Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
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Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
I know you have them, what are your down and dirty tricks (without cheating) to reach 50k. Last year I wrote out the full names for EVERYTHING.
A persons name. Instead of Dr. Pascal, It would be Doctor Pascal Jonathan Himes
+3 words
I had a company named Shilo but the full name was Shilo Helping Hands Psychiatric Care and Rehabilitation Facility. Ridiculous to write each time, but I did.
+7 words
It got annoying but my main character worked in the hospital so the name was mentioned oftened and he ran into a TON of people so it was + two or three words all the time.
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Over complicate everything: "And he did then, with much gusto, verily grip his fingers around the weisswurst, a german sausage made from the meat of veal, otherwise known as baby cows or calves."
(This isn't mine, but a firend of mine's) Complain: "I hate so and so. She ticks me off so much. She's always telling me that I have to edit instead of rewriting everthing. I don't want to edit. I want to rewrite it. And who is she to tell me to edit? She's not an editor."
Flower language: make a character that sort of rambles on and on "Her hair was every color imaginable--blue, purple, red, green, black, brown et cetera (always two words--it's proper and boosts your word count), et cetera, ad infinitum, ad nauseum, amen."
Voss
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Most how-to-write books are about economies of words and including only what's relevant. HA! NaNo is Play Time! So here are some word count tricks I've actually used. Some of these may even help reveal things about your characters or generate new ideas.
Throw in dream sequences for your characters. They don't affect your plot, and they can be as long and rambling and fanciful as you want.
Put in long, boring conversations. Have the characters discuss laundry, Pop-Tarts vs Toaster Strudels, or the best directions to Olive Garden. We have these kinds of conversations every day, so this should be easy.
Describe something in long, intricate, excrutiating detail. This is a great opportunity to really let loose and play with description: clothes, food, colors, rooms, cars, skies, faces, sounds, tastes, smells.
Create lists, especially if you're feeling blocked. Lists of suspects, lists of groceries, lists of books your character wants from the library, places your character wants to go, bucket lists. Lists are quick and you can make lots of 'em.
Rewrite a scene. Write it right after you just finished. Don't edit what you have, just add on. It's a way to try a new direction, improve on what you had, or just give yourself another choice if/when you decide to revise.
Put in a current news story or opinion piece. Turn on the TV, open the paper, fire up Yahoo News. Your character is reading the paper or listening to the TV, and...? What's your character's reaction?
And this one I save until the last day: Go through your novel and replace EVERY contraction. (They'll all sound like Jane Austin, but you'll be amazed how the word count jumps.)
Now...for all the stuff you're putting in for word count that you don't want later during revision (dream sequences, random conversations, etc.,), separate them with -------------- or ************* or whatever makes them easy to find and remove. It's all writing and as Dean Koontz once said, you'll get some of your best ideas when you're writing other throw-away junk. (Or words to that effect.)
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Thanks! I think this will help me keep going when I freeze up.
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In LibreOffice 3, a dash (this - ) counts as a word. So. Happy.
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I just did this for a scene, and I ended up with not only something much better, but something that allowed me to expand my character further than the original would have. Double score! :)
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I just found myself in a car with my teens...arguing about the possibilities of the impact of the school bell changes. Then I found myself in my main character's head ranting about how everyone always gets her name wrong....I'm taking an element or two from when I used to free write and am making internal conversations flow...maybe they will evolve into something useful later on, right? haha...She thought as she noticed the show playing on the silent television in the corner of the stuffy doctor's office was playing on a loop....must. catch. word count. up!
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I have 500 words about a guy making a sandwich.
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I adore you. For the mundane thing you devoted five hundred words to, and your pic.
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Mundane is my specialty. You can read about it here http://www.unpublishedguy.com/WritingandPublishingFiction/1200/the-most-disappointing-sandwich
The graphic is William Blake.
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Organically cloned chickens.
Enough said.
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I was going to do 360 words about a sandwich, but you've got me beat here.
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I have put in a couple of random dream sequences so far, but now they are actually going to become more important in the future of my MC ... at first they were going to just be for the word count. Now I also have an excuse to put in more random dream sequences!!!
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Dream sequence! That's genius! Why the hell didn't I think of that? Perfect, That's another 2,000 easy!
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I have kind of used a dream sequence. My MC woke up in the morning believing she had had a dream, then later, finds something in her pocket and begins to wonder if it was a dream after all!
In my 2009 nano, I had a midwife giving instructions on the whole process of preparing a baby's bottle, how to measure the formula correctly to the right amount of water, what the temperature should be, etc!
I like the idea of rewriting a scene! I will try that!
Thanks for the tips.
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How about having characters write stories a out characters writing stories?
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Oh my god! I had an entire chapter devoted to this!
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My whole story is this! and I get even more words because every time she writes a segment (included in the novel, of course, which gives a nice escape from the main story) she has another couple hundred words of agonising over her word choice...
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Where's the like button on this?
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Ravelry member too?
:)
For those who dont' know, it's a knit and crochet forum type site. One day I plan on doing that. Using a forum in my novel to up the word count... hmmm, I wonder if my MC needs to find out something on the internet and needs to ask a forum... you know, there is a character that has gone missing... Oh Hey! there are missing persons forums!
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I wish I could you that, it's genuis unfortunately the 50's had no internet.
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Yay for Ravelry! It has made my knitting needles come to life.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Thank you so much for the tricks. I know these will come in handy. I'm about to try some of them now.
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One of my main characters has nightmares as an established trait, so I'm planning on writing a couple more of those!
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Also, they're just the sort of thing to write using WriteOrDie!
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Threaten my characters with the Hunger Games :D
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That's freaking amazing.
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What's that?
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It's a book, I believe. I never read it but it's very popular.
From amazon.com
"send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, "The Hunger Games," a fight to the death on live TV"
I suppose you could make up your own reality TV show... lots of word count there...
how about a door to door sales type game..
remodel old museums or libraries...
pie eatting contest each week and the winner each weeks wait suntil 13 weeks and then 12 contensts go ageast each other
Top Actor (like top model)
drag racing
etc...
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How can you not have read The Hunger Games?!? The Hunger Games is epic! Amazing! How can you not have read it?!? (sorry for the rant. I love the hunger games)
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You have not read the Hunger games?!?
It's the most amazing book out there at this possible moment in time! I recommend whole-heartedly that you read it.
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HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! I might just have to do that (my MC is, like me, a big fan of dystopian books, so there will be LOTS of referances.
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Doesn't this all rather defeat the purpose? The purpose isn't to satisfy some requirement; it is to produce something decent in a very short period of time. If I followed all these word-boosting suggestions, my writing would sorely suffer. Sorry, but this all seems rather silly to me.
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G.B.W: we understand what you're saying; but think about it like this, the only way to develop your skills is to write (a lot) and these tricks are a great way to do that. Becoming a better writer is (in my opinion) the main goal of nanowrimo anyway, and if there's a trick that'll get you there then you should use it.
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Forcing yourself to vomit out words that you'll have to take out later is not a good way to write. Yes, you should write and keep on writing but writing out garbage is not the way to do that. When you first start out, trying to find words to write hard and you'll find a lot of time staring at a blank page and not knowing what should come out next. But putting out unnecessary garbage won't improve your writing skills. Not every words you put down should be a gem, but purposely putting down garbage is just wrong.
