Congratulations! You have just survived the first week of National Novel Writing Month. Whether you’ve written twenty words or twenty thousand, your goal is eminently doable. Our fearless leader Amy didn’t start last year’s NaNoWriMo until around the 10th of the month, and she won. You can, too.
For some, you can’t write fast enough for all the ideas you have. For others, each daily word count can feel like a marathon, as you painfully eke out stingy paragraphs in an attempt to move the story from point A to point B. When an hour’s worth of focused writing yields a paltry few hundred words.
That was me on Wednesday.
Then I remembered. I don’t have to get from point A to point B. It doesn’t have to flow, it doesn’t have to make sense. All it has to do is produce a viable word count.
Once I remembered that, my word count began to swell. With this in mind, here is my official . . .
Word Count Padding Tip: Social Conversation
Your characters may be out saving the world or trying to destroy it, but they can still have a nice long conversation with an old friend or relative. Base it on your own experience, and you won’t even have to invest any imagination. For example, have your MC describe your favorite vacation in great detail. Your MC’s friend can then describe your second favorite vacation. In great detail.
Then, the magic NaNoWriMo fairies will actually make this scene useful for your story down the road. It’s true. I’ve seen them.
Stay tuned for next week’s Word Count Padding Tip: Arguing About Politics.
Write on!
Shannon
Co-Municipal Liason
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40,665 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2009 - 06 07
Thanks for the pep talk Shannon! I needed it! I think I've been trying to make my story make sense! Damn my logic! Curses to my Inner Editor. I shall, from now on, embrace my inner "rambling psychotic" and add dimensional personality and psychological disorders to several of my main characters.
Think of the elevator scene from "Revolver"! That was a whole heck-of-a-lot of word count in that 60-second psychotic break with reality. Yes. In addition to my sombrero wearing, time-traveling scientists I will have add "with issues" to that list! Yes, I will not have sombrero wearing, time-traveling scientists with borderline personality disorders and zombies with dissociative syndrome and lets not forget the GIANT MUCUS SEA BLOBS with manic/depressive disorder who need regular and intensive talk therapy.
Those sessions between therapist and sea blog should garner some juicy word count right there!!!
At 11k and aiming for the 15k by Monday target!
----------China
China Krys Darrington
china@chinakrysdarrington
38,216 / 50,000
Nov 7, 2009 - 07 38
LOL! Now you're talking, China! MC mental illnesses are our friends! Give a Sea Blob a psychologist and never you'll never worry about word count again. :-)
Shannon
50,836 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 15 03
Great thoughts. I took a screen writing class from Ellen Sandler, co-producer of Everybody Loves Raymond this summer and she said that their motto was:
Don't write it well - JUST WRITE IT.
Love that.
Just topped 21k. I have to finish this project by 11/20 because of travel and so I'm feeling panic begin to set in.
----------Deborah Chaddock Brown, freelance writer specializing in web content; helping customers connect via the Internet. www.allwriteink.com. But by night I'm a frustrated first person, tongue in check, fiction writer striving to write the great American novel.
38,216 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 15 26
Congrats on the awesome word count, Deborah! Just goes to show you, no matter how many words you have under your belt. the Word Count Gremlins will make you feel like you are behind.
You are not behind. You are right on schedule. Thwack that Word Count Gremlin right in the forehead - that drives them nuts.
Shannon