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Topic : Re: How can I add more fluff to my stories? Teenage writer here! I have a bunch of great ideas for stories and such but I never really know how to add more fluff or detail into them to make - selfpublishingguru.com

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This is my personal preference, but I like stories that immerse me in a new world. This might be a place or time that really exists or a world built up from trends and fears. The trick for the writer is to understand that world in detail and use that understanding to slip in just enough detail to engage the reader.

My first suggestion is that you study other worlds, cultures, economic systems, whatever. It is said that a fish cannot discover water because it has never experienced the lack of water. I do not believe that a writer can capture the essence of a world when they have no experience of not-that-world.

My second suggestion is that you look for what is the same and what is different. For example, a teenager now has limited experience of what society was like before there were wide-spread cellphones. But there are old films and TV shows that show what that world was like. You might have a relative who is a senior citizen and either does not have a cell phone or remembers what it was "back then."

My third suggestion is that you look for the little details reveal the background of your stories. To continue with the cellphone example, I now have clothes that have special pockets to hold a cell phone. I often carry an external battery to charge my phone when it runs down. When I travel, I take cables and transformers. I know how to switch my phone in and out of airplane mode. I can choose a ring tone. What sort of changes from the normal world apply in the world of the story? Which of these changes can be slipped into the narrative to alert the reader that "we are not in Kansas" any more.

The final suggestion(and this is the hardest one to achieve) is to add the minimum of material to accomplish your goals. Well, to be fair, the trick is to end up with the minimum. I write many words and then reduce them to what I think is just enough. Not fun but necessary.


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