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I agree. Not necessarily everything I write for my NaNo will be good, but I'm not going to intentionally put in garbage like that. It's just writing for writing's sake. 50.000 words doesn't mean much to me if I didn't reach it in an honest fashion.
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You can always just do it then edit it later.
I don't do the long names and things because the book I chose to do for NANO is the 2nd of a series that I'm trying to get published, so though I don't do my best writing I try to make the editing process easier on me.
- Chey
cheyennelynnae.com
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The point of NaNo is that you CAN write 50k words of pure shit.
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The point of Nano is that you're trying to actually FINISH something rather than start a thousand things and finish none of them.
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Agree. That's what happened with me and my first nano. Sure I only wrote 23k words, but I had barely wrote 5k words before that. And every nano since then (except last year) had been more then that. In fact 2 years ago I wrote over 70k and started my second novel (first finished at 53k).
So add the blog your MC is writing, into your novel. Add the blogs of the blogs your MC is following. Add the facebook and twitter that your MC is following too.
When you rewrite after November, then you decide what stays and goes.
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Generally, yeah. As long as it's actually somehow connected to the story, it's applicable. Most of the crap listed above is trivial and a waste of time.
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"Most of the crap listed above is trivial and a waste of time."
Not necessarily. Like I said before. You may have a character singing "row row row your boat" and then later in the novel find out why the character did this and then it's not trivial.
However, it may be and later you rewrite the entire "row row row your boat' sections or just take them out completely.
And if writing 'row, row, row your baot' makes you write some more words, then that's even better!
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See, that's different. Things like writing out every name long-hand are total crap.
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No it's the same thing.
Someone may write "row row row your boat" and have a character sing it and it's total crap. It may NOT end up being something wonderulf that changes the novel. But you don't know until you write it.
Writing out names may be crap to begin with but turn out beautiful in the end. Unless you've ploted every single paragraph, you don't know where your novel will take you (or that could just be me).
So I'll add long thoughts of a character. That may not may not have to do with the current scene.
I'll have a character write a poem when I'm stuck.
I'll have a character recall a totally random dream.
Describe in full eating a meal taking several pages.
After I'm done writing: edit.
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Not to be rude, but "DUH". These are all totally fine. These are all the characters actually taking action, and you're actually writing. The crap described above (I'm specifically going to target like a hawk the whole "Write out every name in full for no reason other than word count" shenanigan) does nothing for the plot, only extended the word count by a couple words each time something is named and in no way contributing to writing ability, literacy, or the story. It's a big fat waste of time that's only serving to pad one's word count and help "win" a contest which is really only a skinner box anyway.
For the non-psych people in the room, a skinner box is a device where you have a pigeon or hamster or whatever hitting a button. The button only provides rewards of food at random, and thus the animal is driven to hit the button for rewards whether or not they need the reward. Humans do this too- slot machines and World Of Warcraft are prime examples.
So how is NaNoWriMo a skinner box? Simple: We won't be super-productive every single day, but forcing ourselves to create for the sake of hitting a daily par of 1667 is enough of a reward for the creative breed that we bash our heads against those little shiny symbol-pocked buttons until we're not even producing anything worth the light of day. We stop actually creating and get so caught up in the rat race and the idea of victory that we stop TRYING.
So no, spelling out names in full is crap, and it's absolutely not the same as having a character scribble a lame poem, and it's not the same as having the character recall a dream. It's absolutely not the same as a complex and time-consuming meal being eaten for several pages.
To suggest that one is like the other is an insult upon my capacity to so much as read.
Done.
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"Write out every name in full for no reason other than word count" shenanigan) does nothing for the plot, only extended the word count by a couple words each time something is named and in no way contributing to writing ability, literacy, or the story."
It's not YOUR story, so you can't say that's true. Someone else may have a story where the character insists on being called Queen Victoria of Eden instead of just Vikki.
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Did you not read the title of the forum? It's "Down and dirty tricks." What did you expect?
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[great big smile] :0) for that comment
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Sorry. I suppose I had some hope that others had ~pride~ in their craft.
I suppose I was mistaken.
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We do. We like what we write. We enjoy what we wright. We're letting go fo our inner editor, what nano is about. We're letting go of perfection for this one brief 30 day of abadonment.
Pride and Perfection are two different things. We can have pride in our work today. We can perfect it tomorrow (meaning December).
Just because we add "99 Bottle of Beer On the Wall" to our novel, doesn't mean we don't have pride in what we write.
Just because we add 1000 words of discription to an apartment (someone just did that) doesn't mean we don't ahve pride in our writing. We do.
November is about letting our wrriting run free. Exploring something new. Doing things we may not have done before so we can get better at writing.
So we will add dream sequences, and repeat them as often as necessary.
We will add a new plot twist.
We will have our MC talk in detail about their craft or hobby.
That's ok. It's November. NaNoWriMo.
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That is why its taken so long to write any novel before this! I edit and edit. But I have something I'm not afraid to show to people. I agree that writing helps it come out, and I wouldn't do some of the silly things listed above. Maybe on a separate sheet of paper to get the juices flowing but not in my story. I agree its not about putting down 50,000 random words. Its about pushing yourself to finally write the story! You know the one you want to publish and have millions of fans for?
Still you can't get there by staring at that blinking cursor...Tis why I'm so conflicted :(
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That depends on who you are and how you write. Some people are able to get inspiration that way.
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those lucky people.
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i thinks its a great way to wright, it gets you better at editing and jest getting your ideas flowing, and whos to say that what they wright is garbage there will always be someone out there who will think what you wright is stupid but there will always be someone els who thinks it's brilleant. i think if they want to purposly put down garbage thats what they want, if you dont like it dont read it, read your own wrighting and know that your fine with the way your wrighting and there fine with the way there wrighting. i think telling someone that what there doing is "purposly putting down garbage" is wrong, and hurtful. if you dont like there tricks fine thats ok, but dont kick them in the face when there jest trying to help others. i alway thought the perpouse of nanowrimo was to jest write anything and everything as long as your doing it, if the wrighting is garbage fine, but at least you toulk the time out of your day to write your own garbage. im sorry i dont mean to be rude or souned brutle but wrighting is wrighting weather ist garbage or not is up to the author.
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p.s this is jest my opinion and sorry for the bad spelling
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Hemingway said, "The first draft of anything is s**t." I take that as creative license to do whatever gets the story out. I mean, if Hemingway says that, then I certainly have the right to write crappy on my first draft. LOL!
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Love that quote. I need to put it on my monitor...
I think we all know the odds of writing a literary "gem" in a month is pretty rare. So let's be supportive of the means of getting there.
As a newbie...I know I'm struggling, so if I need to give my brain a break every few paragraphs to write out a full name-then so be it. I'm not saying it is what I would do, personally-but we all are in this thing together. And while it sounds tempting to gain a few "free" words, I choose not to. Fine, whatever. But I'm sure some of my other "methods" would be criticized by someone out there. As far as I'm concerned...words on a page are still words. And I need to get more on mine. So ta ta for now.
