NaNoWriMo - Tricks to get your word count done

Writing 50000 words in 30 days is, in fact, a really scary thing to do. Yes, some people want to write a great book in one go. Some though, understand it’s merely a first draft. First of many, on the road to The Novel. This post will be concentrating on how you can achieve the magical 50000 word count through various tricks and bribes. Obviously, if you’re a white hat and are repelled by any kind of manipulation… Or you wish to reach your target with true and honest work… Well, then this post is not for you. Everybody else? Come to the dark side. We have cookies.

Forget about abbreviations

Now this is something I should never encourage as an editor. But it’s also a great way to get ahead on your word count. Use “he is” instead of “he’s”, “did not” instead of “didn’t”, “have not” instead of “haven’t”, and so on and so forth. Yes, it’s annoying to read later on. Yes, it probably will be extremely annoying to edit after you’re done with the novel. But look at what you’ve already written. How many abbreviations you have in the text? How many extra words would you get just by using this trick? Doesn’t seem a lot, right? Now think in terms of the whole novel. Now’s a bit more, eh?

Don’t go back to fix things

You hear me? Don’t go back. Even better, don’t look at your screen while you type. Fix your eyes on the keyboard and type. Tell your story not looking at the typos or mistakes. They don’t matter. All you need right now is to get on a roll. Every time you go back to fix some typo, or rephrase a sentence, you’re putting a stop to the huge line of words that just begs to get written down. You’re risking forgetting what kind of point you were making before you stopped. And therefore you have to waste time on re-reading a paragraph or two to get into the situation again. Katster called it “keeping your inner editor in a box”. And that’s a great visualization. Your inner editor, of all editors in the world, is your biggest enemy in November. So just shove him into a closet and lock him up.

Describe, describe, describe

Another of Katster’s great advises. “When in doubt, describe”. Katster is right in this one. Descriptions eat word count like nothing else. You can describe everything around. Normally it’s what I refer to as ‘unnecessary details’ but here, you want unnecessary information! You want word count! So include all the ingredients of that pizza your character is eating. Every step of fixing the car. Technical details are even better, because instead of wasting time on research, you just describe that rectangular metal tool that’s crucial to fixing the engine.

Inner thoughts and feelings

Embrace them, love them, and write them down. Yesterday I was writing a scene where two of my main characters met. Before I knew I was jumping into ‘emo mode’ and describing the girl’s feeling and doubts about the guy she just met with so much cheesy lines that even the character had to call herself on it just to stay in character. I can’t say it’s a piece of great fiction, but I’m certainly ahead with over 100 extra words (which I will get rid of the first thing December. But still. Anything for the word count)

Word count, word count, word count

This is your mantra. And pay attention to the way it’s written. It’s ‘word count’, not ‘wordcount’. We’re going for quantity. Quality will come AFTER you win NaNoWriMo. And to actually achieve it you need to realize:

What you will commit in the next 30 days will not be a good writing. BUT! It will be a great base for the later. When you will actually eat something that doesn’t contain caffeine. When you will get enough sleep to this of something that isn’t your character or your plot. Let’s say on December 7th.

Stumble It!