Final stretch

Yesterday morning, I woke up to discover that my laptop had fallen into a coma. Despite all of my attempts to revive it, nada. So while this set back could have spelled disaster for this particular project, I had (luckily) gotten into the habit of emailing drafts to myself each day, so I did not lose any momentum.  This afternoon my laptop will undergo surgery; the prognosis is uncertain at the moment, but I am hoping for a speedy recovery. 

In the meanwhile, I am limping along on a temporary computer and have just completed writing the final remaining chapters in the novel. At just over 44,000 words, the outline is fully-fleshed out and the first draft of the novel is basically done. 

Cause for celebration, right? Not so fast. I need to come up with 6,000 additional words to meet the minimum 50,000-word requirement of nanowrimo. For those who are keeping track, this is about 30 pages of filler.

What to do? My options would include the following:

• add epic battle scenes filled with carnage and gore
  
• describe forests in such excruciating detail down to kingdom, phylum, class, etc.
  
• introduce more characters and complexity to the plot, only to purge them once they have served their purpose
  
• insert footnotes detailing the genealogy of each character (inserting 'begat' in every third word )
• write lyrics and have my characters spontaneously burst into song
  

And even though I am tempted to begin rewriting this novel, I am advised by published authors to abstain. Again, this is unchartered territory for me. Any advice?

Hey, would anybody like to know the color of the hem of the hero's garment during a battle?

I didn't think so.

Punchlines

Wow! Is that Mr. Rogers in your neighborhood? That is so cool...

...that he's updated his knitted sweater look for a Snuggie and a pair of Uggs.