The Shorter Side of Things

[Elektra]

I always see people saying that their MS needs to be cut down to size, and am always jealous of such. Mine tend to come up extremely short.

Anybody else have this problem? If so, what are some of your techniques for beefing up the word count?

[MidnightMuse]

Normally, because I'm naturally long-winded, my stories need to be pruned. And as difficult as that can be sometimes, I enjoy it because the work always ends up tighter and better for it.

Coming up short is something that has only recently happened - and I've had to shelve that project for a short while in order to figure out how to fix it.

You don't really want to beef anything up just for beef's sake. If you're adding filler simply to pad a word count, it's going to show. I find it best to give the story a serious looking over, and some time to marinate. If you can come up with a logical, seemless addition of another subplot or subject, then do so.


If not, then consider writing another story, or a different version of the short one - if longer is what you're after.

[Sesselja]

I have the same problem. I have a perpetual fear of boring people, so I tend to skip forward too fast. With my new project, I try to force myself to dwell more on different aspects, and not least, to use all five senses in my writing. But ... I've only written 3000 word on this WIP, so I can't really tell you how this is going.

[ORION]

That's when beta readers come in handy.
Many times a draft feels short because it is filled with too much narrative and not enough action/scenes/dialog. I make several passes over my novels, for example my first draft was 59,000 words, the second draft was 72,000, my third draft was 79,000 and the current/last draft has stayed at 82,000 words with several editing passes. Many people write too much and prune others write sparingly and add. You may be the sparingly kind.
One of my novels grew to 120,000 words and I later had to ruthlessly prune to 93,000.
It's all good.

[CaroGirl]

I always see people saying that their MS needs to be cut down to size, and am always jealous of such. Mine tend to come up extremely short.

Anybody else have this problem? If so, what are some of your techniques for beefing up the word count?
Oh me, pick me! I'm always struggling with work that's lean on word count. Experience has taught me that, either the story is simply finished and there's no more to tell (in which case it needs to be a short story or novella), or I haven't included enough. You should never add words simply for the sake of adding words. It'll be obvious and look amateur.

The key is to discover an area of your story you haven't explored. Are all the subplots fully covered? Is every character as fully-fleshed out as possible? In read-through, I often find the story would be better with a scene added here and there.

I hear you, though. I'm very economical with language, and on edit I cut out even more words I can't afford to lose. This can make me panicky, until I realize I still have a scene or two to add to make my story really complete.

Let's face it, we'll never be one of those 120,000-word novelists, and that's okay. It takes us 50 to 60 thousand-ers to make a world too.

[historian]

MY first drafts usually turn out to be not much more than outlines. Then I have to set scenes, add description of characters, add sequels (the protagonists thoughts about the events) etc. That usually solves the problem.

historian

[Provrb1810meggy]

Yes, my first YA novel was 48,000 words. I completely rewrote it with a new POV and it grew to 61,000 words.

My WIP, a YA novel, which I'm fearing I'm close to the end in, is around 25,000 words. I think it'll end up around 30,000 - 35,000 words, meaning I could probably add over 10,000 words when I revise.

[Dru]

Chronic under-writer here as well.

Don't stress too much in the initial draft. Write the story, and then use revision to identify where you aren't filling in setting, character, action or story. Try reading scenes out of sequence to see if they can be jumped into (pretend you went to sleep and are picking up the novel the next day, can you follow it?). Or give some select segments to readers and see if there are any structural areas you're missing.

I'm usually lean on setting and action. I *see* it all, but forget to write it all into the story. My dry reads and betas help me figure out where I've dropped out sentences or paragraphs or descriptive sections.

Over time you'll either self edit your chronic issues or learn to incorporate the fixes into your revision process.

But please, never try and force "extra stuff" into the story. Add a subplot or another character, but don't shoot for "I only need another 10000 words to make my quota". Readers can spot those segments like a dog can hunt down crumbs on the floor.

[KTC]

I had one that came up short. I explored the characters and wondered if there was anything that any of the main characters wanted to experience. I ended up going deep into this one character and pulled him further into the story. That was all it took...developing his story helped me to build up the story...and he wasn't just beefed up for word count in the end...he came out from behind the curtain and changed the face of the story. I say listen to your characters. They may, even after your story is down, have something to add...

[Linda Adams]

I do. I was actually concerned when we fixed a problem area, and suddenly seven chapters disappeared because they were unnecessary (that was about 70-100 pages). When we reached the last chapter, we were at 77K:rant: . We wanted to be at 90K. So right now, we're combing through looking for places to add things. What are we adding --

* Filling in backstory gaps for the heroine in the early part of the book. What we really needed to do became clear when we wrote the end.

