I'll be quick, but wanted to post about a neat little trick I discovered for boosting word count AND keeping your plot on track.
I was writing according to my outline, when suddenly things took an unplanned turn. I began writing a completely different scene that wasn't in the outline and realized if I was going to continue with it, I would end up down a large rabbit trail that would threaten the continuity of my plot.
So I added these 4 simple words and it fixed everything:
"But that's another story."
It enabled me to keep the couple paragraphs of words I had written, therefore upping my word count, and I was able to get back to my original plans for the story. Plus, it leaves that "other story" wide open for an extra short story I can write later on the side, or incorporate some other time. It adds background to the story, gives the appearance of depth, and shows the reader that there's more to the story than is being told.
Anyways, hope that helps! Got any methods about writing or reaching 50k you'd like to share?
(Edit: Word count at the end of Monday is 23,451. I'm on track for 100k!)
I think that "device" only works if you're telling it from some narrator perspective. Otherwise...it will confuse your readers. Am I crazy?
ReplyDeleteNo, you're not crazy. (Well, you are but not because of your comment.) :P
ReplyDeleteIt's something that lends itself mostly to third person omniscient narrator. Though if you were writing in first person, it could still work.
But even if you're not writing in the right POV for it to work, you can use that phrase during NaNoWriMo just to get yourself back on track. When you re-write, of course you'll want to edit it into the proper POV and tense, etc.
But for November, we are working towards literary abandon just to bang out words. Excellence is for December. ;)