: Re: How can I make a story bigger? I have written a first draft of what I want to be a novel -- aiming for 50-70K words. When the ending arrived I was at about 30K. So I essentially have

@Looi5811334

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You need to have another good look at the structure of the novel. Without knowing the genre, I can only guess. Look at the main characters struggle- could you make it harder? So if the hero is searching for alien artifacts in the Amazon, could you have him clash with a group of local smugglers? Such that he is now battling not only the government, but the local mafia as well?

If the hero is trying to catch a killer, maybe the killer hides in a foreign country? Then the hero not only has to catch him, but avoid the attention of jealous local cops? And win the love of the police chiefs daughter? This is not padding the plot, as you are adding to the main story line.

I faced the same problem, but I find that one can always add stuff by making life difficult for your hero. Theres no reason he should have it easy!

Edit: Based on @bstpierre 's comments below:

This is a tech/thriller- how about if the geek faces physical danger as well(something he isnt used to dealing with, as he's only a IT nerd)- the terrorists track him down and send a hit team to take him out? At the same time, the FBI suspects him, and also sends agents to arrest him?

Another thing you can do is, have parallel story lines- so, the hero's girlfriend is kidnapped by the terrorists. The 2nd story line will her trying to escape, and in the main story, the hero is trying to find her, while dodging both the FBI and the terrorists. Don't make her a helpless damsel in distress, have her actively fighting the bad guys, and later on, teaming up with the hero to crush them.

And why stop there- the hero's brother is dying, and desperately needs a kidney transplant. The hospital is waiting for payment. But the hero cant pay, as his account has been frozen, and everyone is after him. The sooner he catches the real bad guys, the sooner he can pay for his brothers operation. This way, not only do you have extreme tension as to what will happen, but the story length will grow as well.

Like I mentioned before, I have faced(& still face) the same problem, but the answer always is to make the heros life difficult, to make him really work on his problems. Just as he fixes one problem, another takes its place, and he has to keep running just to stay where he is.

Also, the rules of writing still apply- backup your current work, then start banging on the keyboard. Dont worry where the scenes will go, or if they clash with the older ones. Just keep writing till you have your target wordcount, then come back to edit it.

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