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I agree with G.B. COMPLETELY. While G.B. is wrong that the purpose of Nano is to "produce something decent," the purpose is to get your to write. Adding extra words simply for the purpose of adding extra words is NOT writing. I doubt quite seriously that writing a character's middle name every time, or adding in a list of colors when you've already said that something reflected a myriad of colors, etc., will actually provide a writer with any constructive experience. This is not National List-Making Month.
And seriously, if this is all you're doing to make the word count to "win," then you may as well win by submitting a copy of a collection of old emails you wrote added on the end. Either way, you're not really developing a story, so why waste time with that sort of "trick"?
My two cents.
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Okay, so some of the tricks won't provide any constructive experience but I think there are some tricks here that do provide it and those were the ones I was referring to. Dream sequences, stories from the lives of minor characters, excessive description, and random humour don't really add anything to the actual story but I would say that they are writing.
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The tricks are for those times you can't think straight anymore. Instead of just sitting and staring at the page, you use a trick, write SOMETHING. You aren't going for "decent," you are going for continuous. Stream of thought. To quote Chris Baty quoting Hemingway, "sh*t."
Not that there won't be passages of decent, but there's going to be sheer crap too. There always is. To use your mind, find a trick, play with words--that is useful in the long run, not so much in the short. You are training your brain to produce fiction, and that's good. Whether or not it belongs in the end product.
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Exactly! I honestly don't care if I get to the word count or not, but I can't just stop writing, you know? If I take a long break when I'm in the middle of a scene, I never seem to get back to it, and tricks like these help a lot just to keep the juices flowing. They're sort of like fool-proof ways to stay out of writer's block ^^
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Hey, that is all fine, but I question the wisdom of not just trying to get past a block, but willfully stuffing a novel with nonsense - not sentences, not details, but full names perpetually, sex scenes that take up half the the word count, overly verbose repetitive sentences that could be replaced with a simple one that moves the plot efficiently along - when that simple one is in the the brain, but passed over for the word count of the massive one. So, I agree Writer-in. Something is better than nothing. But when genius and decency is dropped for the word count... Yeesh.
I am glad to hear, mandiimix, that there is more to this thread than just stuffing techniques. However, that is all I saw. I was not commenting so much on the thread as a whole, as the recent pieces that were showing up. Something can start good and end bad.
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Yeah it was a bit early in the thread to judge. This thread over the last few years has provided some awesome ideas that add to the plot. I was inspired to do dream sequences in my Nano novel a couple of years ago, inspired by this thread and it ended up being the central theme of my plot.
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Another writer may not like long lists, but someone else writing a list of their MC's favorite foods might spur on something else later in the novel. And you learn something about your MC. Making a list of your MC's movies you learn that they like comedy more then mystery and later that shows up in an important scene.
Sometimes the down and dirty writing generates something big and interesting. Sometimes it's gets deleted hoping to never see the light of day every again in your mind or on paper.
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Same here. I'm actually going to write a story instead of spew out random words so that I can get my 50,000 words. I want to be able to say that, yes, I wrote a novel in 30 days and yes, it is decent. I'm not saying it has to win a prize, but I want to be able to show it to people without being embarrassed about how one of my characters is describing the way they pee.
I'm not going to make ridiculously long company names, I'm not going to have my characters address their teachers as "Mrs. Johnson Thompson Lawson Sue". It's just pointless.
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Although, a character who described the way they pee could potentially be a really interesting character. I am so keeping that idea for some day. Not for my NaNo novel, but some character I have eventually could become a pee describer.
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I once saw in a movie a small group of boys, maybe 4 or 5, who were having a pee contest to see how could pee the farthest. It was kind of cute in the way we, as women or girls, see what boys do as a group. Always, with girls, we see them at pajama parties, that is so boring and sterotypical.
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I agree. I don't care how much I write in the end, I just want to come away feeling like a grew as a writer. I know there's going to be a lot of garbage, but I can at least try to cut down on the potential garbage by making an effort rather than writing "Susie Jane Sharran the Third" every time I need to simply say "Susie."
I will, however, throw out that I have a story I've been writing narrated by a faerie who isn't a native English-speaker. She always speaks-and narrates-with complete words: no conjunctions. Though I'm not trying to reach a wordcount with this policy, if I was, it would certainly be helpful. So there's a point of advice! If you still have no idea of what to do for your NaNo, make your main character an immigrant who is still learning the language.
But yes, G.B., I totally agree. Thank you!
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One very important thing you have to understand is that almost everything on this section of the forums is a joke. It's not meant to be taken seriously. Sometimes you have a bad writing day and you just need to be silly, and this forum is for that exact purpose. Sometimes it even gives you good serious ideas (I know I've had a few come from the dares).
Besides, it's a first draft. It's going to suck no matter what you do. Having to edit out a little well-meaning nonsense never killed anyone, and it might give you a good laugh later on.
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Have your characters tweet each other with "followers" chiming in. Make up some celebrities the MC is following in Twitter and make up their tweets. Then describe this celebrity (great word count filler). Do this with each celebrity they're following.
I suppose you could do the same with Facebook and Google+.
Of course sometimes those you are following make great writing prompts (and not just the writing prompt actualy twitter names). Someone may say something about their kids... you could add that ot your novel, have one of your characters kids do the samething, then elaborate on that to add more words.
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My personal favorite is ninjas.
Toss in ninjas (Or, for me, rabbit assassins), and explain later.
A good example of how "boosting word count" doesn't have to mean crap.
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haha that is soooo funny!!!! ninjas make everything better! I wish i could use it but sadly I cannot. My novel takes place in regency era England... ninjas dont fit so well in that time, unfortunately. I will definitely use it next year though!
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I agree. Surely learning how to write provides more than enough opportunity to generate books of normal size ie from 100k on wards.
Would you not agree that it discredits Nanowrimo because it gets a reputation for crap rather than helping people access inner novelist /literary tatlent by producing a proper length first rough draft.?
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Disagree.
NaNoWriMo is to write. 50k works. No matter what. Writing a long discritption about applying lotion could be consider crap, but most first drafts have a lot of other crap that you that would be literary when you wrote it.
If your concerned about a "proper length" first draft, most likely you're not going to do that during Nano, where only 50k is required, instead of 100k. You'll get half of it done. Which may inspire those who haven't even wrote 50k in their life, to continue on to 100k. Then edit the whole darn thing.
Nano is to get you writing. Perfect or imperfect. Mostly like imperfect. Write about the way the sun rises and how it makes the MC feel and what memories they have of it and a whole bunch of other crap. Some may stay, some may go. You never know until you get to your second draft, after November.
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I have no problem with bad writing. I have a problem with writing out "John Jacob Jingle Heimer Schmidt" every time a simple "he" would suffice.
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I don't have a problem with that. Later the writer may want to keep in some of those for literary sake. Or just for comedy. Or just because that's the way the novel is. Or just because.
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What (great) literary work spells out every character's full name all the time? As for comedic purposes, that is not the purpose behind spelling out the whole names. Rather, it is to stuff a potentially good novel with unnecessary words to meet an arbitrary number of words in a month. Silly. Not funny. Dramatic scenes suddenly appear absurd and childish - when they might have been the gem of the novel...
