well, it seems like a cheat.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

AmosTFairchild — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 09:31:50 -0600

Oh.. and I write nano's in first person, of course. Extra cheat.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

tyheamma — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 11:30:42 -0600

My MC is writing goodbye letters to family. So far, each letter in it's full text is around 1K words. I have four of them written and a few more to go in case I run out of steam in my final push.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Axael — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 11:33:58 -0600

Lots and lots of padding. Padding upon padding upon padding. Pad the descriptions, the dialogue, pad the fourth wall breakages, pad the redundancies to make them EXTRA SUPER Redundant, and then pad the already padded redundancies. So about twenty layers of word padding.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Dani Marchand — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 11:45:34 -0600

I've shockingly not used a single cheat this year, which is a first. For my first ever win I inserted random sex scenes, and last year I both kept my outlining in the body of the novel and typed two big random short stories right there when I got distracted.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Secret_Agent_Girl — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 11:47:38 -0600

My main character doesn't use contractions when she speaks. That's an extra two words for each one that it could have been.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

CarlieD — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 11:48:39 -0600

I'm inserting another 1750 words that I wrote in non-Official-NaNo-project fiction this month. BUT IT'S ONLY TO GET IT PAST THE VALIDATOR! (the validator is probably going to eat about 1k of the novel...)

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Caramella Barlow — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 13:04:57 -0600

I wrote 5000 words of dream sequences :3

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Elluna Hellen — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 13:10:03 -0600

Well 'cheats' I used were having my characters tell and interpret dreams And having them tell stories. All of the stories and dreams were made up by me on the spot, though. and in the second story I use first person... She thinks a lot xD

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Angelynx — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 13:19:21 -0600

Long parenthetical inserts of my thoughts and dilemmas. Like: [[After this I have to get Komori to the other side of the forest, and I have no idea how, but maybe...]] I did that several times. Also I wrote the final scene out as a comedy, and I got such a laugh out of it that I left it in even tho I went ahead and wrote the real version later.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

bart k mann — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 13:26:53 -0600

My favorite is that there is a fairly major character in my novel that I didn't give a name. She was just always "the woman in burgundy" which gave me four words for one every time her name would have been used, which was a lot.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

LozzT-In-Time — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 13:33:41 -0600

Giving a speech to give to the two warring vampire covens so that they can shut up and stop fighting. I plan to have it come to around 700 words, but there may be more :D

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

skankityspence — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 13:35:06 -0600

I've used this method a lot for two characters that appear every now and then. At first it was just a simple placeholder and then I realized it added an extra boost. So I just kept doing it. :P

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

adriannenoel — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 13:40:20 -0600

I started NaNo last year but had to quit after a few days due to starting a new job. I was so disappointed. I just inserted 3K from last year's attempt into this year's document. (It's the same novel--I'm writing the novel this year that I wanted to write last year but couldn't). This bit of "cheating" will actually enable me to finish on Wednesday. I hesitate to think of it as cheating, because I have *not* word-padded or done outrageous things to this novel just to get a word count. Most of what I have written over the past month is quality, useable work. Yes, it will need major revisions, but it is not junk. So I think my 3K worth of cheating is equal to what some people do just to get word count.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

scains — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 13:50:33 -0600

Why is writing in first person cheating? I find it incredibly difficult to write in first person... and I think you have to be a very good writer for a first person story to be done well. Stephanie Meyer's writing, for example, is so shoddy it shouldn't have made it into publication whereas, other first person novels I have read (though I tend to avoid them) are written very well. Perhaps it's just me though...

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

scains — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 13:51:52 -0600

I've added a few flashbacks (but they were necessary so not really a cheat) I've also had my characters need to repeat themselves, though again necessary so not really a cheat. I guess I haven't cheated at all really...

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

zanitas — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 13:58:07 -0600

I don't think I used any really...

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

KogoShuko — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 14:31:52 -0600

I added about 1500 words to my word count by writing an extra romance scene that really didn't add to my novel whatsoever. Although I'm sure Fabio thinks it was a worthwhile scene. Too bad I'm not writing a harlequin romance - I have a feeling the wordcount would FLY if I was writing one of those!

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

A.P. Navis — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 14:42:06 -0600

No contractions... at ALL. I'm becomes I am, couldn't >could not, didn't >did not. Got me an extra 1500 words!

