Yep, for the many people (me included) who aren't going to reach the 50k point, we might need a couple of sub-plots.
Here's a fewI used in my story:
Have your character go to a party with complete strangers.
Talk about your other character's past.
----------
71,384 / 50,000
Nov 13, 2007 - 03 39
have a new random guy turn up and ramble for a bit.
----------create some complex society/culture in the background which can be revealed in the strangest of ways.
have a cult turn up.
realise that your MCs 'mother' is not actually his genetic mother but his aunt, and his 'aunt' who is now dead left him some diaries which explain it in terms of a complex government plot.
have the government chase after a character
create another MC and work out how to make both the plots come together (more of a second plot than a sub plot but still...)
NutmegAngel
Inspired by chocolate.
Fuelled by tea.
55,975 / 50,000
Nov 13, 2007 - 08 15
Have your MC's house, workplace, den, lair, whatever, be infested with something, termites, fleas, fire ants, poisionous snakes. The subplot = how they deal.
----------Trebuchet Club member
--------
It's the end of November and you're still twitching? Come over to www.ToBoldlyNano.com ; we've got what you crave.
53,323 / 50,000
Nov 14, 2007 - 16 23
Have character go to a selling party, like a tuperwear party (for a friend, so going out of obligation)... anything can happen then
Lunch with a friend
At familys house for dinner
Journal writing (can be done through out) or e-mail or text messaging or IMs
Dates or romantic interest
Friend getting married or moving or new baby (the MC is involved but not directly invovled)
15,711 / 50,000
Nov 14, 2007 - 17 22
The MC signs up to be in a school play/tallent show sort of thing. Then the part of his memory is wiped that has what he is going to do. He must relearn it all.
Have one character act insentive about another characters disablility with out knowing why that they have said disability. Once they find out why they must make amends.
------------
Class of '09
I was in the park, wondering why frisbees get bigger and bigger as they get closer. Then it hit me.
50,893 / 50,000
Nov 14, 2007 - 17 54
Have the MC be captured by a race of cannabalistic pigmies.
----------“Any more of those cliché lines and I will personally see to it you are thrown out the airlock." - Verne Fortunado
2007 Winner- The Good, The Deadly, and The Absurd
11,694 / 50,000
Nov 14, 2007 - 21 08
I may just have to adopt the one about the cult showing up...that should be extremely interesting at a Catholic boarding school.
And I'm leaving these:
-----------MC is an heir/heiress of an estate
-MC is forced to take responsiblity of someone else's child for a period of time (like a sick friend's kid, dead relative's kid, whatever)
-MC finds a dead body
-Someone else finds out the MC's darkest secret
-MC is blackmailed by mysterious someone from their past
"The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair; and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater."
-J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
50,383 / 50,000
Nov 15, 2007 - 03 42
Considering that my MCs are fighting a human experimentation project that used to be government sponsored, I think I might do #4 and #5 somewhere.
50,093 / 50,000
Nov 15, 2007 - 07 54
- MC becomes sick (that could be anything from a common cold to a witch laying a curse on him) and has to take a few days off the main track to get cured, in whatever way.
- A side character vanishes mysteriously and returns a while later, then tells the story of what happened. (done to death, I know)
- Character gets captured and brought to or stuck in a strange land; follow up with a description of the differences between that country and his original country.
- Character loses something important to them (not necessarily to others though) and absolutely has to go and search for it.
- Character has to sort out family (or someone else's close to him) trouble that distracts him EXACTLY in the middle of a critical phase of the story (battle, chase, etc)
- Character meets stranger in bar, has to explain the next morning to his girl/boyfriend why something happened (or prove that it didn't)
- Characters lose means of transportation and need to buy/steal/negotiate a new one. E.g. Car/horse/hyperdrive breaking down, getting kicked out of trains, ending up on the no-fly list, breaking a leg.
- Characters get captured by baddies who completely fail to realize who they are and must escape before the big bad boss hears of it.
- Tell a legend of the country or place the characters are travelling through, with or without actual relevance to the story or the situation the characters are currently in.
I could come up with more I'm sure; maybe later. Some of those I may use myself.
;)
----------"A word in the hand is worth two in the brain."
-Ursula Vernon
53,323 / 50,000
Nov 15, 2007 - 16 44
-MC is blackmailed by mysterious someone from their past
I like this! It will work for my novel where I"m at and keep it going. Thanks!
*volunteer work somewhere
*birthday celebration for one day
*weekend trip
*holiday
50,694 / 50,000
Nov 15, 2007 - 17 45
*A race that shouldn't be in your book mysteriously appears, or someone of that race appears and your characters need to find out A. What the heck they are and B. How/Why they're there.
Immediately later they find a complex secret society of this race and complete flip out and throw away all of their held notions of the world.
*One of your supporting characters is admitted to a mental hospital. For a good reason. Your other characters must initiate a rescue/prove him sane/visit him a couple times during the course of their journey.
----------“We don’t have time for training,” Hazel cried.
