Too many descriptions, not enough plot or characters!!

Help! Last year was my first year NoNo-ing. For the first week, I was happily flying along with my word count but started to loose heart when I realised that I didn't have a plot,. Not only that, but my main character killed off nearly everyone by the end of Chapter 2, and I was unable to replace his victims with other characters (except for a clairvoyant, non-speaking cat). My enthusiasm fizzled out by the end of the second week, and I wound up a NaNo-no-no looser. This year I want to win! But am finding myself in the familiar situation of having very few characters and no real sense of direction. I am way behind of my word count, and find I am trying to make up numbers by being very descriptive about visuals. Does anyone else have a dearth or characters or plot but a beautiful setting?!