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

tigerlilygem — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 15:18:16 -0600

1. I use LOADS of lists. Like ridiculously unnecessary ones. 2. Every second comma is replaced with an 'and' 3. I copied and pasted a rally long lullaby and have repeated it a number of times 4. I hardly ever use contractions 5. I keep describing things in really long, terrible, mushy sentences that repeat the word about six times. An on the spot example: 'He stroked the blanket; this blanket that had soaked up his father's blood, the blanket that had the evidence of his terrible crime, the blanket that could lead anyone to the truth of what happened that night. He stroked the blanket again...' ... and so it goes on xD

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Talison — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 15:28:19 -0600

There have been a couple of times when I just couldn't get into the flow of the story, and I had another story in my head that wanted to come out instead... so the first time that happened, I ended up writing 2,000 words about the second story, and turned it into a movie that my MC went to see. Then the second time got me 1,700 words, but that was just yesterday, so I haven't figured out how to fit it into the story yet. Maybe I'll turn it into another movie my MC goes to see. I'm not giving up the words though, because I really need them. And I *did* write them during November, even if I had to work to make them fit into my novel somewhere, and even if they don't actually further the plot.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Hammy — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 15:53:38 -0600

Not really a cheat, but I have been shamelessly abusing the fact that my narrator is a seperate character by having them have the actual MC do random stuff because the narrator is bored. I have spent over 15,000 on one ninja assassin. I also have the narrator overdramatise everything, turning a simple description of a garden into a long section as the narrator vindictively sends the rain clouds in after them.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

iamstalkingu — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 16:13:13 -0600

Spacing in-between the 'in- betweens'

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

skinnybee — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 16:26:25 -0600

I've repeated a scene. I had it in the prologue and I want to return to it later but I'm not sure how yet, so... I just copied & pasted the scene and made a note to myself to make it less obvious on revision :P

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

thegrouch314 — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 16:27:53 -0600

I have about 400 words of a character falling asleep on her keyboard And an awfull lot of song lyrics in it, although thay are sort of relevant

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

sadi_kaeleer — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 16:36:09 -0600

Chat logs. Every line I get to use the character's screen name again. Twenty lines of chat dialog, twenty free words XD

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

AmosTFairchild — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 16:38:24 -0600

1st person is not cheating. I think it is just easier with a nano as you can use the narrators lack of knowledge to cover gaps in research and you can use them to speculate a lot more... Of course if you want a good novel at the end then you also need some experience to write good 1st person :) I have written mostly 3rd in the past, although my last 2 nanos have been 1st. I think it is just 'easy' for a nano as you can just write 'what you know' from a character POV and not worry quite so much about the details.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Cokkii — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 17:26:41 -0600

I'll write out entire scenes that are sorta like flashback/memories after just casually mentioning them and I add a ton of padding with character's movements and actions and "he said" "she said"s. But I am trying to not actually cheat. TRYING!

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

cbwriterman — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 17:37:33 -0600

I haven't really cheated, but I have talked about things in a lot of detail. My MCs got inventions from a guy in town and I think I talked about them for the next 5k words, and have two left. o.O "And I like to have about 2/3 of my dialogue end with some kind of detail," he said, hoping the people understood his ramblings. You'd be surprised how far that can get you.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

kittywizard3 — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 17:53:26 -0600

I used lots of detail, went off on tangents, and then spent a full paragraph on getting out of the tangent and back to the novel, oh, and I also overdescribe everything

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Red Mosquito — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 17:57:29 -0600

Lots of lists of things. Lots of details - for example, I had a character who wanted to stay at a hotel. So I found a hotel in Albuquerque (see my thread about having to spell impossible words like Albuquerque a zillion times) and I used lots and lots, WAY too much info on the hotel and various hotel rooms and hotel restaurants. But when I go back to edit, I'll cut that down.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Chillibean — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 17:58:20 -0600

I do spaces before elipses. No wonder it keeps taking 200 words off my wordcount... Oh well.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Chillibean — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 17:58:36 -0600

*before and after (so Word would count it as another word)

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Writing_Ninja — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 18:19:31 -0600

I don't stop to fix some horrible worded sentences. Like he is talking about where something is and I forget to add in info so he rambles a lot. That's about it.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Pah her pul — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 18:56:16 -0600

I started doing this as well and it has helped immensely!

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

PeverellSister — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 19:11:43 -0600

That's me: when in doubt, have my character think. I think I spend more time having my character ask questions than actually doing stuff. And it's not like she's asking other people questions either. She's just asking questions in her head and then answering them herself.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Horselover150 — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 19:27:43 -0600

I never use contractions like don't and won't, I always spell them out as do not and will not. Sure, it only gives me like one extra word per contraction, but every word helps!

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

blairezie — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 19:35:59 -0600

Yup. Every single one of my characters thinks. They have to, actually- it's directly tied in with the plotline that these characters notice everything that's going on around them, and they all suffered frome extreme depression at one point or another. But still. It ups the word count, helps character development, it's fun and it's soooooo addicting.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

WASampson — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 19:42:46 -0600

Day One, I ended up making a mistake of characterizing my FMC. One of my MC broke the fourth wall and called me out for it. I got to rewrite the her entire description and was better for it. A plot bunny I really liked showed up and I just ran with it. The character that broke the fourth wall actually does so on a few occasions. Only he is aware of the fourth wall, and I have characters argue with him about it. He argued with me again when I made it too difficult for him. and has also argued with me for "doing things for the words".

