Plot Devices and Word Padding

     There are two plot devices that float around the Nano universe.  Well, there are more than two, I'm sure, but these two are annually reoccurring and specific to Nano only.  Mr. Ian Woon and the Travelling Shovel of Death (TSoD). 

     Mr. Ian Woon is an anagram for NaNoWriMo.  The trick is simply to work him into your novel somewhere.  I think this one can be fairly simple.  "The grocers name tag said Mr. Ian Woon, though I knew his name was Fred." "The science teacher was a very tall, very dark skinned, man whose name was Mr. Ian Woon.  MC thought that was not a fitting name for a man who more resembled a star basketball player rather than a geeky oriental physicist".  (lots of stereotyping in that last one, sorry).   It could be the name of the cab driver, a high school boyfriend, the boy who sat next to you in first grade.  There are a lot of possible ways to mention him in passing.   
    I had considered making him a prison guard in my story.  But I think then his title would have had to change to Sergeant, or... officer(?), and the Mr. is pretty important.  I'm planning to put him in somewhere.  I think it is a very fun Easter Egg to place in the story.  Imagine reading a book that you picked up at your favorite Bookseller and finding Mr. Ian Woon flit through the pages.  You would certainly know that the author went through the same brain damage that you've gone through this November!

    The Travelling Shovel of Death is harder to work in.  The point here is to kill off a character in an unexpected fashion.  That might be hard to work in for some novels.  How often is your character carrying around a shovel?  Probably not often, unless he is a gardener or works at a graveyard or a mine (not a lot of mining done with shovels these days either).  But you can work it into a newspaper article that has your heroine running to her lovers arms from the gruesomeness of the murder that was commit with, of all things, a shovel, or the hero was injured and was crawling to safety when the Fairy attacked again.  The hero reached out to find something to defend himself with and his hand came upon the handle of a carelessly mislaid shovel.  He waved the shovel blindly in the air and came into contact with something.  The iron shovel sliced through the fairy like butter killing him instantly (Fairy's are allergic to iron and lemon juice.  I read OK?).
    I'm struggling with working this one in.  There *may* be a point to incorporate it.  But it may be a stretch for the story that I am doing.  Oh wait... I might have another opportunity.  I just thought of something new.  I guess at the very least I can use it to build my word count if I get to a point where I'm stuck.  In the meantime it's there in the back of my mind.