Increasing a story

adtabb · Mar 9, 2009

One of the stories I am working on is about 18,000 words. I think it can reach 22,000 without much trouble, mayb 25,000 if I push it. The thing is, stories at that length don't sell.

One thing I am considering is one of the other main characters could play a larger role. In fact, I am having difficulty intorducing one of the scenes I need to add, simply because I need that character to think about why this change is important.

Has anyone added chapters based on a second character just to more completely fill the book? Not junk stuff, just rounding it out so more of it makes sense. Part of me almost wishes I could write it from her point of view, but she can't be in all the scenes.

The only other option would be the second character and the daughter. However, as it is the story of the main character, wouldn't that take away from understanding her motivations and reasons?

Leanan-Sidhe · Mar 9, 2009

I had a problem like this a few months ago, so I understand your frustration. I ended up completely rewriting the book from another POV, but that might not help you.

I think fleshing out secondary characters is good idea. Once I went back over my own story I realized I'd completely truncated a character's development and really improved the book by adding more.

Another idea might to add a few more hurdles for your MC to jump. Just dump some more problems on him/her and see how it works out. Adding a subplot (either for the MC or a secondary character) might help too.

Not sure if that helped, but best of luck to you.

Gary · Mar 9, 2009

By the time I had told the entire story, my "novel" consisted of 29,000 words. After letting it age for a couple of weeks, I realized how many holes there were in the plot. I began filling in gaps and the final version contains 75,000 words.

Birol · Mar 9, 2009

Have you considered the possibility that you need to cut instead of add?

Viking Horse · Mar 9, 2009

I ran into a similar problem during NaNoWriMo. Luckily for me, I tend to cut things as I plan, feeling they are simply too superfluous and slow the pacing; chucking that sort of stuff back in certainly beefs up the story.

Birol said:
Have you considered the possibility that you need to cut instead of add?

I'm curious as to what you meant by this.

Birol · Mar 9, 2009

There may not be enough story for a novel. It may be a short story instead of a novel. Maybe it doesn't need to have enough information added to make it a salable novel; maybe it needs extraneous bits trimmed down in order to make it a salable short story.

Viking Horse · Mar 9, 2009

Birol said:
There may not be enough story for a novel. It may be a short story instead of a novel. Maybe it doesn't need to have enough information added to make it a salable novel; maybe it needs extraneous bits trimmed down in order to make it a salable short story.

Ah, I see. Thanks.

Stunted · Mar 9, 2009

Try to think about your story from different angles. Are there aspects of the theme that haven't been explored? Is there some problem that you skimped? I don't know. I'm having a hard time explaining myself. Maybe you should give it some time to sit so that you can get some distance.

James D. Macdonald · Mar 9, 2009

Write two more 25,000 word stories that have the same theme.

Slice the three stories lengthwise, and braid them together.

Use another 5,000 words to smooth it out.

There's your novel.

Linda Adams · Mar 10, 2009

I do tend to run short when I write, though I get better as I work at it. Still, I often have to add a lot of words to hit minimum word count.

So the first option might be to set the story aside for a while and just let it sit so it becomes fresh in your mind. Problems where you took a shortcut might become pretty obvious.

Then I'd suggest doing an outline after the fact of the story. Nothing fancy--just a few sentences about the plot-related event that occurs in each chapter. This might help you to see where there are gaps that could be filled in.

The other thing to do is take advantage of everything. If your character meets a waitress in a restaurant and has a conversation with her, ask yourself if you can use that waitress somewhere else in the story. Sometimes you'll get good scenes out of it; other times, it'll expose a character who isn't really necessary.

DraperJC · Mar 10, 2009

As usual, when Uncle Jim weighs in on a subject there is little else to say. But he's got a good point. I recently wrote a story that I thought would just end except that when I got there I realized the story was better if the hero didn't get what he wanted. That produced ideas for a sequel. Same thing happened at the end. I'm on story four and I'm just starting to let myself think of this as a novel. If it doesn't turn out that way then I've at least got four or five stories. So I would suggest letting your current story finish wherever it feels comfortable and then taking off with a new adventure. Then when you've got a whole series you can figure out what to do with them at that time. Best of luck!