“Then we’ll have to use a substitute as old as time,” Jasper said softly.
“And that is?”
“Near-death experiences.”
50,134 / 50,000
Nov 15, 2007 - 18 34
* One of the secondary characters is slowly revealed to have an addiction to some kind of controlled substance/'bad habit' (i.e., addicted to sex, shopping, eating, whatever).
* Someone gets hit by a car, thinks they're going to die, and tearfully pours out some silly, long-kept secret to his/her attending nurse. ("it really *was* me who broke his gameboy, and I never told him! You'll tell him for me, won't you?? You'll tell him I'm sorry??") Of course, after doing so, a doctor appears and tells the character s/he's going to be fine.
* Your characters go club-hopping. (My characters, being oh-so-cool, do this rather a lot.) Describe the location, decor, clientele, and quality of each club they go to, with pros and cons for each. (My favorite from my story-- and where my Romantic Interest made his first real appearance-- was a club called Orange Eight, an orange-juice themed club complete with giant bowl of orange-colored water with people swimming in it.)
----------Title: Penny Candy
Genre: Erotic Fiction
Summary: In a down-and-dirty city where a good time is only a few dollars away, a dancer who's looking for life and an addict who's already given up come to an "agreement" with only one rule... No Love Allowed.
50,161 / 50,000
Nov 16, 2007 - 01 03
- A character has many dying/ill/mourning relatives or friends all at one time and he/she absolutely MUST visit them ALL. Perhaps some of them even have new and interesting diseases that must be fully explained to the reader before the story can continue!
- A character is in need of a new pair of gloves or a jacket or something, but ends up trying on everything in the store. In great and lengthy detail.
----------______________
NaNoWriMo '07: The Squabbles of Nearly But Not-Quite Scientists; winner!
FAWM '08: "The Fall of the Candy Gladiator and Other Tales"; winner!
SF '08: In planning...
54,200 / 50,000
Nov 16, 2007 - 02 42
Describe an average day life of your character.
This is extra-good if your char lives in a fantasy world/is unusual in some way.
I boosted my word count by 3.5k words with this. ^_^
----------50,620 / 50,000
Nov 16, 2007 - 06 53
Have a snow storm or other force of nature happen. MC checks out the weather report (you could write the entire weather persons description of the situation), sees if work (school) is delayed or canceled. Accidents cause by the storm - either reported by the media, observed by the MC or involving the MC.Describe what things look like on the way to work. Once they get to work/school the usual day is disrupted due to not everybody showing up and you can. I had a snow storm cause delays getting to work and then ice bringing down a main power line in the afternoon. MC's office shut down and everyone went home. And lots of calls to friends and family to maje sure everyone is okay and talk about the weather.
----------2006 Winner
2007 ?????
Proud member of The Trebuchet Club 2006, 2007
51,020 / 50,000
Nov 16, 2007 - 15 45
hahaha!! debbi, i read "date of romantic interest" as "dates of ROBOTIC interest" !!!!
perhaps i need to go home and go to be early today.
:D
----------Melissa
-----(the poet who would try to write a novel)
50,079 / 50,000
Nov 16, 2007 - 16 08
Here's one I threw in out of desperation because I still do not have a main plot:
Have your MC get dragged into doing NaNoWriMo, and write scenes from their book. The book within the book. Now the MC is starting to get real life confused with events in her novel. I still don't know where it's going, but she's having a fine time dithering over who will turn out to be the murderer.
- - -
----------2005 NaNo Winner - "Lynch Creek Campaign"
2006 NaNo Winner - "The Four-Night Stand"
2007 NaNo: Spewing prose, in desperate and vain search for a plot
- - -
2005 NaNo Winner - "Lynch Creek Campaign"
2006 NaNo Winner - "The Four-Night Stand"
2007 NaNo: Spewing prose, in desperate and vain search for a plot
53,323 / 50,000
Nov 16, 2007 - 17 00
perhaps i need to go home and go to be early today.
:D
That could work. COMPUTER DATING.
Dates of those interested in computers or robots
Or someone going shopping for a robotic dog or cat.
Money interest... counting it by the dates... being robotic or automatic about it... every 500 words your MC has to count their money interest... (that could add on another 50 words at least... that would be an easy 5000 words total... okay that should be in the Dirty Tricks to Reach 50k)
50,529 / 50,000
Nov 16, 2007 - 17 11
realise that your MCs 'mother' is not actually his genetic mother but his aunt, and his 'aunt' who is now dead left him some diaries which explain it in terms of a complex government plot.
i want to take this one if that's okay and if no one else has claimed it!!!
50,079 / 50,000
Nov 16, 2007 - 17 58
Here's another one. Give your MC a nice existential crisis to work through. Who am I, why am I on this planet, and why hasn't my life turned out the way I envisioned it when I was younger?
That should be good for a few thousand words. At least, I am hoping it will be!