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

heysamantha — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 20:07:40 -0600

I tend to insert random arguments between my two main characters, but while it is in-character for both of them, they're usually about nothing relevant and don't make all that much sense. :P

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

wowkala — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 20:09:16 -0600

I didn't really use any :/

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

jastiv — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 20:20:38 -0600

I have a character breaking the forth wall and accusing me of using a random number generator to determine all the items that will be needed to complete the one main "quest" of the book.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Varaline Hersh — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 20:25:02 -0600

I wrote a 7,899 word dream sequence. I am not proud of it, but at the same time, I'm proud of it. :D

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

MetallicRayes — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 20:28:38 -0600

I've been bribing myself with a cigarette every 1,000 words. Great way to catch cancer -__-

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Dillusional writer — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 20:42:27 -0600

I haven't been using too many this year.. Although someone did say that I should write about a kid applying to High Schools so then I could use the essays I recently finished writing in my story and bump up the word count. But I didn't do that.... However, instead of writing 'it's' or 'don't' I usually write 'it is' or 'do not' just for the extra word... It feels weird though because when my MC is talking without contractions it feels like he's a different person -.-

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Annabelle — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 20:51:36 -0600

I don't know if it's a 'cheat' but I spent like 6 pages or something with my MC having dinner with a friend. You get some of her past but I'm not sure if it'll stay during editing.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

masqueblanc — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 20:57:57 -0600

One of my MCs has kids. There have been more bedtime stories reproduced in full than I had originally anticipated.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

CaptainSpuds — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 21:09:21 -0600

Well, I have 3500 words that i decided wouldnt work with the story around day ten. they were different character perspectives set in my worlds future, but i ended up just wanting to focus on my first MC, so they are no longer part of the story. I'm still counting them for my 50k though.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Gort — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 21:41:50 -0600

I kept switching the first person narrative to different people, and then I ended up changing the details of the story as I went on, because I didn't like them. I ended up going from a story in a contemporary setting with a little magic, to a story in the far future with no magic (although Clarke's third law comes into play) that seemingly has no connection to the beginning. -__- At least it tries to be a novel.... and all the characters were present from the beginning. It's the setting I kept changing. It's the quantity part that counts, right??

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

crazygirl9310 — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 22:03:42 -0600

I... uh, well I might have added a scene that I will post on FF when my book gets published and its own speical area on that site. BUT it still had my characters, it's not like it was an ff involving other characters, and Declan was just asking to get sick so that Tyler could take care of him AND it gave me some ideas for earlier stuff like what stuffed animal Tyler gave Declan while he was in the hospital.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Tsukasa — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 22:39:31 -0600

I yell at myself quite a bit in text. Tell myself to stop doing whatever it is I'm doing that's holding me back, comment on really awful typos I made, make notes on ideas for editing that I have to wait until December to implement, that sort of thing. All in all, it's only about one hundred extra words at most, but still. I feel a little guilty leaving it in when it's not really relevant to the story. But it is about the writing process, and NaNo focuses on many aspects of the writing process, right?? (grasping for straws)

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

steffiebaby140 — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 22:52:13 -0600

I would definitely call mine....stretching the rules a bit lol. But I stopped using contractions about 15,000 words in. Think about it, for every don't or can't you could potentially have 2 words instead of 1! And a quick search after Nano can put them all back to how they should be.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

whargdfa — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 23:38:17 -0600

My main character is a detective who once had to decipher a coded message made from a sequence of colors. She has since memorized this sequence and repeats it in her head whenever she gets nervous. x)

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

IsikkahJai — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 23:43:47 -0600

I actually started the novel I used for NaNo before I KNEW about Nano but I wanted to complete it, using Nano as a spring board. So I used about 23K worth of pre-writing and added it to my existing word count. -.-UU My stats spiked nicely ^^ And I'm only 5K away from finishing! But I COULD HAVE uploaded my previous (unfinished <.<) novel which is already 200K.....that would have been the Ultimate cheat. O___O

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

MetallicRayes — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 00:04:38 -0600

Eliminating contractions is a terrible cheat! I realized I actually did this this year, but only for one of my characters... and he talks like that because he's an android and he doesn't have an inflected speech pattern. Still, I'm pretty sure I did that to subconsciously boost my word count. And when I write long sections of dialogue with him, it feels a bit like a cheat.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

MetallicRayes — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 00:05:42 -0600

[quote=whargdfa] My main character is a detective who once had to decipher a coded message made from a sequence of colors. She has since memorized this sequence and repeats it in her head whenever she gets nervous. x) [/quote] That's actually kind of funny :D And it would add to the suspense a little, wouldn't it?