NeuroFizz · Mar 10, 2009

To add to the advice upstream, make sure there is a damn good story-related reason to add scenes, description, characters, etc. If the addition is just filler, many readers will know right away. There is nothing worse than a thin plot obviously stretched to novel length. Maybe this just isn't a novel-length story (as suggested above). Make it a short story, submit it, and move on to the next project. Or try the tack Uncle Jim suggests. Here's my suggestion--if adding material, DO NOT keep checking the new word count. Stay away from the word count option of the word processing program. This is to make sure you are adding material for the story, not for the word count. If your response is, "I AM adding it for the word count," you may want to reconsider making the additions. Same if your response is, "I am adding it for the word count AND for the story." You should only add for the story. This is because book pricing may well be related to story length (usually with similar pricing niches for books of similar lengths), and you are asking the readers to shell out their cash. If gobs of the writing are just filler, it's going to piss off those readers and they will not open their wallets for you again.

tehuti88 · Mar 10, 2009

adtabb said:
Has anyone added chapters based on a second character just to more completely fill the book? Not junk stuff, just rounding it out so more of it makes sense. Part of me almost wishes I could write it from her point of view, but she can't be in all the scenes.

The only other option would be the second character and the daughter. However, as it is the story of the main character, wouldn't that take away from understanding her motivations and reasons?

I once tried expanding certain secondary characters' roles in a novel of mine because it bothered me that the characters were there toward the beginning of the book but not later in it. The attempt failed miserably.

The subplot involving them went nowhere, didn't fit with the tone of the novel itself, and was just so stupid and full of itself. It sticks out like a sore thumb. When I redo the story in the future I will just omit that entirely and find a more subtle way to either play up or downplay these characters' roles in the story.

I can't say what you should do for your own story, sorry. I do think it's a very real danger that adding subplots with other characters might detract from the main plot, but it depends on how you do it. What's key is keeping the focus on the main plot and letting the subplots contribute to that, if possible.

Hope you have better luck than I had!

ETA:

NeuroFizz said:
To add to the advice upstream, make sure there is a damn good story-related reason to add scenes, description, characters, etc. If the addition is just filler, many readers will know right away.

QFT in my case!

jubileerocker · Mar 10, 2009

I'm having a hard time getting from one event to another. This is what I want to happen now how do I build a chapter leading up to this and about this

angeliz2k · Mar 10, 2009

If there are gaps between scenes (eg time jumps), consider writing about what happened there and then. In these spaces in between, you can add important character development and subplots to really fill out the story.

But as someone pointed out, make sure you really have the material for a novel, or else consider making it a short story or novella.

Clifton Hill · Mar 12, 2009

Birol said:
There may not be enough story for a novel. It may be a short story instead of a novel. Maybe it doesn't need to have enough information added to make it a salable novel; maybe it needs extraneous bits trimmed down in order to make it a salable short story.

I agree with Birol for the most part based on what little you mentioned.

Leanan-Sidhe said:
...Another idea might to add a few more hurdles for your MC to jump. Just dump some more problems on him/her and see how it works out. Adding a subplot (either for the MC or a secondary character) might help too...

Just keep in mind if you follow this advice it needs to add to the story not take away. So don't just add in hurdle "x" for filler. Take for instance if you have a character that makes some decisions/actions in the book that don't seem to entirely make sense. Go ahead and put something in there that will help explain their actions. Whether it is an argument, a conversation that reveals some deep personal demons of theirs that explain how they are, etc.

dreamsofnever · Mar 12, 2009

Well, I have this problem a lot. I tend to underwrite in my excitement to get from start to finish. But 22000 words for a novel is extremely short.

To give you an idea, I have a goal of 90,000 words, but at the last draft my novel was at 65,000 words. And that has frustrated me to no end, so I feel your pain!

Luckily, I've found ways to expand on the story. First, I read through it all again with an eye towards scenes that needed expanding. I also looked at scenes that had happened off-screen and were more effective when happening on-screen. I also had some secondary characters that could play a larger part. Considering one of them is introduced and then dies, I'm going to be spending time filling out his role more completely. (still getting there. But I'm about halfway through and have already added 7,000 words and 5 chapters, and I have a LOT more planned for the second half of the book)

But as I'm doing this, I've also come across things that need to be cut as well and I'm still not afraid to do that.

You don't want to have words for the sake of words or scenes for the sake of scenes. Everything I'm adding ties in with the story and enhances it. There are actually some chapters I've uncovered and added that I wonder how the story survived without them.

The other thing I did to uncover what else needed to be expanded on was that I sent it out to my beta readers and asked them what more they felt was needed, and what more they would like to see.

