Unstuck! (Or The Novel, Day Sixteen)

I've finally figured it out!
After sixteen days of fighting and just barely staying only one day behind my word count, a whole new vein has opened up. I can't wait to start it (don't worry, I've written it down so I won't forget).
The problem here was that I wanted to focus almost exclusively on Rudy, but since he's stuck in his circumstances there isn't much for him to do. To get through Week Two, I simply got his friends high and had them play a four-person game of Mafia (one of players on the phone).
If you're not familiar with Mafia, it's kind of a role-playing game where you kill each other off in your imaginary little town, but it requires a group of at least eight to work well. Also, the killing is done by pointing and nonverbal signals while everyone else's eyes are closed -- having one of the players on the phone lets everyone know who's being killed by whom, meaning your game pretty much lasts one round instead of a dozen or so.

Anyway, I've discovered that while Rudy is the pivotal character -- all the action in the book is as a direct result of who he was and what happened to him -- the book is more about Preston than anyone else (at least right now).
I knew Clayton and Preston's reactions would be a big part of the book but I can't let Clayton recover too easily (after all, he was Rudy's best friend) and I was planning on Preston being the rock through the whole situation. My problem though was that I was trying to keep Preston too neutral about the whole thing... a little shocked maybe, but not much more than that.
But something like this would rock his world. It would take his faith and turn it on its head. It would bring him to question everything he's strived for.

So as of today I'm introducing a new character -- Preston's friend Jon. I think Jon is going to be more of the 'rock' character than Preston, since he's fairly removed from the whole situation... his only connection is Preston, who himself wasn't directly involved. (Also, Jon's a Lecrae fan... music in the story tends to help it along, I've found.)

My statistics so far (note that I haven't written anything today yet):
Goal for Day Sixteen: 25,806
Word count so far: 24,007
I'm not out of this contest yet!

The Novel, Day Seven

Racing through plot at insane pace. What should have taken me a good fifty thousand words to write has petered out at 12,600 (the story would be done by now except I'm trying not to use up my entire plot before I hit fifteen thousand words).
Have made a decision though that hopefully should take up lots of words.
But first, the story so far.
We've met Rudy and there is a brief description of two separate drunken parties which he and his friends throw. From one Rudy arrives home safely (if hung over). We meet his Christian neighbour Preston at that point. Naturally Rudy can't stand him.
Then after the second party, Rudy attempts to drive home like he always does. On the way, though, all the drugs and alcohol team up and render him unconscious at the wheel, which causes a nasty accident.
A few hours later he dies in the hospital of a drug overdose, although the injuries from the accident didn't help matters.
Here's where I've been stuck for over six thousand words already. Rudy's argued with a whole bunch of people in Hell over the same thing over and over and over. Preston grapples with the fact that despite his fervent prayers Rudy never accepted Jesus, and Rudy's best friend (and drug supplier) Clayton struggles with the news that Rudy is dead.
So now, in the interest of creating words without using up my entire story before Week One even ends, I have decided that Clayton is going to get high on something and does... any number of stupid random things I can think of (so far the list of potential props involves pickles, post-it note animation, a broken lawn chair, water balloons, and possibly a game of Mafia). If you have any more suggestions, do comment -- no idea is too bizarre for consideration, trust me. I really don't need to revisit the main plot until at least the 25,000 mark (30k more likely).

Also, for you eighties rock fans out there -- you might enjoy this. It's is a video of one of the concerts released as the live Petra album Captured In Time & Space in 1986 -- the last release that featured Greg X Volz on vocals. You can buy the album on iTunes here. The album is slightly different though -- Computer Brains (one of the best on the album in my opinion) is missing from the video.