* Adding more detail in places where it's a little too sparse or unclear (I used to be a short short story writer; it's a little too easy for me to be very sparse)

* Adding more humor

* Working on the relationships between two sets of characters (and bringing humor in with that!)

* Looking for crutch words, which is "look." Usually, I end up coming with another sentence entirely that does a better job than something like 'he looked at her.' Then, of course, sometimes it just comes out entirely.

I particularly will look for any chapter that it is unusually short for us. We normally are 10-15 pages, but there are some that are four pages or seven pages. I take that as a sign that maybe more work is needed on that chapter and see what I might need to add.

[TrainofThought]

I always see people saying that their MS needs to be cut down to size, and am always jealous of such. Mine tend to come up extremely short. Anybody else have this problem? If so, what are some of your techniques for beefing up the word count? I share your problem, and as Sesslja states, “I have a perpetual fear of boring people, so I tend to skip forward too fast.” As a reader, I dislike extreme description unless it is relative to the story. If a writer uses two pages to describe a room with no significant value to the story then I tend to think the writer wanted to fill pages and meet word count.

To beef up the word count, I look at each chapter to see if there is another element to the story. For me, I would rather stay away from too much description and add another phase to a scene, character or the story.

This is my first novel, so maybe someone with experience can offer some techniques.

[Jenny]

These are all really great suggestions for a problem I struggle with. Often I think I skip over the details that bring a scene to life. After the first draft that lays out the skeleton, I have to go back and add the detail that provides emotional punch.

[Carrie in PA]

These are all really great suggestions for a problem I struggle with. Often I think I skip over the details that bring a scene to life. After the first draft that lays out the skeleton, I have to go back and add the detail that provides emotional punch.

This is me. I've been jotting a ton of notes "add more character XX here" "describe XX in more detail" etc etc. Things just pop out at me as I go. I'm trying not to edit now, trying to just get this first version done, then I'll go back and flesh it out. I'm at just under 39,000 words right now, and I expect to finish at around 80K. When I go back and fill in, I'll probably be closer to 100K, even after dumping stuff that I now know will be reduced to a sentence or two.

That's my plan, anyway.

[DamaNegra]

I have the same problem, I get stalled around 30,000 and cannot get any further than that. What I did once was add a character to the story, and that boosted the word count a lot.

[icerose]

I battle with both depending on the story, sometimes I come up short, somtimes I come up too long, sometimes I come just right.

When it's too short I add subplots, it generally means I shot straight through the story and didn't add any extra layers. Those layers take up space without detracting from the interest of the overall story. Also adding a character can be length adding. Be ware of fat though, it isn't good and is better left trimmed, add meat, substance.

Good luck.

[Shadow_Ferret]

I tend to come in short, too. I just need to flesh things out. In my first draft I'm very sparse in the details, glossing over descriptions and sometimes rushing through a setup scene to get to the action.

Let's face it, we'll never be one of those 120,000-word novelists, and that's okay. It takes us 50 to 60 thousand-ers to make a world too.

Is there even a market for novels that short?

[icerose]

Is there even a market for novels that short?

There are some novella publishers which is what those would be or a young reader chap book, those also fit, but they don't have nearly the market novels do, but there are such places that accept them. A lot of them fall into the romance catagory.

[PeeDee]

Because I really trained myself in short stories for a long time before I even looked at novels, I tended to be a very lean writer. Nothing wrong with writing lean, I think, but if it's detrimental to your story, then it's the literary equivalent to anorexia.

Generally, what I find is that I haven't thought through every plot line entirely. Plot lines that I thought were finished aren't at all and will play some bigger part later on, if I let them. I had one character, for example, who figures predominately into the first few chapters but wasn't supposed to make another sound until the last page of the story. Much to my surprise, she turned up many more times and she was needed and useful every time.

I think of a story idea, and I start writing it. The trick is to keep thinking of your story idea the same way you did before you started writing it, when you're still trying to flesh it out. Keep fleshing it out, keep bulking it up. Eventually, you'll know when to stop.

[LeeFlower]

When I want to lengthen my roller coaster rides, I add another hill. Take a good look at your story. Is there a sub-plot you can add? Another hurdle you can make your MCs jump? When given the choice, I always preferr adding more content to beefing up the content I've got already. Sometimes things end up a bit longer in editing, but I often take away as much as I add in that regard.

In my recently finished WIP, I was freaking about word count so much that it was giving me writer's block. My outline indicated that it was going to clock in between 65 and 70k, which is just a bit short for a fantasy. After spending an evening in close conference with my outline, I found a small plot problem towards the end of the story. I probably could have fixed it with a few paragraphs, but it was a convenient place to throw an extra wrench into my MCs' master plot. Removing said wrench required three chapters' worth of work on their part, and the finished MS clocked in around 85k as a result.