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

brendon — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 00:25:50 -0600

I have nothing too terrible... I repeated some phrases for 'dramatic effect' and I kept a 500 word scene that I don't intend on keeping, but yeah. I kept all contractions. xP

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

9393usak — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 00:27:32 -0600

I haven't done anything *too* horrible this year, although I just finished writing 3,000 words of total stream-of-consciousness crapola. :D Although, I have considered replacing all instances of the word "I" with "I, Yana, Leslie Jacobin..." which would be *extremely* evil to say the least... :P I also considered putting my entire research paper into my word count... that thing took me forever, after all. ;)

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

GinaMarieRich — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 00:27:38 -0600

Wikipedia Articles, my characters read them, a lot.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

zeuslover1 — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 01:23:37 -0600

One cheat I use is if I don't have enough words, I use the Ctrl + F function to find as many of --> ' these as possible. They normally mean a contraction and then I'll separate the contraction for two words instead of one. ;) Of course, sometimes I can't because of the context of the sentence. My inner editor won't let me touch some of those.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

babyhilts — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 01:41:08 -0600

I don't know if these count as cheating but I've switched point of views a few times, going from 1st to 3rd person limited and I've got alternate versions of the same story going on. In one version my MC is an only child, in the other she has a brother and in the one I plan on keeping that I'm working off of right now, she has a younger sister. And her love interest? Well, he started out as blonde, Russian and filthy rich in one universe and in the current one? He's British, works for this underground supernatural black market and has dark hair and tattoos. I'm thinking of being very bad though and somehow assigning all four of my main characters a homework assignment in which they have to explain in detail their lives up to this point when the novel began and what trouble and shenanigans have been going on to date in the book. I think I'll have them arrested by a cop and each one detained in their own room where they'll be asked a series of questions? Why? I'm not sure yet but it will add to the word count that I am lacking and I'll have some better insight into my characters for when I start editing this... eventually.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

liadan_celt — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 01:46:36 -0600

I had a lot of notes at the end of my file. Not notes that I'd written, but things to remember that I'd C&Pd from Wikipedia or digital copies of ACD's stories (one of my main characters is heavily influenced by Sherlock Holmes). Oh, and all the lyrics to "One Night in Bangkok". I felt bad about my cheats (3,775 words total) when I validated early, so I moved the cheats to my notes file, deleting them from my NaNo file. I re-validated a few hours later after writing the show down with the Big Bad and I'm stoked about that. If I hadn't validated early, and if I didn't know that on days I actually wrote I averaged over 3k per day, the cheats would still be in there. There's similar flotsam in most of my NaNo files.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Ignis_Fatuus — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 03:29:47 -0600

I just performed bookception. A book within a book. I decided everything I've written thus far is just the blabbering of one of my established author characters (I swear she's not a self insert). I cannot even tell you how fast the words are coming to me now. XD Oi, my plot started to bore the hell out of me, I started to despise my characters so voila! Replaced them with more likeable ones (and a more interesting plot that ties into the established plot...somehow). Guess I'll know in the next 46 hours (and counting) where this is ultimately going, hahaha! (NaNo has officially eaten my soul. I don't care about anything except missing the deadline this year)

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

ryuryan2409 — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 03:42:33 -0600

I used one suggested to me by someone else. Instead of just using my character's name (1 word per use) I use his full name and title (9 words) and the word count sky rocketed.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Rachel D'Onfro — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 09:02:10 -0600

I'm not sure if the NaNo police will let it slide or not, or if it's even really a cheat, but I haven't used hyphens for anything. For example: less-than-subtle on most word counting devices will only count for one word, but by substituting less than subtle, which is three words. Bad example, but it's the first thing I thought of.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

KingRaven — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 09:24:54 -0600

I got to about 39K and then my "villain" decided to tell me that all the stuff that my MC had gone through was just a set of false memories that the real villain was trying to force into my MC's brain, and that the guy who I had thought was the villain actualy wasn't. It was like starting a whole new story and it spiked my word count becuase my MC was so confused and my not-villain had to explain everything to him.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Sophsoph97 — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 10:18:57 -0600

Putting 'The Raven' Poem in it. That gave me 1,300 words. Score!

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Sophsoph97 — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 10:20:12 -0600

Well, technically having a character read it, and having stanzas repeated in her mind. Also, 'The Darkling Thrush' by Thomas Hardy.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Angelynx — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 10:27:41 -0600

Oh, and having several characters who speak very formally and don't use contractions. "My grandson, she will not be the one who goes with you" rather than "Komori, she's not going with you."

