Have you been committing sins in your wonderful NaNo novel? Have you used contractions in speech or text?
I usually write in the first person but I’m using third person for NaNo (you can fit a lot more description into third person without it getting too stilted!). I noticed that I had some contractions in my main text – hadn’t, couldn’t, didn’t, etc. – so I used the wonderful Find/Replace tool and fixed them all! By running it every now and again I find a few more and boost my word count. I think I’ve increased it by three hundred or so words so far!
So when you can’t find the words you need to move forward and are staring glumly at your word count give it a try! This is NaNo, words are what matters not elegance or accents. If you feel that your characters really need their contractions to sound like themselves add a character from the keyboard that you never use in your writing (#, %, £, $, ~ for example) and mark the change with it (can# not – remember not to fill the space between the words!) then come Dec 1st you can go back and contract them all to your heart’s content.
Has anyone else got any ideas for increasing word count without actually writing? :)
----------
2005 - Team 324 - contemporary action smut - 53K (now 57K) unfinished
2006 - Dragon's Breath - fantasy romance smut - 82.5K (still 82.5K) unfinished
2007 - Dark Masters: Smoke - sci-fi smut
(I'm better at the unfinished part than the smut part!)
52,361 / 50,000
Nov 11, 2007 - 08 56
Has anyone else got any ideas for increasing word count without actually writing? :)
Well, sort of. I'm pretending I am merely translating a book originally written in Spanish, and have added a translator's foreword, explaining some of the vagaries of translation, and I am also adding footnotes in the text explaining some meanings that aren't apparent in the 'translated' text.
Another device I have used is the following: since the MC is a tv journalist, he'll speak to camera, then he watches himself back on tv, so you can use the same monologue twice, or even three times if you let him play it back to himself in between. Sneaky, not?
--Pico d'Ornitorrinco
----------50,614 / 50,000
Nov 11, 2007 - 09 39
I found out if you use opposite words. You might be able to gain a word or two.
For example.
The door is closed.
Instead use.
The door is not open.
By adding not you gain an extra word.
----------Take care,
Snarfgirl2007
71,343 / 50,000
Nov 11, 2007 - 09 40
I'm having occasional contractions (!), but they're more than made up for by the Astoundingly Stilted Fantasy Speech Mode of Doom, so I've left 'em alone. Plus I'm not exactly behind the curve just now (you watch, that'll get me zotted with a three-day migraine, won't it).
----------NaNo 07: The Thief and the Blood
57,602 / 50,000
Nov 11, 2007 - 13 52
Somehow I am still ahead of myself without doing the find and replace thing (yet). Some of my characters speak in ancient greek which needs translating but not all that often. The mythical characters do talk in a very roundabout way, and then there are the sex scenes of course which the ancient greeks are famous for, in my novel anyway they are. (oh and see this weekend's groiniad review section, just up my street) Then there are the scenes which are seen twice, from a different POV. And the bits where someone gets confused about what's happening so everything has to be explained over and over and over. Not cheating, just realistic some people do get confused a lot, specially in the police force.
Adjectives are my friends. Adjectives are my pals Adjectives go everywhere I go. Leaping jumping hopping for joy, for delight.
Oh I love Adjectives. Mmmm. *Jazz Hands*
it's the lack of sleep.
130,341 / 50,000
Nov 11, 2007 - 14 17
my usual trick: if there is more than one way to say whatever it is you are trying to get across, instead of choosing whichever one works the best, stick 'em ALL in there, one after another.
Yes it can end up sounding a bit like the whole 'holy hand grenade' scene thing, but oh boy does it up the numbers!
----------______________________________________
Anne-Lise [ML for Europe::England::Cambridge]
~2007: the umbran alliance
~2006: adaptation
~2005: a life in the day
~2004: trinity
57,602 / 50,000
Nov 11, 2007 - 14 26
a hospital blanket in 67 words, a typical diversion :)
50,099 / 50,000
Nov 11, 2007 - 15 35
Well, I've introduced some characters who go to a poetry club in a dingy cafe. One of them has just quoted a poem by Shelley. 243 words and completely relevant to the plot. :)
Unfortunately, another character now has to read a poem of his own, which means I have to write one. :-o This could go badly...
102,337 / 50,000
Nov 11, 2007 - 16 01
Wonderful ideas! I'm using a lot of stock filler phrases too and a smattering of cliches. I am hitting the procrastination point more often and find myself wandering off to do weird things like clean the chip pan... I ever thought about cleaning windows... Nano always seems to inspire me to do more housework than writing. But I am fighting the good fight and not giving in to the temptation to spring clean the house for Christmas! Even if Loriba has passed the 50K already and Sniglet will be there shortly, I will keep on chugging behind them!