One of the things I got feedback on was that a few of them requested some flashbacks of the main character's past, since her past ties in pretty heavily to the plot. So I added those. I wouldn't always suggest this since flashbacks are both a pain to tie into the story and a lot of times they can arrest the forward motion of the story more than they add to it. So it's a balancing act.

But perhaps your character's past is important. There are ways other than flashbacks to delve into that and weave it into your narrative.

Though I agree with Birol in that you need to look very carefully at this story and ask yourself if it is in fact a novel, or if it is better served as a short story. Nothing wrong with it being a short story if it is. I find that certain stories lend themselves to certain formats and maybe your story just always was a short story masquerading as a novel in your mind.

Either way, good luck with your word count issues!

Glenakin · Mar 12, 2009

dreamsofnever said:
Well, I have this problem a lot. I tend to underwrite in my excitement to get from start to finish. But 22000 words for a novel is extremely short.

To give you an idea, I have a goal of 90,000 words, but at the last draft my novel was at 65,000 words. And that has frustrated me to no end, so I feel your pain!

Luckily, I've found ways to expand on the story. First, I read through it all again with an eye towards scenes that needed expanding. I also looked at scenes that had happened off-screen and were more effective when happening on-screen. I also had some secondary characters that could play a larger part. Considering one of them is introduced and then dies, I'm going to be spending time filling out his role more completely. (still getting there. But I'm about halfway through and have already added 7,000 words and 5 chapters, and I have a LOT more planned for the second half of the book)

But as I'm doing this, I've also come across things that need to be cut as well and I'm still not afraid to do that.

You don't want to have words for the sake of words or scenes for the sake of scenes. Everything I'm adding ties in with the story and enhances it. There are actually some chapters I've uncovered and added that I wonder how the story survived without them.

The other thing I did to uncover what else needed to be expanded on was that I sent it out to my beta readers and asked them what more they felt was needed, and what more they would like to see.

One of the things I got feedback on was that a few of them requested some flashbacks of the main character's past, since her past ties in pretty heavily to the plot. So I added those. I wouldn't always suggest this since flashbacks are both a pain to tie into the story and a lot of times they can arrest the forward motion of the story more than they add to it. So it's a balancing act.

But perhaps your character's past is important. There are ways other than flashbacks to delve into that and weave it into your narrative.

Though I agree with Birol in that you need to look very carefully at this story and ask yourself if it is in fact a novel, or if it is better served as a short story. Nothing wrong with it being a short story if it is. I find that certain stories lend themselves to certain formats and maybe your story just always was a short story masquerading as a novel in your mind.

Either way, good luck with your word count issues!

Don't you think you could fall into the trap of putting what most readers call "fillers" in your book just by trying to beef up your book's word count?

I'm not one to stress over word count, really. I've never really looked at word count until after the 2nd draft and I never set a word count goal for myself; I just want to write the book and get the story across the best way I possibly can.

Clifton Hill · Mar 13, 2009

I'll have to agree with Glenakin. I do look at my word count, but only out of curiosity/pride to see how far I'm going. I don't have a word goal. I have a story goal. Though once the story is done I would like it to be a short story first (talking about what I'm working on currently) so I'll have to break out the machette and chop liberally away at it until I can wittle it down to a smaller essence.

James81 · Mar 13, 2009

Find the theme of this story, and start writing a different stories with the same themes.

Or you can switch POVs and rotate the story around a fixed element of your plot.

An example: think of a car crash. you just described the events of said car crash from one character's point of view. Now expand on that same car crash by delving into the life of other people who were involved in the crash. Weave the stories around the crash and have the climax BE the crash and how the issues of the crash are resolved.

Take your story and see if there is a "car crash" element in your story (there very likely is, or your story probably doesn't have much of a plot). See if you can't do something similar by adding a brand new character or a expanding on the role of a minor character by switching points of view.

When you have a few stories like this, look at the end result. Do they work better as separated stories that all come together in the end for resolution?

Or can you slice a chapter from each and rotate chapters from each story in consecutive order until you run out of chapters?

Also, look at the book Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King. He takes this concept and works it masterfully.

dreamsofnever · Mar 22, 2009

Glenakin said:
Don't you think you could fall into the trap of putting what most readers call "fillers" in your book just by trying to beef up your book's word count?

I'm not one to stress over word count, really. I've never really looked at word count until after the 2nd draft and I never set a word count goal for myself; I just want to write the book and get the story across the best way I possibly can.

Sorry I didn't see this and answer it before, Glenakin!

I'm very concerned about filler. If I wasn't, my word count WOULD be higher.