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Talvikki — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 11:45:57 -0600

This year, I only have a few. Before I start each chapter, I write a little outline, and when I finish the chapter, I just kind of leave it there at the end. Also typed up some of my research in the ms. Two years ago, I was really bad. I included a whole bunch of research, outlines, scenes from the characters' pasts that weren't actually part of the novel, sex scenes that never really happened and so on.. >.< I'm about fifty fifty on contractions..sometimes my characters are kind of old fashioned or formal and just don't use them. I do make sure to include spaces around my hyphens and omit the hyphens from hyphenated words. I think that's what bumped me up last year. I was close to 50k so I tried the validator to see how much I still needed to do..and it gave me over 50K! huzzah! hoping for similar wordcount bumping this year :D

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

scains — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 11:46:11 -0600

I'm doing a battle of vampires and hunters and I've made the hunters pull back into a church to discuss tactics just for the extra words as I'm supposed to be changing scenes soon and it'll slow me down.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

borderman — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 12:06:47 -0600

My MC is a football broadcaster. He and his partner plan bank robberies during commercial breaks in the game so I needed some game action. The first weekend in Nov. I watched parts of three football games and typed as much of the broadcasters' description of the action in each game as I could. I probably got six to seven thousand words from this. In the editing stage I will change names and locations and cut a bunch of the play-by-play to keep the story moving.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

crazygirl9310 — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 12:46:07 -0600

My one character got attacked by a wild animal that had killed some other people and his friends found the body of one of the animal's other victims, I had them interviewed twice because once was by normal cops and the second time was by Creatures (mythical creatures) so they answered the same questions twice with similar stories, the first time they just played down Creature involvement.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

dizzy — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 12:51:49 -0600

Describing meals. Oh so many meal descriptions... To be fair, my MC is in a foreign place so he's not used to the food. And the other MC ends up in a hospital so you know...hospital food. D;

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Darnok — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 13:10:03 -0600

I had a sequence similar to what happened in "Groundhog Day", so almost identical repetitions of the same day. Aye, copy&paste with minor alterations. Did bring me 1000 words up in half an hour (it took me an average of half a day per 2000 words, so for me that was fast).

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

aliaswriter — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 13:21:15 -0600

I have 4 dream sequences so far. And they've been interpreted. But in my defense, it's part of the story.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

penwiper — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 13:37:00 -0600

I had my characters learn a poker game from the ground up, with one of the other character explaining the rules and then gave a play-by-play of their first few hands. That was a good 2,500 words and it was an unexpectedly fun groundbreaker and got the characters speaking to each other more and passed away the time waiting for off-scene plottage to happen in the meantime.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

midnitemel — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 13:48:02 -0600

My MC wrote a couple articles for me. It was awesome.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

aniluap11 — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 18:42:05 -0600

I had a character list all of the Crayola crayon colors.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Eilorae — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 19:46:27 -0600

Having one of the scientist explain about how two people's dna have gotten assimilated from a mind link then going into painful detail explaining upgrades to battle suits. Then someone else lecturing another person. Now the MC is going to think of every singel thing that she would rather be doing.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

winx788 — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 20:14:12 -0600

I kid you not. I spent literally a bit over two thousand words describing why a MINOR CHARACTER Doesn't like Peppermint. Also, at one point, I just had an OOC rant that had absolutely nothing to do with the story. Shameful, I know.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

yellowedpages — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 20:45:52 -0600

I now have a chapter called Backpack of Doom where one of my main characters cleans out his backpack and finds notes and papers, which have been written by me (in November though!) for other classes. I am adding comments and there is actually a really big plot point that I didn't know was coming buried in there but yea Backpack of Doom guys Backpack of Doom.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Ignis_Fatuus — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 21:27:22 -0600

New desperation moves: - Breaking the fourth wall in cheeky ways as the book analyzing the book would have to question its own validity. - Nothing is ever stated as is. It always has a "blank said/sighed/barked" attached to it, even if it is clunky. - Lots o repetition. i.e. a character says "have you seen her?" other character goes "What?" First character goes "Have you seen her? Her? That girl?" and so on... - Also, beer.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Eruantalon — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 00:06:31 -0600

Let's see... I put in several long Bible quotations. But the most innovative cheating method, I think, was to have my characters talking about another book they'd read. Which is a novel idea I got recently and haven't written yet. And one of them was telling the other about the plot, in reasonable detail. So I basically put in the plot outline for another novel! ;)

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Dreamie — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 00:48:06 -0600

My characters seem to be on the rambly side when they get their viewpoint. >_>; Sorry.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Dreamie — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 00:51:46 -0600

Food can be very atmospheric, though. One of my main characters is a whiz in the kitchen, so I have a lot of eating. Sadly, I am an anti-cook myself, so I can't go all-out on the actual cooking descriptions. Feh!