Yet, in the end, it is the decision of each author - for good or ill. I just think it is a bad practice and quite silly.
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But spelling out the characters long name COULD be funny. If written right. And yes every time.
Or maybe that's the way the character wants to be addressed. Some characters have initials instead of long names. Same thing here with long drawn out names.
And if it's just to boost word count, so what. This is suppose to be FUN. If writing out long names to get to 50k makes it fun for the writer, so be it.
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What about "If rewriting the first 10 pages makes it more fun for the writer," then? Do you support that?
Or editing every paragraph at the end? Would you tell them, "Good, as long as you're enjoying it?" Or do you think you'd be tempted to say, "No, stop it, you're doing it wrong?"
After all, research comes into play in a good deal of novels, yet copying an entire wikipedia article is pretty much universally agreed to be cheating, right?
I would think you're more likely to use the research in a story than you are to use "Lt. Sgt. Jack Jameson "Jimmy Jack" Word-filler McFillsky the third, and Lady Doctor Susan "Sue" Stephanie "Just call me Sue, dammit" Si-Si-Si ran up the hill."
If the question is, "Where do you draw the line between honest writing and cheating?" I would hope the answer is "Wherever you feel comfortable drawing it," rather than "Where I feel you should."
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I would very much agree with that statement. At the same time, not getting to 50k is not so bad, providing that the 40k achieved is actual work. Stuffing everything is just silly, and not in the spirit of it all. Writing poorly is in the spirit, but not writing a bunch of feathers and polyester stuffing.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
quote: G.B. Walker "Stuffing everything is just silly, and not in the spirit of it all"
What is NaNoWriMo says to do that
"Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that’s a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes."
http://nanowrimo.org/en/about/whatisnano
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
I would simply contend that crap and mistakes are different than saying, "Hey, I don't want to write a few extra horrible pages so I think I'll just write out the full names of everything." That's a few bad pages not written and a few pages of writer growth not achieved. I have no problem with nonsense or sequences that seemed like they might end up a good idea but turn out to rambling pages of nothingness. That's first draft stuff. Writing out the full names of everything in order to achieve a word count though seems pretty silly and will result in more work in the end, editing all those names down to bite-sized pieces.
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Find and replace.
Easy to fix those, if you decide to. Again you may find several instances in your novel to keep full name.
I guess we'll have to agree to disagree.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Yes, we shall. Fascinating topic though.
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I'm surprised it took this long to come to that conclusion.
For the record, I'd personally agree with Walker on most of the points. For this year, I'd rather end up not meeting the word count but nailing the actual story, even if some of it is filler.
There'll probably be other years when I fully embrace the "Throw anything at the wall and see what happens" technique. And I MORE than understand people treating this as a challenge to get to fifty K or more, nothing more nothing less.
Okay, so they might not end up with a perfectly edited novel.. or more story than could fit into a paragraph. They won't end up with any story at all playing video games or watching television. But hey, maybe they'll end up enjoying it, right?
Personally, I don't think either of you are wrong - you just represent different ways of looking at the experience.
"The point of NaNo is..."
"The point of padding words is.."
"The point of using the full names each and every time is..."
Up to the individual user. Period. If NaNo itself embraced either idea, you know it'd limit the amount of people who participated in it.
Just my take on it.
J
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Your premise is that everyone here is going for a first draft.
What about those that simply want to try it? What about those that like getting the rewards honestly or, maybe in our eyes, semi honestly?
Writing out the full names might get them that. Who says they have to go edit?
:)
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Quite incredible how much debate this comment has gotten!
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Actually, I think the point of NaNoWriMo IS to write as much as you can in a short period of time. It's allowed to be awful, as long as you fulfill the requirement. I imagine it as a way for people to write the novel they've always dreamed of, without spending years of work on it, and if they like it enough they can go back and improve it when the month is over. But that's just my view of it.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Correct, Ubiquitous. That's why I'm doing it, because I have a tendency to spend forever revising stuff I've written before I finish.
But there be a difference, in my opinion, between writing badly to get words on the page and move a story along and writing badly because one doesn't want to write a few extra thousand words that one has to actually think about.
So yes, your analysis is correct in my opinion.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
But the sandwich making was integral to my story.
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I kind of agree. What's the point of writing a novel if it's all going to be garbage that no one wants to read? And in response to thatollie, fulfillilng some arbitrary word count isn't going to make you a better writer. I think you need to strike a balance between output and quality. Getting to the finish line IS the main goal, but what is there going to be to celebrate if you haven't produced anything worthwhile or put any serious thought into it?
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The thing that gives NaNo a bad name is people who mail their novel off to a publisher on December 1st. And I half agree with:
because you make a good point, but writing 50,000 words of ANYTHING is a great accomplishment. Even if it's 50,000 words of crap, you get bragging rights, and you can always go back and make it better. Or delete most of it. The point of NaNoWriMo is to lay the foundation for a novel. And all novels start out as crap.
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The bottom line is that at the end of NaNo, the ONLY factor that determines whether you 'win' is the word count, not the grammar, nor the spelling, nor the quality of the writing. I've won 5 NaNos, and it's been my experience that too much emphasis on quality gets in the way of getting to the word count. I've also published short fiction, so I get what you're saying, but NaNo's not the place for that. If you want that purple bar at the end, it's best to go for word count now and fix everything in revision later. Nothing says you can't revise, but that takes time, so it's best saved as a post-NaNo activity.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
The purpose is to write 50,000 words of a novel in November. Quality was never a requriement.
So go ahead and discribe in detail every person your character passes on the street.
Describe every detail of the MC's living area. Every room. Plus their work area. Play area. Family's living area. Friends living area.
Throw in a game your characters play.
Add a love interest (and if you don't want to, don't add sex, just do a long drawn out date where nothing happens in the end... then each person describes it to their friends).
Add a quote before each chapter.
Write a poem before each chapter
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
I have a lot of knitting I want to do during Nano. My plan is to sit in my rocker knitting, while I speak my story, I'll pretend I am telling it to my grandchildren. I'll ramble around until it comes to me. I am a pantser, (seat of the pants writer) so, I'll say it into my phone after dialing my google voice telephone line. It transcribes what I say and e-mails it to me. Then I cut and paste the text into a word doc.
In testing, I spoke 250 words in two minutes. Another convenient thing is, I can't stop speaking or the recording stops.
Wish me luck. I'll be interested to see how speaking the story out loud works as opposed to thinking it in my head. XD
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
I just have to say: that is awesome.
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That is really cool!
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
thank you Leighalove and Mandiminx, XD
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Barbara Cartland (a romance writer who passed away year ago) use to do this. Dictate to secretaries. At one time she was churning out 2 books a month... of course that was after decades of writing and learning her craft and not changing the books much.
I may have to try something like this... I wonder if there's a thread over on the Technology section... My fingers aren't young anymore, even though I type fast.
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I'm amazed how much faster I dictate than type. For me leaving phone messages is more like doing a word war. I push it for the duration. I think surprising thoughts come out when you do either.
XD
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If I can't think of a word for something, I turn it into an exchange if at all possible. Example:
It drew his eye, but he was careful not to look too long, to give equal time to her long legs, her hips, her truly fantastic breasts. /Apparently her hips don't get an adjective/, something in him snarked. /Her hips have hundreds/, he responded, /now shut the hell up before you make me say something stupid/.
