Tortoise pace....

Oh my. I'm way behind on word count. So much so that I have started using 'fillers' to pad my word count. Last November, around this point, I encountered the same problem. My solution last year was to write an entire episode of House (the medical drama) into my story. It was fun and took my story into some bizarre territory.

But I can't use the same thing this year. I needed something new and different, and I've come up with something fantastic. I have a scientist with a compulsion to read all ingredient lists. It doesn't matter what the product is: cereal, canned spaghetti, motor oil, shampoo, toothpaste. He's got to read them all. And so he does. And boy, does it take lots and lots of words to go through all those ingredients. Whenever I need an extra 200 words or so, I just go to my cupboard and grab anything (the more processed the better). Who knew there were so many things in mayonnaise? And I'm learning a lot about processed food. Did you know that table salt contains sugar? I'm serious. And that many brands of vitamins use crushed clam shells (?!!) as a source of calcium carbonate? I don't even want to go into what I discovered about some of my favourite foods. So I'll stop while I'm ahead (for a change).

Onwards and upwards....