Thursday, July 3, 2014

5 ways to boost your word count without cheating

It's the 3rd day of Camp NaNoWriMo! This is a NaNo light so you get to choose your own word count starting at 10, 000 words. But let's use the daily word count  for a 50k novel. Writers need 1,667 words to reach that goal by day 30 (31 in July yay we get an extra day!) That doesn't seem like an unreasonable amount of words to write in an entire day. (Are they crazy? )  But there are days that life will interfere with our lofty noveling goals and we're lucky to get 2 words on paper. Try one of these word pumpers when your fingers start to slow.

1. Sprinting
Meet up with other Wrimos in person or online and see who can write the most words in a set amount of time. Most sprints are 10-20 minutes long. This is great for a tweet-up. You'll be amazed at how many words you can get down with a couple hours of sprinting. Not to mention the fun! 

2. Long Lost Friend /Relative
If you feel your scene is dragging or you just can't get those words out. Try having your character run into an old friend or relative while their out and about. Or even a phone call from them. You can add tons of words as they reminisce about old times or that Thanksgiving when Aunt Mable's cat ate the stuffing. Even if it's something you may edit out in the next draft it will breath some new life into your muse and pad that count! 

3. Disaster Strikes
A hurricane heading in, a freak F5 tornado, earthquake, flood, a 3-10 car pile up. Any one of those can add at least a couple of pages worth of wordiness. You have the before, during, and effects after that might even bring out some qualities you didn't know your characters had

4. Kill'em
Let's face it. Death is wordy. Not matter how or who gets bumped off you've get at least 4 scenes off a corpse turning up. The death itself, the discovery, the aftermath, and the funeral, lots and lots of words. 

5. Use Your Senses
You have 5 senses taste, touch, scent, sight, sound. Every single environment your characters walk into, or crash into in some cases, holds each of these elements just waiting for you to detail them. A car crash could have the scent of smoke and gasoline in the air. They would see broken glass, dented and crushed cars, hear someone crying for help or a sirens approaching, maybe a car horn. Taste blood from a gash, or if gas is thick in the air it will leave a taste on your tongue. They may feel the ache of injury or the rough edges or the broken plastic of the dash. Talk about filling the pages, just let your nose guide you... literally

Okay, there you have it 5 ways to get wordy and pad that word count. Now, stop reading this blog and get back to your novel! :)   

About Elise VanCise, Meida Director for JLB Creatives Publishing 
Elise VanCise, award winning author, published in print and digital media. Elise is a Florida Cracker, with a love for adventure and historic places. NaNoWriMo Municipal Liaison for Lake County, Florida, Founder of Lake Writers of Lake County, Florida. Member of Marketing for Romance Writers.Org, Member of Coffee Time Romance Brew Crew, Advocate for Public Libraries, Young Writers, Autism, COPD. 

Where to find Elise on the web! 
Gladiator’s Pen Blog http://gladiatorspen.blogspot.com

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