“Your hips have hundreds,” he declared.
/Too late!/
Joy was giving him a weird look, and Alex saw no way out but through. “Adjectives,” he provided. She did not look less weirded out, so he tried smiling, pretty sure he just looked like a crazy person.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
That's brilliant.
I have a mighty urge to go tell someone their hips have hundreds, now.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
If any of your characters are taking new prescription medication that you made up yourself (great for novels that take place in the near future), have them read the info packet that comes with the meds, in its entirety. Mmmm, wordcount.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
I did a lot of counting with my first novel. For this one, I'm putting in characters that practically have ADD, they change subjects so fast. It helps because then I throw in pointless banter and one kind soul asking to return to the original subject. I also have to describe character's names, as my main character is a girl named Stella, but I decided to make it Estella to have to explain why she dropped the 'E'. Really, it was just a ploy for my word count...and I think Stella and Estella are equally beautiful names.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Two words: Homeric similes
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You know, it's funny you should mention that.
My NaNo is a retelling/extension of the Odyssey, and so one of my challenges -- and, it turns out, unexpected joys -- has been the epithets. I've been trying to use them in a way that sounds natural, and even adds to the scene, rather than just adding to the word count. An example, from a scene when Odysseus is lying awake in bed, remembering his first visit to Circe's house, after half his men have been turned into swine:
I'm a wordy SOB, but I just can't bring myself to use words that don't serve my story.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Another good one I'm using for this NaNo is the name of the high school my novel primarily takes place at. I decided to name it after a president, so I chose Polk. Originally it was just James Polk High School (and that's exactly what I typed, just to get an extra word or two ;P) but then I decided to add 'K'...it's just a letter, but my word processor counts it as a word...and to me, James K. Polk High School just sounds better than James Polk HS.
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Write numbers in full..also, if your story is in first person narrative, launch into a long solilquoy somewhere
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Ramble and personify EVERYTHING. For example.
The lamps dull flickering sent of small shadows that hung the room like long ago ghosts, they seemed to always watching sending a small slight of unease through her already over tense body.
+33
instead of;
The lights dim shadows sent shivers up her spine.
Lets say you have a rock, well you can personify that rock and create to separate paragraphs with a back story simply about a rock that the MC found on the side of the road.
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You could always have one of your characters emitted into the hospital for something. Then have the doctors list their problems, and name random medications. That is what I am currently doing with mine. And using full names for some things xD
You could have some random character pop-up into the climax of the story, and have them distract the MC for a bit.
You could insert a heavy argument between 2 or more characters.
You could put in song lyrics, quotes, poems, and even previous conversations between other characters.
Hope those help ! <3
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I am writing dialogue from the TV to help refresh the text!!
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Not a bad idea! I usually have the news on for my morning writing so I can catch the weather. and I could probably use one of those news stories to create a subplot... since I really don't have one... Maybe I could do that for night time writing (hardest time for me to write) to keep me going or start me writing. Thanks for the idea.
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lowest
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well
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now
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it
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is
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liwest
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/lowest
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
I totally just use a lot of descriptive words, and can not, will not, would not etc. instead of can't, won't etc. :) that's all I have got.
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Im lowerr
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
I've been adding random sex scenes throughout. This has all sorts of benefits: it reminds me to be playful in my approach; it lets me avoid the difficult scenes that I really don't want to write; it pads my word count; and it keeps my boyfriend genuinely interested in my writing!
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Do not use contractions Ever.
It takes a bit of getting used to, and it sounds a little strange, but it is not as hard as you think. You would be surprised how much it can add to your word count. (contractions = isn't, don't, can't, wouldn't, etc.)
Chapter names & Descriptions
Chapter 10 - A Glimpse of Dark Twilight
In which we discover several things about several people that may or may not be important to the plit but you have to read them anyway just in case. Mua ha ha ha ha
Sing a song or recite a poem
Find a song/poem you think the character would sing/recite and add it in in its entirety.
DBP if the the song is "This is the song that irritates people" and continues on and off for pages on end.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Omg! you are a genius. I haven't even started writing (this is my first time) and I can already see the value of these. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Hey... what about Quotes at the beginning of the chapters?
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An epigraph? That's actually a really good idea. You don't even have to actually write it. Just copy and paste, yet it's still completely legitimate. However, although it might work for NaNoWriMo, I don't think it would be counted in literature.
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I think you can actually. I saw it in a book I'm reading. It's not at the beginning of every chapter, but rather at the beginning of each part.
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I love doing this - especially to set the tone for the novel! I don't add it in superficially, but to actually bring the reader's attention to a theme or archetype. Plus, it forces me to stay on topic for that section of the novel.
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Totally going to be doing this. My story takes place on board a generational colony ship called the Genesis, and I'm going to use verses from the book of Genesis in the Bible to start various sections, perhaps even chapters.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
I... I never thought of that. .__.;
Especially since mine has potential to be music fanfiction about a band, I could even extend the initial quotes into full-blown lyrics.
AW YEAH.
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That's a splendid idea! I think I have that somewhere in my NaNoJournal.
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Yep, I do this. It isn't for word-padding, I just love epigraphs. I discovered them in Prozac Nation when I was 15 and now I use them a lot. I'm a serial-epigrapher lol
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
I always have original poetry at the beginning of my chapters :) It boosts the word count and foreshadows into the chapter; plus, your reader gets to figure out how the poem relates to the chapter as they read and it makes the reader process a little more fun with a little more thought~
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This is one of the better ideas I've heard. It improves word count but can actually be a great way to set the mood or perspective for the reader. I might try it!
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
I've been adding quotes at the start of each chapter -- the latest one came from my 2007 NaNo. So, I make them up myself and use them to set the mood and tone or perhaps theme . . . I had no idea just how appropriate my latest quote would become.
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i did the song thing
for any of you who are aware of the girl/boy scout/camp song "Found A Peanut", i used this and created my own verses also.
+900 words including my MC groaning, gripping, and threatening the singer throughout.
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That was my go to song when I was pregnate. The nurses in the labor room always thought i was nuts cause I would sing found a peanut or make this little noise with my tounge to help me focus through the pain. It was great. I never thought a song about a peanut could get you through some of the worst pain in your life but it can.
I don't really have any tricks. I just write. Well I guess I have one. I know I need a certain number of words each day to meet my goal and I know how many words need to go into each chapter. 6000 a day/ 11538.4 per chapter. So one chapter should take me about two days with a start on the next chapter on the second day. So... If I finish a chapter with less than the 11538.4 words then I go back and find places where I could have been more discriptive. But, Im only allowed to go back and edit to the point of hitting 11538.4 words. Once I hit that for a chapter I must stop playing with it and get on with the next chapter.
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I love books with chapters that have "In which..."
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Last year when I figured out "don't use contractions" it was SO hard NOT to write them. I had to go back and split up the words and when I typed them, I had to remember how not to contract :P.
That one is one that I applaud and encourage deeply and greatly :D.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Well, you can always just use 'replace'. That's what I did: write all the contractions anyway (because it's easier) and then tell Word to replace the contractions with the proper full versions. Fast and easy & made for a huge word boost at the end of NaNo when I badly needed it.
