Any One Need A Last Minute Push?

If you're not sure you can finish--ask for help. We have a number of people who have experience with giving a final push and winning. (And several people are already planning on writing until midnight on Friday night.)

You can add a few dream sequences. You can play what-if. You can skip the one scene that is slowing you down and write other stuff. You can write some simple actions so you get your characters to the next scene and write that one and the one after that, and the one...

Some people can add description and fill pages. (Not me. Description slows me down.)

I like dialogue. That's what I write the fastest.

But, whatever works for you.

If there's a problem, post something here. You'll probably get a few good ideas.

I've tried descriptions. I've tried skipping scenes. I'm just dead. At least I'm not five days behind anymore, only about 500 or so words behind par, but I want a minimum of 51k by Friday, despite my not being home Friday night, so basically by tomorrow night, to ensure that NaNo gets 50k out of my word count -I use LibreOffice, don't know how much that's off by-.
I've written almost 5k today, and can't seem to go on.......any ideas?

Phoenixica24 wrote:
I've tried descriptions. I've tried skipping scenes. I'm just dead. At least I'm not five days behind anymore, only about 500 or so words behind par, but I want a minimum of 51k by Friday, despite my not being home Friday night, so basically by tomorrow night, to ensure that NaNo gets 50k out of my word count -I use LibreOffice, don't know how much that's off by-.
I've written almost 5k today, and can't seem to go on.......any ideas?

Tell us something more about your story and the part of that story that remains yet to be told.

Maybe there is a plot twist that can be added...

Phoenixica24 wrote:

I've written almost 5k today, and can't seem to go on.......any ideas?

Have you tried introducing a new char? Someone based on a person who is really annoying you? That can be useful. It can be minor or major, depending on your story.

You can also have a char weigh the pros and cons of something--even something trivial can not only result in a few hundred words, it can also give you an idea for future conflicts.

One year I ended up 24,000 words in the last three days of Nano (granted I was aiming for 150k at the time) but I got tired of writing my story so what I did was write an expanded plot outline. That is I said things like - then Joe and Sam when here and they talked with the staff. They thought it was funny how pompous the staff were.

I included no dialogue, minimal description and just wanted to guide my thinking about where the story was going. I found I would write a lot of words and not have to "think" about grammar, dialogue, or precise description. This worked for about 5k words and then I felt energized and went back to where I'd left off on my story and wrote more completely in story form.

Not saying this will work for you, but it worked for me when I was stuck.

Dave AKA TRRDEDEAN

WRITE EARLY, WRITE OFTEN!

Thanks! I introduced a minor character, but not based off of anyone I needed someone for my queen to vent to. (or rather, on. He's in jail now.......I feel kinda bad for him, but he's not gonna die. Yet. I havent decided his future after his spying mission yet.)
It's based on my own races and worlds, with a theme of Stars being living, humanoid creatures with extraordinary powers, but no ability to use them anymore since their deity moved on.......and their sister race, Daemons, can, but they are slowly losing this ability too. The whole theme is you can do anything if you have imagination and if you believe, but it's full of tricks and betrayals and uncertainty and doubt and grand, rich people who have no emotion and are endlessly cruel and this one girl, still a child, who stands up to find out the truth and fight for it-eventually leading a rebellion. She's the reincarnation of Phoenix, the deity, and also the Star princess. Her mother is the Star queen, and only cares about her daughter as an heir, whereas she (Kila, the princess), has never met her Daemon father -yet.- She will soon!
I kind of got back on track by deciding to skip some of the less important stuff. I had her going on a royal tour of all the district capitals of worlds, etc. with her mother and again with her father to show the difference between the races' perspective on things, but I altered the Daemon perspective in the royal sense slightly, and I'm shortening the Star tour by using letters for everything but the first visit just so I can fit everything in one novel.
I have everything planned out in the big view, but not so many details mapped out just yet, just a few detailed ideas here and there.

I've also written out the entire plot for the story in bullet points for word count already. hehe :)
So close now! :D

I only need 6623 words left. I have written 5017 words today alone.

Must follow Dori's advice. "Just keep swimming. Just keep Swimming"

Maybe I should do like John Steinbeck and include a chapter about a turtle flipped upside down on a highway.

I was just checking my word count before validating and I am finding things do not add up to what I thought I was keeping track of. So I have no idea what my final word count will be or if I am just missing something or what. I thought I had everything accounted for but now it looks like I am missing about 3000 words and I have no idea where they went or what piece they came from.

DJRM wrote:
now it looks like I am missing about 3000 words and I have no idea where they went or what piece they came from.

Bummer. That is really painful.