----------- - -
2005 NaNo Winner - "Lynch Creek Campaign"
2006 NaNo Winner - "The Four-Night Stand"
2007 NaNo: Spewing prose, in desperate and vain search for a plot
- - -
2005 NaNo Winner - "Lynch Creek Campaign"
2006 NaNo Winner - "The Four-Night Stand"
2007 NaNo: Spewing prose, in desperate and vain search for a plot
50,049 / 50,000
Nov 16, 2007 - 21 36
Give one of the characters a dark and twisted family secret that comes out and plays an important role in that scene.
For example, the person they think is their brother is acctually their dad as well, all messed up by the brother sleeping with the stepmom.
Or
Have a save-to-*insert noble cause here* rally thats really important to your MC, who simply as to join in for the love of all that is shiny and fluffy.
----------Neo's Nano Journal 2008
50,049 / 50,000
Nov 16, 2007 - 21 37
Give one of the characters a dark and twisted family secret that comes out and plays an important role in that scene.
For example, the person they think is their brother is acctually their dad as well, all messed up by the brother sleeping with the stepmom.
Or
Have a save-to-*insert noble cause here* rally thats really important to your MC, who simply as to join in for the love of all that is shiny and fluffy.
----------Neo's Nano Journal 2008
55,232 / 50,000
Nov 17, 2007 - 01 04
The mother being the aunt sounds likesomething in a Margarette Peterson Haddix book.
----------2006: Dance of the Mamed (about 18000 words)
2007: Project I-12 (WINNER AND FINISHED!)
2008: Melt
71,384 / 50,000
Nov 17, 2007 - 03 47
explain the complex society of the psychopathic talking dogs which are chasing your character. they're vicious, murdering, blood-thirsty creatures who prefer their dinner still alive... and they run a democracy.
----------have world war three break out in the background.
realise that one of the characters (continuation of the aunt being actually the mother one up there - she was dead) is actaully still alive and is in hiding, and let her come and ramble a bit about why she's in hiding and how come she knows an awful lot of stuff.
randomly kill off a secondary characters best friend and have the MC support them through the traumatic experience.
NutmegAngel
Inspired by chocolate.
Fuelled by tea.
20,108 / 50,000
Nov 17, 2007 - 10 07
I'm probably going to take thus. And the party where the MC knows no-one. I'll give you guys credit.
Leaving:
Have a character learn to cook but they find out they have none of the right ingredients- so they improvise. Will they become a famous chef? Will their house go up in flames? It may turn out to be the anti-dote for some deadly virus- who knows?
50,000 words in a month? We can do it guys!
----------50,000 words in a month? We can do it guys!
53,323 / 50,000
Nov 19, 2007 - 16 11
Meets an old friend and talks
Old friends stops by to apologize
Walk in park, describe scenery, maybe with a friend or someone important to the plot? discuss the plot?
51,202 / 50,000
Nov 19, 2007 - 20 34
Have a car wreck. Have a friend of your MC commit a crime.
----------wordcount widgets
14,110 / 50,000
Nov 20, 2007 - 03 33
Now's about the time where everyone's struggling to inject a bit of extraness into their plot (which they didn't realise would wrap itself up nicely after 30,000 words and leave you with a poignant ending that you can't bare to sully by tacking a 20,000 word 'epilogue' onto the end of it). So what do you do?
1) You know that homeless guy/night porter/hotdog merchant that your MC rudely ignored in chapter 3? Well he nicked from her pocket and now, racked with guilt, follows your MC through the book trying to return it without her noticing.
2) Got a Tertiary Character who seemed good at the time but by the middle of the book was just taking up space so you could split dialogue across more people and up the wordcount? Kill him off ASAP and give his dialogue to someone else. Then you can have a lengthy funeral/reminiscing chapter!
3) Dead TC's parents employ crusty 'necromancer' to resurrect TC. Whether successful or not it's sure to cause hilarity/catastrophe.
50,114 / 50,000
Nov 20, 2007 - 11 54
Oh, I read that book! Escape From Memory? That was a good book. Lots of plot twists. Margaret Peterson Haddix is a ten times better writer than I'll ever be xD
50,001 / 50,000
Nov 21, 2007 - 04 01
create some complex society/culture in the background which can be revealed in the strangest of ways.
have a cult turn up.
realise that your MCs 'mother' is not actually his genetic mother but his aunt, and his 'aunt' who is now dead left him some diaries which explain it in terms of a complex government plot.
have the government chase after a character
create another MC and work out how to make both the plots come together (more of a second plot than a sub plot but still...)
You are very, very creepy...you just described all my subplots D= And they were all planned xD
51,214 / 50,000
Nov 21, 2007 - 08 30
I have several odd things that I've been using to keep my word count up. Two of my characters are twins, and they both love to write. However, one writes horror stories when she gets upset and the other writes in her diary about how she needs to stop getting so angry. It gets kinda funny at times... I'm currently attempting to make a night-trip downstairs into a spy mission.
Yeah, I know. *points to self* WiErDo!
----------I might possibly be the most spastic person you will ever know.
!Soy una alce tonta! I'm a silly moose. YAY! *facepalm*