----------2005 - Team 324 - contemporary action smut - 53K (now 57K) unfinished
2006 - Dragon's Breath - fantasy romance smut - 82.5K (still 82.5K) unfinished
2007 - Dark Masters: Smoke - sci-fi smut
(I'm better at the unfinished part than the smut part!)
160,056 / 50,000
Nov 11, 2007 - 17 38
Guilty as charged I'm afraid.
I've been splitting up words that shouldn't be split, like news paper, and mad man. It's amazing how it all builds up over time.
----------*Hugs*
Lottie
ML for Europe::England:: Cambridge
cambridge_england[at]nanowrimo[dot]org
2007: Rising Angels, Falling Apes - ??
2006: An Ordinary World - 84k+
2005: Dreaming of Jack - 83k+
102,337 / 50,000
Nov 12, 2007 - 15 23
I have a few 'with outs' and some missing hyphens...
----------2005 - Team 324 - contemporary action smut - 53K (now 57K) unfinished
2006 - Dragon's Breath - fantasy romance smut - 82.5K (still 82.5K) unfinished
2007 - Dark Masters: Smoke - sci-fi smut
(I'm better at the unfinished part than the smut part!)
50,152 / 50,000
Nov 12, 2007 - 23 05
Adverbs are my friends. Especially with speech tags. Why write:
"I'm impressed," he said.
when
"I'm impressed," he said admiringly.
gives you an extra word? :D
I don't deliberately write badly - I have to edit this danged thing once it's finished - but I'm buggered if I'm going to worry about every sentence either. Often the adverb is there to remind me of the tone of voice I was aiming for and probably missed!
And whilst it's not actually cheating, there's definitely something to be said for loquacious Italian villains :)
----------2006 Winner (undergoing revisions)
2007: Treasons, Stratagems and Spoils (alt history fantasy)
Three brothers, two murders, one stolen necklace - and a shipload of trouble!
~o~o~o~o~0~o~o~o~o~
50,024 / 50,000
Nov 13, 2007 - 08 58
I don't usuall split my contractions, it's too much work putting them back together again afterwards. On the other hand, a significant percentage of my typos include a failoure to type the " " character, so al I have to do is the occasional spellcheck, and I get extra bonus words by the dozen. Or at least I do, as long as I have been doing some writing...
----------The Shadowlover
102,337 / 50,000
Nov 13, 2007 - 15 27
That is the problem! To increase your word count with all these little tips and tricks you do have to write some words first! Fortunately drivelling isn't usual a problem for me - trying to drivel to a plot line can be more difficult! But remember that for NaNo the drivel is more important than the plot! And sometimes the drivel will make its own way back to where you thought you were going or find somewhere even more interesting!
----------2005 - Team 324 - contemporary action smut - 53K (now 57K) unfinished
2006 - Dragon's Breath - fantasy romance smut - 82.5K (still 82.5K) unfinished
2007 - Dark Masters: Smoke - sci-fi smut
(I'm better at the unfinished part than the smut part!)
57,602 / 50,000
Nov 14, 2007 - 05 05
when the nanowrimo counter ate up over 200 words I did use find/replace but it only gave me about 100 words - ah well , back to the 2k love scenes....
160,056 / 50,000
Nov 14, 2007 - 07 30
Well one good way of increasing your word count is to use the Terry Pratchett method of having one group of characters sing a song which consists of the same word being repeated over and over again. Then you just copy and paste. No actual writing involved at all!
If it's very a popular song, you can gain literally hundred of extra words that way.
Also, for my 2005 novel I wrote a police procedural type thing, with several grisly murders. As a result, after each murder, my MC had a long conversation with the pathologist about what had happened, then another with the forensics team, then another with his second in command, another with his entire investigation team, and then a fifth with his wife when he got home. So, exactly the same information imparted five different times. It was all told in a slightly different way each time, but it didn't have to be, I could have cut and pasted whole paragraphs if I needed to. That would have increased the count massively with absolutely no extra effort at all.
HTH
L
----------*Hugs*
Lottie
ML for Europe::England:: Cambridge
cambridge_england[at]nanowrimo[dot]org
2007: Rising Angels, Falling Apes - ??
2006: An Ordinary World - 84k+
2005: Dreaming of Jack - 83k+
57,602 / 50,000
Nov 18, 2007 - 13 22
I'm thinking of putting in those long Victorian type chapter headings which always begin, 'In Which...' and then go on to describe everything that happens in the chapter. I'm saving this option for when a real block strikes and I find it impossible to write anything at all.
38,962 / 50,000
Nov 22, 2007 - 21 48
I quoted earlier dreams in the last one. Sinner becomes winner.
----------07 Nano: Cafe X: 38,962
50,444 / 50,000
Nov 28, 2007 - 14 13
My favourite way to add masses of unnecessary words is long character names; rather than calling someone 'Tim' or 'John', call him 'the man with the coat and the hat'. Eight words! everytime he speaks! incredible.