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

mixolydian320 — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 01:13:49 -0600

I wrote a flashback scene that really didn't have much to do with the plot. Like, at all. But it did help me understand two of my characters better, so it wasn't completely useless. I might actually keep it in and just tie it in better with the plot somehow.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

opheliac — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 01:20:53 -0600

Random sex scenes: I don't know why that pulls me out of a funk when I'm BORED with what I'm writing, but there you go. I got the last 400 words by having a guy I'd JUST been thinking about promoting to Main Character status wonder if his magic powers would help him bone a pair of sisters who were asleep in the same bed--without waking them up, of course.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Imahydin — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 05:00:05 -0600

I was going to do a horrid time loop bit encompassing a repeat of events of a big chunk of my novel. It certainly wasn't going to be doing my novel any favors, though it does have some intriguing storyline possibilities. What I am doing is using some quotes from other works I've written. It started out as a word count ploy, but I'm going to end up using it in the final novel as a way to show my characters the future and create a type of tension based on the events that create that future. I won't use the time loop for word count this time around, but it might make it's way into my novel as a way for my characters to explore some things better and catch details they missed previously.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Rinnian — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 05:03:28 -0600

You just reminded me of Kenshin, de gozaru...

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Miki-chan — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 05:45:08 -0600

I used Lorem Ipsum, but because it does have a significant role in my story, I don't count is as cheating for the full 100%. xD;

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

RaptorsAndCoffee — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 06:23:35 -0600

I wrote a fourth-wall breaking chapter title that was 33 words long. Also I 2 had characters paraphrase fables/thought experiments and those will almost certainly be taken out in revision because they don't fit!

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

ChristieM — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 06:38:58 -0600

I've put some of my thoughts in, not just novel, but like "I don't know what to say next, so I'm going to go to bed and try again tomorrow." :)

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

amidst-reality — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 07:00:34 -0600

putting school work in, putting articles + comments in, putting poetry in, putting random commentary in and some plot ideas I had, repeating madness mantras of characters for thousands upon thousands of words. here's to next year being a far more legitimate attempt.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Sapphire2309 — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 07:57:05 -0600

i almost added my poems to the story, having my characters analyse them, but thankfully i changed my mind in time. It's my first NaNo, and I don't want to cheat. Squeaky clean =))

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Teeshirts — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 08:04:28 -0600

I've been good this year~~ The most I did is just inserting author commentary into my short stories and writing those "Choose Your Own Adventure" type stories. ^^

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

scains — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 08:06:30 -0600

I just did a big cheat - earlier on in the story I had my character look into the future, and wrote a scene. Now I've just copied that scene once more because she changed things, with a few very slight changes for an extra 400 odd words! Woo!

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

maudlinstar — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 09:04:59 -0600

My characters just sang "American Pie" in it's entirety, including the chorus repeats at the end. They were driving down a very very long driveway.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

MikePaulson — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 09:10:12 -0600

1. I had a FMC read two different text presented to her, in whole, which *could* have been paraphrased, at least with the second one. 2. The same character had had part of her memory erased, and, as snippets began to connect and draw her memory out, she kept repeating the same phrases in her mind (not excessively, though). 3. One character started out casually calling a MC by her first name (Lissy), but, as he realized she would not cooperate with him, he turned cold and began obsessively calling her Miss Artweiler. 4. I've felt the need to have a MC retell a scene to someone not originally there, later in the novel. It's paraphrased, but I could, theoretically, just make the assumption that the information has been relayed, as many books do. None of these are so extensive that I would consider them cheating, but they have all contributed to making 50K.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Imahydin — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 09:13:08 -0600

Nice. I like music a LOT in real life. I'd probably listen to it 24/7 if it wouldn't drive people around me crazy, get me fired from jobs, etc. So I'm always tempted to work it into my stories. Giving my characters MP3 players or something like that. Even when that doesn't come to pass I've let a few songs inspire scenes in various works I've done.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Theophilita — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 09:46:30 -0600

Worst cheat (until now) : one of my characters only speaks in morse code, so it means she says "beep boop" for "._". So, well, each letter becomes more or less 4 words. Add it the translation... basically, a 10 words sentence becomes a whole paragraph.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

P-3a — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 09:55:47 -0600

Genuinely considering something @FakeNNWMTips said earlier on Twitter - "Find: "said", Replace with: "shouted defiantly". You're welcome." I haven't yet. And if I do, I will /know/. I will know I cheated. And my inner editor will kill me for it as soon as 00:01 on 1st Dec rolls around. But, hey, it's more words...

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

SonoLuminus — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 10:14:28 -0600

I wrote rambling passages about yoga and gardening, and at one point, my character walked his dog, and I described all the houses in the neighborhood, and the names he made up for them. (He lives by the historic district.)

