Making your novel longer AFTER it's done

I did this, but only because I felt the story needed it. I mapped out the city a little better, tried to give the reader a better guide to the environment and locations, allowed alittle more room for history so as to give the world depth. I also realised that the events happened too fast, sometimes way too fast, with little explanation. Therefore I added two new characters, who I actually quite like, and they'd added a wealth of new story to the . . .er, story.

I did once. I re-read the book and as I did I noticed a very large gap between action sequences. I added a training simulation scene which really should have been in the plot from the beginning anyway.

It kind of depends on how many words you're looking to add. A thousand? Ten thousand?

Depending on your goals, sometimes adding a scene here and there, a few new characters, etc., is all you need. I've never added more than a couple thousand words to my books, only because that's what it took to improve the story, not to lengthen it. The lengthening was the result and not really the goal.

I went through each chapter and looked for areas when the five senses could be addressed. You'd be amazed at how fleshing out these add not only words, but depth.
C

Add/beef up the subplots.

I agree with citymouse, although I'd call it a search for the four remaining senses: taste, smell, touch, sound. A novel calls completely on the visual. Scenes and characters can almost always be enhanced by giving attention to those oft-neglected elements of the character experience.

Mine started off at 85,000 for the first draft, then I found that the most well-known publisher of novels in Ireland (from what I observe) asks for 100,000 minimum!
I got it to 101,000... then in the editing process I lost three chapters plus fairly hefty chunks out of others, wrote a completely new scene, developed others and it went back up to 96,000. I set it aside and went for the final edit later on which brought it back to 102,000.
Now I'm in query hell...

I write sparse first drafts. No character description, very little scene-setting, not much introspection. This applies to short stories, aborted novels, and the one novel I've managed to finish. Even when I go through and cut things out--which I do a lot of--my word count climbs after each rewrite/revision.

Yep. I've done this.

When I finished the first draft of my first novel, I think it was bordering novella and novel at around 65-75,000 words.

I spent several months more going through adding stuff here and there. Some big stuff. And, I changed the whole leading up to the climax, the climax itself, and a good portion of the ending. It's now 79,750 words.

Consider comparing the novella and novel versions of these stories:

"Nightfall" by Isaac Asimov.
"Enders Game" by Orson Scott Card.
"Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes.

Dale

I always write short. Then I add characters. Scenes. Subplots. Filled out descriptions. I ended up adding nearly 30k to my last novel.

If you need to make your novel longer after it's done . . . it's not done.

If you need to make your novel shorter after it's done . . . it's not done.

If you need to make your novel less shitty after it's done . . . it's not done.

Choice 3 is always my problem. Which brings up Choice 4:

If you think your novel is done after it's done . . . it's not done.

caw

I always under-write the first draft. Not sure why, but my second drafts always need more. And then my third drafts always need less. It's like being on a yo-yo diet.

Novels (and short stories and essays and poems and any other form of writing) need to be like the three bears' porridge for Goldilocks:

Just right.

And there ain't no cookbook for that. You gonna be a writer, you gotta figure it out for yerself.

caw

I'm in the middle of this process right now. An agent suggested I add 5K-8K words and gave me ideas of where to expand. In addition, I'm adding a subplot (which is a pain in the ass, let me tell you.) In some ways, I've found this to be more difficult than writing the first draft!

I wrote one draft.

Then I trimmed about 3000 words off through a series of revisions.

Then I added 2 new chapters to introduce my MC sooner and flesh out the climax based on beta reads, adding 5000 words.

And I'm still revising.

Listen to you story and address what it needs -- not the word count.

I always write short, too. Then when I lengthen my work, the short version begins to sound better as I type each new word.

Problem: I try to add description where I should be adding more subplots, more characters, more meat to the bones. From what I've seen in my own manuscripts, subplots, characters, etc., comprise steak and potatoes. More description, OTOH, provides me with a lot of Top Ramen: it fills my story up, but it doesn't really have any nutritional value.

Maybe novellas are not such a bad idea - someone at my writers group told me that she writes those as they are more likely to be taken up by film producers as they "get the story" without wading through too much. I don't know how valid this is though...

I always run short and have to add. I used to be a short story writer and tend to write too spare. With my last novel, I had to add 15K just to bring it up to minimum word count. That was hard! I had to review the entire book to figure out what to add--and more importantly, it couldn't be filler/padding. It had to be important material.

This is what I looked for:

Sentences/paragraphs that are unclear or confusing or that more could be done with. I think this was the majority of my additions. Sometimes that paragraph led to an entire page to flesh it out better.

Anything that didn't quite work. One chapter escaped notice under multiple revisions, and while looking for expansion points, I discovered the chapter didn't have a whole lot going on in it. But the piece it did have was important to the story. So I expanded it--into three chapters that were much better than the original.

Dialogue is another good place to look. I didn't look for additions hear under my last book, but I will under my WIP.

Anything where you have a weakness, work on it. Because of my short story background, I tend to leave out detals, so I always have to add to them. It's likely to be description of some form--though I'm never going to be too long. People still tell me it's spare, and I'm thinking "This is pretty long!" I'll be doing more of this on my WIP also.

I think the key is to treat it as another revision to make the story better. Focus on areas where you know you're weak and running short and work through those first.

If you have trouble seeing where to develop your story more, have a couple of beta readers go through it. That way you are adding story that is relevant instead of just fluff.

I rewrote one of my stories after someone in the publishing business had a look at it. He pointed out several areas where it needed work and when I looked at it again I found that he was right. I added several thousand words with no problem. It turned out to be a better story after that.
That rejection might have improved my work to the selling point. Its not sold yet but may well be on its way

My first drafts are always too short. Current WIP is probably going to come in at around 55,000 words.

But the first draft gives me an idea of what's still missing. For the second draft I will usually add a sub-plot or two, further develop ideas that perhaps seem too half-baked in the first draft, add in scenes that should be there but never materialised in the first draft. I have even been known to add characters.

That said, it's fairly evident to me that my book is never 'done' at the end of the first draft, so I'm not revising a work that's 'done', I'm still working on a WIP.

Shara

I'm always astonished by the number of people who can write short. I can turn any flash fic idea into a 200,000 word novel. I call it the Tolstoy syndrome.

I find it hard to advise anyone on how to flesh out a short novel without reading at least a little of it. It may be that the storytelling itself is too rushed or sparse, or it may be that the story really is small and needs some growing via added complications, characters and/or subplots. Has the OP posted any of the novel in question in SYW?

I wish there were more of a market for novellas and novelettes. The 17500-50000 word range (SFWA standards) gives many stories plenty of room to unfold, and it's too bad that the market encourages (if not forces) writers to pad these stories. Maybe digital publication will help this problem -- for one thing, ezines could publish the mid-range stories without worrying about the crippling limitation of paper and postage costs. One new ezine I recently subbed to has no upper limit on words, for example.

KTC said:

Every single story I write comes in between 35,000 and 45,000 words. I ALWAYS have to stretch it out when I'm finished. I HATE IT! What I do is add chapters and figure out what story-lines I scrimped on. I haven't really perfected the system yet, though. I will be reading the replies to see if I too can gain some insight.

Click to expand...

Yeah. Me too.