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They should have a 'like' feature for the comments.
However, they do not, and so here you go:
one25centpeice likes this.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
EPIC WIN, right there.
(:
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mandiiminx likes this.
:D
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
This can be used for lots of stuff. Set up a code for long names, such as JTM. Type the code instead of the name, then use Find/Replace to change it. That way you only have to type the long name one time and add lots of words.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
How do you actually do this? I've been searching for it but can't find it.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
I've only done it in MS Word, in the older versions, but if I remember correctly....
Go to either Options or Edit, and look for the autocorrect option. One of the tabs there will have a table with commonly misspelled words and what Word corrects them to. There should be a space for you to add your own.
So, if your character is John Michael Jones Smith, the Fourth of his name by the Grace of God, you could set the autocorrect so that every time you type 'John Michael' or 'JMJS' (whatever you choose to shorten it to), it will automatically correct it to the whole name.
I've only done this on Word 2003 and older, so I don't know how other programs do it.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
I looked for this feature in MS Word 2010 and it's right in the home tab on the far right, under Replace. Absolutely awesome, thanks for that great bit of advice.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
I moved from Word 2003 to 2007 only a couple of months ago, and it's been driving me crazy. Anticipating Nano has been a good push to figure out some of the IMO glitches of the thing. (The Evil Empire fixed a lot of things that weren't broke)
You can make 2007 produce AutoText in a way that feels familiar to 2003 by:
At the very bottom of the drop-down menu click on "word options". In the word options box, click on "proofing" in the left hand column. Then click on "AutoCorrect Options". In *that* box, check the box half way down for "replace text as you type". Then type your abbreviation in the "replace:" box, and the full monty in the "with:" box and click "okay".
Then when you type HRH and hit the space bar, Word will kindly insert "Her Royal Highness of Outer Ellis Island and All Its Channels.
You could also use this if you have a long, hard to type place name or anything else.
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Sorry Syrina - That is the incredibly difficult way. LoL.
A much simpler way (In Word) is to type CTRL + H (hit both keys at the same time, or go to your home ribbon on the far right and click "Replace", or in older versions go to the edit screen and click on "Replace"). This will cause the Replace window to appear. Type in the word you want replaced on the first line, and the word you want to replace it with on the second like. Click "Replace All". Ta-Da!
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I didn't know there was a shorter way! I only discovered it by accident and figured I was pretty lucky to find that much!
I pretty much stopped using Word (except when I needed the voice recognition in 2009) before I discovered keyboard shortcuts. Glad to know there's an easier way, though.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
I don't know if you still need an answer, but most of the replies have been needlessly complicated. Open up your novel in whatever word processor you have.
Ctrl+f (on the keyboard)
The dialogue box that pops up should say "Find" or "Find and Replace," and in many older versions of Word there's a separate tab for Replace. You type the contraction (can't, won't, shan't, didn't, shouldn't, etc.) into the search box and the separate words (can not, will not, shall not, did not, should not, etc.) into the replace box. Do this for every contraction you can think of... though, grammatically, 'cannot' should really be one word so it's not much use with that.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
I did the whole Contractions thing my first year. I had finally gotten to the end of my novel after much stress and frustration. I ended it the way I wanted and I couldn't think of another single thing to put in . . . . . . . and my word count wasn't high enough.
So I scrolled back through THE WHOLE THING! and undid ALL the contractions I had used!!! And I think it worked, in the end I think I only had to write a few more paragraphs to up my word count enough to finish :D
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Hey, maybe I can do this NaNoWriMo thing after all! (lol) I've never tried this myself (first year, here), but it would also work to have your characters constantly misunderstanding each other, right?
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HAHA right! Maybe one of mine will have a hearing problem? ;)
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Am I the only one that, when I see a challenge that says "Always do it this way / Never do this," I always, always, always drop the "Always," and never listen to the "never."
Contraction, to me, means more natural speech for most of my characters, although I do tend to favor using characters that don't like to.. er.. that do not like to make use of them. This one one of those extremely subjective rules, I think. Your feelings for this one rule probably make the best test for how you look at word padding in general. Either you find it useful or you find it a bad practice. Neither view if explicitly right.
The chapter name, I'm not doing this year much, but I have done in the past. I'm not even using "Chapter one," "chapter two." I'm behind, so take that for what you will.
I always mean to use a song or poem, or make one up, but I don't end up using that one.
My trick for this year? Exposition and commentary. I've been struggling with a story in my mind, basically a kid's basketball story. (Well, teens.) It's about a lot more than that, but even so, it comes out so dishwasher dull when I write it down, because I don't want to resort to "Kids Next Door" storytelling for it.
Soo, I've been tossing in lots of comments, especially when I get stuck. It's somewhat word padding, like the other tricks here. I justify it to myself because I think it helps me build up a natural voice for the story, whereas dropping contradictions wouldn't. Give it a flavorful 'author' / orator who's telling the story and will rant when appropriate.
To anyone that sees that as hypocrisy, I'd justify it by saying.. no wait. I'd explain I don't need to justify anything to those people. Just as they don't need to justify their views to me. That occasionally gets forgotten. (I do think asking someone about their views, or saying why you disagree is another matter, as long as you're not taking the "I'm right, you're wrong, stop disagreeing" tone.)
That said, this is one of my favorite yearly threads, mostly because I figured out early on not to take it seriously. At all. I'd humbly suggest no one takes it too seriously, and I hope I don't sound like I am.
Man, I am rambling today. I need to get to working on the NaNo soon.
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I totally just started doing the thing with Chapter titles before I started browsing here. Win.
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This is what I've been doing. Forcing myself to spell out ALL contractions- contractions are NOT your friend here- and going into rambling descriptions of all my characters, even their animals. It may not eventually fit in that part, but I'm sure it will fit in somewhere.
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I didn't really use any other tricks than loooong conversations in my nano, but in my gothno 2010 I had a character named Felicity Isobel Turquoise Antheia Lourdes Egypt who insisted on being called exactly that + lyrics from songs as chapter titles.
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Dream sequences.
Sex scenes.
You can add thousands of words to your count by inserting just one of these scenes.
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Yea I had like a 5 page horribly inappropriate semi OOC sex scene because I felt behind.
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Yep, you can add a ton of words with sex. My motto is when I don't know what to write someone is getting some sex. Doesn't matter if you are good at writing sex or not because it can always be cut out in the edit.
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That's kinda hard to do when you are writing YA Fiction. Just sayin' ...
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Nah, just use clever (or not so clever) censorship.
See this delightful link for a clear example:
http://writebadlywell.blogspot.com/2010/09/romance-week-4-convey-sensuality.html
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LOL that made my morning
tyvm 8'D
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that easily made my night right there. I'm still wiping away tears of laughter
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"Hoo-ha" has to be the best euphemism ever. *dies*
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OMG, the very mention of the word hoo-ha caused me to experience a brouhaha lasting more than 4 hours!
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I'm partial to "howdy box" myself.
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*snort* Oh lord, howdy box. That's fantastic. That may end up in my novel. Oh man. XD
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Hoo-ha is what my 3 year old calls it lol
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OMG I should NOT have read that at work. And it gets funnier the longer you think about it - oh the imagery!