But I have a word count goal because there are many agents that won't even accept submissions unless a book is within the target word count of 80,000-110,000. So serving the story is still my number one goal, but I also want to get published and if I have a story that's unfit for submission as far as some agents are concerned, that's not a good thing as it narrows my potential list of agents I can submit to.

And I'm on my fifth and hopefully final draft now. If it was the first draft, I wouldn't worry about the word count.

dreamsofnever · Mar 22, 2009

Also, to add a link here, since this seems to be the thread to discuss expanding on a story, this is how Rachel Vincent adds to her word count after the first draft: http://rkvincent.livejournal.com/142603.html

I'm currently frustrated because I actually cut a lot during my most recent rewrite (as opposed to adding, which I had been doing well on) and now I'm just about back where I started where word count is concerned.

But my husband helped me brainstorm and we came up with a nice subplot that will tie in with the novel. So now I will finish my rewrites on the final chapters and go back and add this new subplot. *sigh* And hopefully at the end of adding that, I'll be done.

Feathers · Mar 22, 2009

Yup yup yup. This was a BIG problem for me in my last novel. It started out years ago as a short story, grew into a novella, and all the time I dreamed about making it a novel. So last year I finally sat down and muddled through it.

A couple things I learned about adding bulk were,

One, try alternating POV. Not all novels work like this, but it's a huge help when adding bulk, because it helps you think out the story in more detail, which adds more to the plot. I started out with one POV. Then I added a second main character, the love interest, and the villain; all with POV. I'll probably get rid of some of it later. But it really helped force me to come up with more subplots and deeper conflict.

Two, when trying to expand a 20K story into a 80K novel, your best bet is to come up with a middle. A whole new conflict. Which is really, really hard, but kind of essential. What I did was, ask myself what would raise the stakes for all my characters. What is the worst thing that could happen between them and their goal? Death is one (as well as threat of death). Betrayal was another one. A ticking clock. Loss of self. etc.

Three, I started having my characters monologue. Not audibly. I just started making them think about things more. This brought up a surprising amount of emotional subplots and added conflict and stuff, which helped push the story on a little farther.

Stretching a story out always sucks. I spent somewhere around nine months - most of it hellish - trying to make that story work. But for the first time it's in novel form, which is just an amazing feeling. So once you push through, it's great.

Hope that helps
-Feathers

dreamsofnever · Mar 22, 2009

Great suggestions, Feathers!

I suppose it could be worse. I think my very first draft was right around 30K. So the book has grown since then

I like the suggestion about adding different POV. I actually did this as well because my male MC wanted the spotlight too (it was originally just in the female MC's pov). The book was stronger for it and I find that just about everyone that reads it loves the male MC and enjoys the chapters from his POV.

I think you're right about adding a new conflict. I'm currently working on weaving one new conflict in from the beginning. And then towards the end, I'm adding a second new conflict.

So I should be over my word count... as soon as I write through everything and figure out the plot points in my mind.

And great, great point about raising the stakes. While figuring out my plot, I almost always ask "what's the worse thing I can throw at my characters?" then when they've survived that, I think "well, they're stronger now. NOW what's something I can throw at them that makes the last problem look like a walk in the park?"

Yes, I torture my poor characters.

One of the other things that Rachel says she does when going back and layering things in to add to word count and enrich the story is adding in description. I'm not sure this is always the thing to do, because you don't want to add in page upon page of flowery description. But I think sometimes it's good to give more information about the five senses. If you go back and you've described how something looks, what about how it sounds, feels, tastes, smells?

I'm still working on developing my description of the five senses, so hopefully I'll find opportunities for that on my next pass through the book.

It's an uphill battle, but I suppose having a too-long word count and trying to cut things that feel essential feels like an uphill battle as well.

Glenakin · Mar 23, 2009

dreamsofnever said:
Also, to add a link here, since this seems to be the thread to discuss expanding on a story, this is how Rachel Vincent adds to her word count after the first draft: http://rkvincent.livejournal.com/142603.html

I'm currently frustrated because I actually cut a lot during my most recent rewrite (as opposed to adding, which I had been doing well on) and now I'm just about back where I started where word count is concerned.

But my husband helped me brainstorm and we came up with a nice subplot that will tie in with the novel. So now I will finish my rewrites on the final chapters and go back and add this new subplot. *sigh* And hopefully at the end of adding that, I'll be done.

Yeah, I think that's probably the bit that makes my novel big - subplots. And I have really good ones, thanks to my advisors (friends)

Increasing a story

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