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Imahydin — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 10:18:00 -0600

Quality later, quantity now ;) The editor can stress over stuff tomorrow. lol

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Imahydin — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 10:18:14 -0600

That's epic. lol

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

writer_mercia — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 11:51:15 -0600

I write in long name placeholders, like HE WHOSE LAST NAME I CANNOT POSSIBLY REMEMBER AT THIS MOMENT. :P And long chapter titles. And I've inserted whole passages out of the Bible (SOME OF WHICH WILL STAY, in my defense!). That boosts the word count :P

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Krykit — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 12:59:44 -0600

Heh... I have just been avoiding contractions like the plague, much like I am doing in this post right here. It may not seem to be a big cheat, but after a while, when every don't won't can't and shouldn't counts for two words, it adds up. And in a medieval fantasy setting, it works.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

FishStampede — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 13:29:06 -0600

My only cheat was to, in the middle of the novel cut and paste some of the starting lyrics of "No Good Deed" from Wicked instead of trying to come up with an evil spell for my character to cast herself.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

redmaple131 — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 13:38:42 -0600

Yeah, I think I'm going to try that next year, because I kept switching into first person while writing. It's more natural anyway.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

writeonsandy — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 19:03:27 -0600

i kept in scenes i know i'm going to delete when i revise. i have about two or three of them sectioned off with asterisks.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Caelas_Creator — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 19:27:07 -0600

Alright! I'll own it! I don't outline or really do much in regards to preparing... So, in October, I wrote a few dozen flash fiction bits, just some funny dialog and some small scenes... probably totaling about 2500 words altogether. I used some of that... Yeah, I cheated a bit, but I kinda made up for it by going over the 50k....sorta? Also, my "novel" is no where near finished. It's about an eighth of the way done, so I don't feel so awful as I'll be doing the same things that I did in November in December, January and beyond. Judge away.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

TheLoveMutt — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 19:38:35 -0600

YUP. I do this too. Especially when I'm running out of steam but figure Hey, I'll probably go back and edit anyway, right?

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

TheLoveMutt — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 19:41:19 -0600

I added a couple of poems to my story (to be fair- they were the writing I did that actually inspired my novel, and they only amounted to 500 words... which I'm partly only using because NaNo is eating 1200 of my words so far. I figure it evens out.) Also, ranting lists. I love lists. Especially ranting ones. One of my character's POV is told primarily through her journal entries, so I can get away with it. ^_^

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Blue River Bend — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 20:36:34 -0600

Looking at the rest of these posts, I feel so horrible. Seriously, I might cry. You all think that separating contractions and using flashbacks are cheats. Oh, how I envy you. Listen to my tale of woe. I had pretty much finished my novel, but was still roughly 15K words away. So I started an appendix. I wrote poems and stuck them there, and I took song lyrics that were relevant and inserted them into my story, so my characters were singing them. And I did separate some contractions and separate hyphenated words, but that was only when I remembered to. But THE WORST CHEAT OF ALL: I copied and pasted my own work. I wrote a series of thoughts from my character, like "Run. Think. Smile." Then I highlighted. I clicked Ctrl+c. Then I held down Ctrl+v. Copied and pasted, sometimes getting up to 2K words for a chapter. I added an introduction to my appendix, arguing my excuse that the copy-paste sections weren't just for word count reasons, but giving the reader a chance to "read between the lines" and insert their own imagination into the story. All of those words are getting deleted in the rewrite. Now I've got so much homework I might fail my history quiz even if I start studying now. Will the NaNoWriMo people kill me if I actually keep this stuff when I validate? SOMEONE tell me they won't hunt me down or something like that. I won't validate unless I can either overcome my guilt or come up with a real section of the story to put in, so I'll delete a word and have it be at 49999 words. I'm so ashamed. Forgive me, all who have worked so hard. And honestly.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Blue River Bend — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 21:09:44 -0600

I did some research and I just found out a way to get over my guilt. It's called scrambling my novel. I am going to vow to myself that I will use those thousands of copied words in my novel. They will be there, either as introductions for chapters that are serving a purpose, or something like that. It's not cheating if it serves a legitimate purpose in the novel, right? And it was all written in November. I am going to truly win this thing. Thank you, NaNoWriMo. :)

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Talvikki — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 22:06:02 -0600

In the eleventh hour I realized that if I called my meals "the morning meal" "the noon meal" and "the evening meal" instead of "breakfast" "lunch" and "dinner", not only did it sound more fictitious, but was three words instead of one! and since the plot thread right now is just kind of daily life stuff happening..like eating, a lot..there were quite a few of them. thank goodness for Find and Replace.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

TaoistFruitbat — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 22:12:31 -0600

Oh gosh, that's exactly what I did last year. Probably 5000 words worth of my characters randomly finding my chemistry essays and then reading them out loud. But hey, at least I wrote those words.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Princeshelby — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 22:45:37 -0600

I had a seven year old character retell a Russian folk tale, questioning it and unknowingly explicating it as she went.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

aliaswriter — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 23:26:08 -0600

Okay, I got desperate. I wrote this massively long journal entries for each of my main characters, just pouring out anything that would be running through their head. I doubt I'll use it in that form, but it has really helped me in getting in my characters' heads and understanding them. The greatest part is that it helped me reach a way to solve a dilemma on how I wanted to pose a question on the overall book, that I wanted to leave the reader in pondering on.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

DistinctDottiness — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:06:38 -0600

Wrote mine in first person too! Best way to do it!