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"easdannsair likes this"
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dwarves did the bearded ladies ;)
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And they go swimming with hairy little women as well. :D Or at least Gimli did.
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You read any YA Fiction recently :D
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That's a pretty awesome motto.
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My main characters are eight. I'm not writing shota. How would this work? ;D
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I had like ten of those. One thing that reaally help though is getting inspiration from either real things that happen, or real dreams you had. :) lol you'd be surprised.
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hahhshahhaha fabulous.
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Sex! I can't quite believe I've completely forgotten about sex. Thank you for saving my characters' libidos. :D
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amino likes this.
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I was running out of steam on my novel last year.
I decided to stop the main story where it was and write a bonus sex scene. It turned out to be nearly ten thousand words, and I wrote it in no time at all (because I write smut all the time ahaha), so I was able to pull past 50k in time.
I highly suggest this method. Especially when the main characters just need to DO IT already (aaahhh built-up tension) and aren't going to get there any time soon. It's a nice NaNo stress releaser. XD
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I think once I finish my outline (or shortly before midnight on the 31st, whichever comes first :P) I'm going to go back through it and note places where a sex scene might fit. I mean technically I could just put one anywhere, but I'm sure some scenes would be better than others!
Then, when I run short on words (ha! like that's gonna happen, says the woman who started out writing a prologue and still isn't finished 20k words later....), I can just go back and add a sex scene where I noted it!
Or, if I get *really* desperate: "Meanwhile, in a land far far away, which our characters will never visit, two people, who our characters have never met and who have nothing to add to the story, meet in a secluded glade...." and you get the idea. Bonus: very easy to cut when editing starts!
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Well...guess who's gonna have a LOT of those sequences?
50k words in 5 days, here I come! Okay, I'm exaggerating, but still, a girl can dream, right?
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
My book has TONS of dream and sex scenes just from the nature of the story, I'M FUCKING SET!
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
I was thinking of having my character have a wet dream about her best friend (who is a guy) and it ties in perfectly with the story because one of the subplots is her conflicting emotions about him.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Add a date and location to each chapter.
Sacramento, California, USA
August 14, 1972
+6 words! Also it builds atmosphere.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Great idea!
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
I'm going to have to remember this since mine will cover a huge span of time and many locations.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Make a dash like this: [ - ] rather than this: [--]. It counts as its own word.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Related: The NaNo word-count program counts hyphenated words as just one word, so put a space after the hyphen (e.g. word- count instead of word-count) for an extra word.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
word-count = 1 word
word- count = 2 words
word - count = 3 words
The Impeccably Frustrating, Time Wasting, Stressful Event that Takes Up All Of Our Time: NaNoWrimo's, Horribly Accurate and Evil Word - Count Program = 23 words
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
GYAAAAH thank you for this! I actually had just posted something about hyphens and tricking Word into thinking "hastily-written" was two words, and wasn't thinking at all about the one that counts - NaNo's! But thank you so much!
My two best friends are the hyphen and the comma... I suppose the easiest way will be to just write-as is, and then replace all the hyphens with spacehyphenspace before submitting it to the evil-o-tron word counter.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Good idea and I LOVEE you profile picture! :DD
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Oh that's good....=P
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Must remember that. I've done that in years past, but always forget...
Unrelated: I LOVE your profile picture. I went as the princess to a Halloween party last night. :) But paper bags are small and I wasn't able to sit down without ripping my costume.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Let your characters write a letter, an email or something like that once in a while and it will boost your wordcount. Last year a friend of mine's MC had a pen pal, and it worked quite well for her. ;)
Answering machines!
"Hi *insert your MC's name*, it is *insert one of your MC's friends name*. I am stuck in *insert location*, and my phone is dead, but you can call me at his number: *insert random number*. I was on my way home and then *insert your long explanation here*, but please call me back quickly! BYE."
Loooooots of words.
I have never used any of these before, but my MC will have a nice, old school answering machine this year.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Heh -- I was thinking today when I picked up my messages from voicemail how useful that could be. On mine, the saved messages start at the beginning, so if I saved something recently and want to hear it, I have to cycle through the previous ones.
"Hi, this is Mr. Smith --"
Beep
"Message saved for forty days. Next message."
"Hey, there, it's me, just wanted --"
Beep
"Message saved for forty days. Next message."
And that's before I get to the actual message I want!
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
You need to get you some Google Voice! If you can check your email or go to websites on your phone, you can use Google Voice for voicemail and see all of your voicemails transcribed, and listen to them out of order.
Of course, your characters don't have to know that ;)
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
This could work very well for my story, given the prevalence of letter writing at the time it was set.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Yeah, I have a lot of letters in my story. Half of the plot is about her secretly corresponding with a human who claims to know her past, but I hadn't thought of writing them in their intirety. That would help the count quite a bit. Thank you!
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Have a character talk in a foreign language and have some have to translate it.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Better yet, have two characters argue over what the proper translation is!
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Perfect. I love this idea. Loki can say something in Russian and Phillip can go "What did he just say?" Shang will say "He just told you to kneel." Eugene "No, he just told you to kneel... *bleep*" "I just told ALL OF YOU TO KNEEL." PERFECT!
Thank you all of you for implanting as many random and crazy ideas in my head for this year. I'm going to need it. And am going to thoroughly enjoy it. :D A random novel, HERE I COME!
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
That is a really good one!
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
In addition to the obligatory singing drunk (who, at one point, attracted a city guard with his caterwauling; I got an entire scene out of her attempts to shut him up, criticism of his quaintly counterrevolutionary folk songs, and resignation as she joined in), I had rants.
Behold:
Villain, with the tact expected from a military officer (and a military officer of not entirely not inconsiderable rank, a phrase that will make no sense to the author upon rereading this pile of [censored], but which will be invaluable in getting the word count up to acceptable levels so that she can concentrate on salvaging her grades and on writing a charming little fairy tale for her beleaguered gentleman friend’s upcoming birthday. In place of “not entirely not inconsiderable,” please read “low” and leave it at that), kicked the ragged waif smoothly under the table.
I also had random crypto-smut, 200-word chapter titles, entertainingly eccentric multi-word profanity, and gratuitous history.
The year before that, my main character was a freshman in high school. I was also a freshman in high school. Conveniently, we were taking the same classes. Coincidentally (of course), her paper on Tang-dynasty bureaucratic reforms played a major role in the plot...
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Huh. What a coincidence. I was writing also writing a lengthy paper for school last November, which was a large part of my grade. Strangely, one of my character's names happened to be an introduction into methods used by the U.S. government to assimilate Native American children, and yes, the character always went by his full name. I wonder where that came from...
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
I heard flashbacks and dragged out fight scenes help a great deal.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Fight scenes are one of my favorite ways to pad word count.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
I love your dp. I haven't used a fight scene before, however I had a random race between two bus drivers while heading to school one day which took other 5000 words.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
I wonder how you came up with that.. hmm. I'm going to ask a public bus driver is he's ever raced before....
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Have a deaf character.
"Do you want to go to the store?"
"What?"
"Do you want to go to the store?"
"Do I want to show the core? The core of what?"
"No, do you want to GO to the STORE?"
