Rubber Novel

You've heard of "Rubber Chicken" as a meal, right?

You haven't? Oh, well, it's a way of s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g a chicken to make at least three meals.

Day one: Roasted chicken.
Day two: Chicken soup, from boiling the chicken carcass for broth.
Day three: Chicken casserole, made from all the little bits of chicken left from the carcass.

With this idea in mind, I'm trying to figure out how to stretch a 50,000 word novel into a 70,000 word novel -- make a Rubber Novel, if you will. I deleted a major subplot of Camilla (I think I already said this yesterday), and it's created a serious word deficit that I need to fill. I think I can, (I think I can, I think I can), but I can't seem to brainstorm any scenes from scratch.

I'm relying on writing prompts. Man, I love prompts. In both of my crit groups, we have weekly prompts and they are fabulous for getting the creative juices flowing. Last weeks (that I did yesterday...) was a great start for poor Camilla. It gave me the idea for an entire scene AND an idea for something that's going to be a recurring theme throughout the novel. YAY! Words. Feel the stretch.

You know, I'm on my third WIP (seventh, if you count the books I wrote as a young adult long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away) and you'd think this would get easier.

Those of you out there that whip through your WIP's in a few months... tell me that it gets easier with each consecutive novel... please?

Incidentally, still thinking Paul Nicholls is a cutie... what do you think? Oh, and Mary -- doesn't he look a little like a younger Gerry?