Racing to Finish

The team over at Paper Hangover posed this question for their Friday Fives:

What are the FIVE ways that get you from the beginning to the end of your WiP without losing all your hair?

So, here are mine (I have baby fine hair-- I can't afford to lose any!):

1.  #1K1hr on Twitter.  It forces me to sit my butt in a chair for one hour straight (or multiple hours) with partners to cheer you on because they're also racing towards that word count

2.  Create needy, annoying characters.  They keep running around in my head and screaming for attention until I get their antics down.  When I don't love a character, it's like pulling teeth to write about them.

3.  Music. For "The Desired", I found that I wrote best to Dutch Symphonic Metal and French pop-rock.  One character only seemed to like Flogging Molly and Death Cab for Cutie.  And one entire scene was fueled by a Eurovision song contest winner.  When the music didn't jive with the character/scene/story, everything would drag.  (For those who are REALLY curious, the Symphonic Metal is "Within Temptation", French pop-rock is "Kyo", Eurovision contest winner song is Lena's "Satellite"  I totally recommend all of them.)

 (Hee! Edited to add "Satellite"!)

4.  I tell people that I'm writing "a book."  Shames me into writing just to avoid explaining why I haven't upped my word count.

5.  "The End" are the two sweetest words in the universe.  What better incentive do I need than that?

(oh, and 6: Don't pull at your hair.  That might help a lot, too)

Do you have any tips?  Comment here or head on over to Paper Hangover to post your own five tips!