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Princeshelby — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 00:24:40 -0600

I put in a poem and a couple songs, and even though they pertain to the plot and they were needed, I feel like I cheated big time. Is that even really cheating, or adding what's necessary?

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

albnutty — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 01:14:33 -0600

copy pasting the same word over and over...

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

ManInTheBowlerHat — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 03:38:07 -0600

just copy and pasted. I refuse to write crap just for some ridiculous status. Well done to those who did it legitimately. I have the goal of getting publication. If I force it it will just be crap. I am going to persue publication so I am grateful that it got me writing but I'm sick of being on this laptop now. For those stressing about failing it doesn't matter!! Who gives a shit if you technically failed, if you've got some writing that you're proud of then well done.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

PlasticSmoothie — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 04:00:24 -0600

I put in a song at the very beginning that I thought fitted, lol. Also, I had a few days of severe writer's block, in which I couldn't write anything on my main storyline, because it just seemed like I couldn't make up anything. So I went back and wrote a bit of the backstory as scenes. Not cheating as per say, but I still felt that that were words that didn't belong. They happened six years before my opening scene, after all.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Mackenzi. — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 08:35:15 -0600

I was just writing a journal this year, but I got pretty desperate for words the last couple days, and I put in emails I sent, school assignments, and book reviews to try and up the word count. Fortunately the validator added about a hundred words so I didn't have to start relaying my horoscope or anything... oh wait, no, I did that too... I copy and pasted some too, at first inatvertandly but I decided to leave it in. I would write about a subject on 750 words and (using Yarny's snippets) put that in my "750 words" section, then I would also put it in my "short story" section for example, so I'd have it in two places.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

rainstorm. — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 22:40:24 -0600

To boost the word count I had the villain and the MC have a sing-off on Rock Band... For what it's worth, I did type out the lyrics myself and not copy and paste them from a lyrics site... ^^'

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

sovay — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 08:49:41 -0600

I'm pretty sure that on about page 70 in my novel there's a page covered in "SCREW THIS NOVEL I HATE IT I HATE ALL MY CHARACTERS SCREW ALL OF IT" and I bet that bumped up my word count by about 900 words. On a more realistic note, I hit a block in about week three and solved it by writing about three pages (single spaced pages, I wrote my novel single-spaced) in a different character's perspective. It helped me sort out a lot of issues I was having! (:

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

amidst-reality — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 22:07:02 -0600

eleka nahmen nahmen atum atum eleka nahmen~

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

amidst-reality — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 22:08:14 -0600

guilty for one thousand words as a madness mantra.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Burl Bird — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 14:41:01 -0600

Stream of consciousness. Narrator's or character's. No 1 cheater - you just write down everything that comes to mind, just as it is coming to your mind, forget about story, plot, characterization, whatever. Go with the flow....

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Chumsy17 — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 17:17:11 -0600

Into -> in to. I lied to myself and convinced myself before it started that they were two seperate words, no need to smush them together. I also had a: Doctor Erin Nichelle Friedman, Primatologist. XD

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

helltank — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 00:47:58 -0600

Exceedingly long and weird dream sequences, with the dreaming guy providing obvious and needless commentary("Wow, that's so weird..." "Is that a half-breed Labrador Husky?!").

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

keyon — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 05:53:00 -0600

10Same problem. I have Edmonton Escort Reference Edmonton Escorts Version 14 and an Asus Edmonton Asian Escort G73Jh quad core w lots of memory. Very fast on encoding to FLAC. All 8 cores used. Desperately Edmonton Asian Escorts slow going from FLAC to audio (not data) CD. Nero does it in 2 minutes or less.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

vampirechic1117 — Wed, 16 May 2012 08:18:36 -0500

I love you avatar!!! <3

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

Generalist — Wed, 16 May 2012 13:07:37 -0500

About the only 'cheats' I use are multi-part names and short descriptions used in place of names. For example, instead of using Chris for the name of a person, I would use something like Chris Smith when introducing the person for the first time and when doing a POV change. It is a small thing, but it can add up if you have lots of people in the story. It gets more wordy when Chris isn't known to a POV person. To one person, Chris may be 'that cute blond that delivers the coffee.' To another person, Chris may be 'Jamie's friend with the pickup truck.' A third person may think of Chris as being the 'obnoxious neighbor.' Unless the POV person has been introduced, they wouldn't know that Chris was Chris.

Re: What's the worst 'cheat' you used to get this far?

epguinn — Sat, 19 May 2012 16:45:34 -0500

I use dreams, quotes, news reports, inner monologues, and my personal favorite: childish arguments. Just having two characters go at it fills up plenty of words, and since they're being childish, the arguments don't have too be terribly clever. "Do too." "Do not" "Do too." "Do not."