"Why would I want to mow a store?"
Etc., etc., etc.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Pardon?
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
You know, a character who can't hear or, when he does hear, he hears incorrectly. I.e., hears "mow" instead of "go," creating confusion.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Missedthejoke.jpg
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
XD
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
niiiiiiice xD
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Not sure if trolling or just brilliant. :|a
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
One and the same, I'd say.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Works especially well with faulty technology. Can end with
"This is ridiculous! Would you please upgrade your phone!"
"You want me to do WHAT with a clown?"
"Argh!" *Character* hangs up, resolving to never again do anything but text *OC* until he gets a smart phone.
*something happens*
*Character* finds himself dialing *OC* again.
...And we're off again!
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
"Why are you repeating everything you say three or four times?"
"It will help up the word count! It will help up the word count It will help up the word count!"
Of course, everyone accepted this response.
Okay, that was in a comedy about NaNoWriMo, so it fit. I had so much repetition in that story. The characters wrote stories and then read them to each other, so not only did we read the stories the first time, but then we got to see everyone's reactions to the story.
When I redid the story for Screnzy, I didn't make it as repetitive. I made it a musical.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Do you mean to tell me that there is, somewhere, a NaNo musical?!?!
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Yes, there is one right here on my laptop. Actually, it only has three musical numbers -- including some characters randomly dancing when their author (I believe that was Chris A.) got writer's block. Another was sung by the Traveling Shovel of Death.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
The musical needs to be on Broadway immediately.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
I agree, LOTR_junkie6, I would totally go see it! Heck, nevermind that, I want to be IN it! LOL!
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Place names. Why set a novel in London when it could be in Newcastle Upon Tyne? Two extra words every time it's mentioned.
And always write out full titles. Not Chapter 24, but Chapter Twenty Four: Insert Long-Winded Chapter Title Here. I gained lots of extra words my first NaNo by using a direct quote, a line from that chapter as chapter headings.
Or go the real quaint route: Chapter Twenty Four: In Which Character X Meets Character Y and There is an Argument
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Actually, I think that would be a great idea anyway, just so you don't get confused and you can maybe do a quick outline of the chapter before you write it.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
The Chinese Restaurant Menu
A group of characters goes out to a Chinese restaurant. They read the entire menu aloud to each other. Sometimes the waiter translates things for them. Everybody orders something different. Then they compare their food to the description on the menu. There are always lots of fortune cookies after, which must be read aloud and discussed at great length.
This has worked in all my novels, including the far-future sci-fi series, when an archaeological dig on ancient earth unearthed remains of a Chinese restaurant, including miraculously-preserved menu, and one colony took it on to recreate all the dishes and become the premier stop on intergalactic trips for a Chinese dinner!
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
amazing.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
This officially made my morning. I now want to send my characters on an intergalactic culinary trip.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
smith_cl Likes this
Reference to earlier post that I liked
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
I've just done somthing similar. The menu is written in Swahili and has an English translation alongside. Both have detailed descriptions. Characters discuss the menu and argue over translation, sometimes down to ingredients. Plenty of comparison of cooking methods. Multiple courses of food are served. Sometimes, characters insist on speaking both languages.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
awesome!!!
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Never delete words. If you started wrong, highlight it to tell yourself that, and start below that.
I did that last year, It got me an extra 3,000 words.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Definitely a good idea.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
This is a good idea! Thanks for the suggestion. I need to force myself to do that instead of revising as I go.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
same here
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
I do this as well, but mostly for longer passages. It's also nice during non-NaNo noveling, because you can always look back and take things from cut scenes to use later. :D
I think it's a method most writers need to seriously consider. We don't realize just how much of our thought process is lost forever due to a single press of a button.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
And then in CAPS LOCK write why that was so horrible and you are refusing to erase it.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Ah, caps lock.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
I like to use the "strike" feature. This way, when December comes, I see it stricken, and I KNOW to delete it. Also, using another color doesn't hurt either!
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
I asked this in another forum, but will repeat myself here in case someone knows the answer --
How does that affect the word counter? Does it not count those, or does it count the strike through as one whole word since there are no spaces?
TIA
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
I just tried it out in Word 2007. It doesn't seem to affect word count at all, and treats it as if you were emboldening or italicizing your text. It probably works the same way for older versions of Word and Word 2010.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
This is my favorite suggestion yet, since it's "cheating" in a way that is entirely constructive for the writing project, which is what this whole effort is all about. My one hesitation with this is that this is supposed to be a month for writing and not editing, so one should not be looking for passages to cut and rewrite, though of course I know myself and I know I am going to write somethign and think, "That was total crap. I'm going to write it better." And in this case, I'm going to hold fast to your rule: do not erase anythign. I like what is suggested below about either highlighting it (like in red) or using the strikethrough format, so you know those are "rewritten" passages.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Detail-
Description is one of the main keys to adding words. When the main character enters a new room, pay special attention to what's hanging on the walls, what's sitting on the tables, what it smells like. Write in things like the time of day, the weather, cloud formations-- little things we notice on a day-to-day basis but don't really think about.
Phobias-
Adding a character who has a fear of animals, shadows, spiders etc. can add words as well. If the character is afraid of dogs, there's a bunch of scenes just waiting to be written with encountering canines and the havoc that follows.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
This isn't just a trick ^^ There is such thing as over detail, but I find a decent amount of it is very pleasant to read. I like using a lot of detail, particularly at the beginning of the book when the reader doesn't quite have a "feel" for the setting yet.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Amen to that. Too many people think description is a "trick", so they don't write descriptions. But description is vital. The description of a room tells you a lot about the people.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Ooh excellent idea with the phobias, one of my characters was trapped in a burning library when she was young and one of the members of my pantheon of cruel and embittered deities is Fire and he does so love to mess with people....
I feel kinda bad for subjecting poor Estella to Fire but in the end I'm sure Prometheus will be his usual secretly self-sacrificing self....if Fire allows him to be. Oh dear...
Hey, if I make Prometheus afraid of deities in general they can a field day and so can I! Yay word count!!! *throws confetti*
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Make your character bake a very complicated cake and describe everything down to the finest details!^^
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Definitely doing that this year. I'm using cake to start my NaNo novel... it will make for a delicious month, indeed!
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
On the 2009 forums we had a very long way of writing out the dates and times. Unfortunately, that was lost to a wipe. I'll recreate what I can from memory, however.
"On the twenty seventh day of the eleventh month of the year of our Lord two thousand and eleven by the Gregorian calendar, as the sun rose above the [insert landscape of choice here] in the morning at twenty five minutes past six o'clock..."
Or something like that.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Something I utilized a lot last year was newspaper articles. Whenever I didn't know how to start a scene and on top of it all needed some extra words, I would have a character read the newspaper and write out two or three sentences about some completely irrelevant news item.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
wish i could use that but I can't because my characters are in this fantasy realm where they don't even have nwspapers. :'(
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Long, drawn out examinations of my MC's inner feelings. Document how EVERYTHING makes him feel. Antagonist gave him a mean look? Two paragraphs detailing how hurt he is.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
Love you :D.
Re: Down and Dirty Tricks for reaching word count
I do this too with all my characters, my story would be only about 10,000 words if I didn't XD.