Thats what worked for me, anyway. Your milage may vary.

[SeanDSchaffer]

I always see people saying that their MS needs to be cut down to size, and am always jealous of such. Mine tend to come up extremely short.

Anybody else have this problem? If so, what are some of your techniques for beefing up the word count?


This happens to me regularly. I usually write my first draft with really basic details, and really simple language. Then I write my later drafts with more specific details and with more appropriate language for reading. This generally lengthens my works by about a third or a fourth of what they were in the first draft.

[LightShadow]

Always write everything that comes to mind. Overwrite. Cutting it down is not mainly a matter of number of words, but cutting out what's unnecessary. Cut out unnecessary words, omit unnecessary adverbs, remove needless dialogue attribution, replace passive verbs with active verbs (often accomplished by zeroing in on to-be verbs).

[Lyra Jean]

Never had a problem with writing short. Mine is writing long which is bad because I write short stories and magazines are looking for short works. My short stories run 4000-5000 words. Most magazines are wanting around the 2000 word mark.

So I'm going to write a novel for Nano and see how I do. Maybe I should be writing novels instead of shorts.

[LightShadow]

I know what you mean, I was hitting 7000 words plus, so I decided I was a hopeless novelist.

[Stacia Kane]

I write short, too-one reason I like writing erotic romance so much, as a lot of them are category-length.

BUT, I have had to beef things up on occasion, and I generally do a combination of what's been suggested. I tend to skimp on description, so I go back and add it-a few sentences here and there through the course of an entire novel can make a big difference. Sometimes I'll put in a little more dialogue, too...but generally I beef up conflicts.

For my December release, for example, I was nearing the climax and about 10k words short of where I needed to be. So I reread it. I looked for places where the conflict needed souping up, or where the characters could get to know other aspects of each others' characters. The result was what I think is a fantastic scene with lots of atmosphere that enhances each character and sharpens the contrast between their personalities.

Another sequence of scenes was needed to deal with it, plus I coul add scenes and dialogue throughout the book bringing the conflict more sharply into focus. Once they understood each other a little better they were able o use that understanding as things progressed. It added a new dimension to the climax and gave them a really tender moment at that point too.

[smiley10000]

I also come up short. I tried the unnecessary padding once (BIG mistake!). What I did in the end was build up the characters more.
I had one short that was flash length. So I started the story at an earlier point and doubled my word count.

Now, with my novel, I am trying to flesh it out. I am noticing a lot of the scenes where I have a low word count are all tell and no show. I am expanding the description and building the scene. Hopefully, this will get me up to 70k or so.

My next project is going to be YA. I think my short style is better suited to that age group.

Good luck!
:)10000

[Mark Lazer]

I have/had it as well, that's why I steered to short stories. I don't like to say things to say them, add scenes for the bulk, so, mostly it turns out the story I planned to turn into a novel is better off being a short story.

[Southern_girl29]

I never used to have this problem, but I feel like I am on my WIP. Right now, I'm 20 chapters in and have 42K words. My last novel had about 70,000 words at 20 chapters. Of course, it needs a lot of paring down as it stands at 125K right now, but I will be working on it when I finish my WIP.

[writeroffthelake]

I, too, write short, but for me that's a lot easier to fix than when I occasionally have written too long. There's really great info here, so I'll try not to be redundant.

Try thinking of your first draft as another outline (if you outline beforehand, if you don't outline beforehand, then think of it as your first outline). Get to the end of your story before you try revising, then see where you can flesh out with more description (make sure it's needed), stronger characterization, and most of all, more scenes.

Don't just stick scenes in willy-nilly, though. You still need to be sure that you have a cause-and-effect with your scenes and everything has to lead into the next thing.

Also, if you're writing using backgrounds or subjects you know well, you may find yourself leaving out information that someone who doesn't know the background or subject needs to know. I must be careful when writing about horses that I make it clear enough for a non-horse person to understand. And I have to be really careful when I use resorts as a background, since having lived in a summer resort during the best decades of my life, I often "see" my background in my head and forget that my reader can't "see" it if I don't write it. Yet, remember that you need to keep background description to what is relevant to your story.

Still, I think writing short is a lot easier to fix than writing long...but that probably depends on the writer. And maybe the story, too, since every story is a different writing experience.

[gvm]

Hi Elektra,

So glad you posted this problem, because I face it too and thought I was the only one!

I’ve written my first novel and it finished at around 60k. Despite outlining to some extent, there were some minor subplots / scenes that I had left out. Adding in description (ensuring that it is relevant and not just added-on for the sake of it), and converting sections that were more tell/less show, seems to solve the problem. But then you have to rewrite / re-edit and make sure you haven’t gone overboard in your enthusiasm to beef up the word count :(