4 Healthy Ways to Expand Your Story

A lot of writers tend to overwrite their first drafts. As an engineer, I tend to do the opposite. I often try to get my point across in as few words as possible. Sometimes I’m very successful, but when it comes to first drafts it often creates confusion for the reader. So I have to look for healthy ways to increase my story without adding words just for the sake of inflating my word count.

Character development

When writing characters, you want them to have more than one dimension. You want them to pop off the page and feel like real people, even your minor characters. Some questions to ask yourself when developing and expanding on characters:

• What does each character want?
• What are they hiding?
• What are they trying to discover?

Think about where your characters are at the beginning of the book, their thoughts and feelings, then think about where you want them to be by the end. Then as you write each scene consider what the character feels, thinks, and wants. Also think about how your character would act in certain situations, everything from facial expression to how they might walk. Are they the kind of character that flies off the handle easily or do they go with the flow? What are the good traits of your characters and what are some of their flaws and shortcomings. No one is perfect and your characters shouldn't be either. If you are able to show all that then the reader will have a much better understanding of your character.

Plot

Each scene should add to the plot. Take a look at each scene and determine what the purpose is. Are you introducing a character? Finding out new information? Are your characters hitting an obstacle? Whatever it is, every scene should have at least one plot advancing reason for being there. Think of each scene as a mini story. It should have a beginning, middle, and end. Start it late and get out early. If each scene doesn't have a way to advance the plot consider editing so it adds to the story arc or consider cutting it. 

Conflict/Tension

Add tension and conflict to your scene. Are there things your characters need to learn? These may be things you used to define your character and their journey initially. What obstacles can you throw in their way to make it more difficult on them? Are there other characters that wish to withhold the information? Are there physical obstacles keeping your character(s) from getting where they need to go? What other tension can you add on the quest for discovery? Answering all these questions will help add layers to your scenes and your overall story arc. It may also help you build in smaller subplots.

Setting/World building

Determine what the reader needs to know about your world. Is there anything that is confusing readers? Are there things that are hard to visualize? Are there things that should be left up to the readers’ imagination? Setting can be as complex as another character at times, so consider what might need to be added to advance the plot and help add to the character's conflict.

Focusing on the above items can not only increase your word count in a healthy way, but can also increase the richness of your story. It will help draw your readers in and make them want to stay in the world you’ve created, which will ultimately make your story stronger.

What other ways do you add to your story when it seems to be lacking?

Reality Can Be Better Than Fiction

Sounds odd coming from a fiction writer, on a blog for fiction MG writers, right? But let me explain. I love fictions stories. But sometimes, the real world is even cooler than the things we can make up in our own heads. So why not use them?

We’re writing for 9-13 year olds and if there is one thing I know about that age is that they love to learn. Well, less that they like to learn, but more that they like to know things. Teachers and school? Bahaha. No. But being able to tell someone about the ice caves in Alaska? or the cliff mountains in China? Or the pink lake in Australia? Yes! 

So use the information around you (I’m a big google fan) to your advantage and pull in your readers in a way you never have before. Teach them something. Entertain them but show them how amazing the real world can really be. 

Topic One: settings. 

This is one of my favorite ways to take an average story and make it extraordinary. Because you can place nearly any story into a new setting to take it up a notch, or ten. 

Making a story stand out can sometimes be more difficult than we’d like. The story pulling at your heart strings might be a story that’s been done too many times. A story that you’re afraid won’t stand out enough in the slush pile or even on the shelves. Do you put it down and try something else? Maybe. But I’m a fan of following my heart. I think you should to.

So here’s plan B. Open up your browser, or walk into the book store, and start a little research. Maybe that quest your character must go on will take him to the pink lake in Africa (there’s also one in Australia) instead of a forest on the outskirts of town.  

Or maybe instead of growing up in a small town in the united states she grew up in the city in Bonn  germany where the tree’s form a roof over the town in the spring time.

Or instead of getting lost in the mountains, your character gets lost inside the selenite crystals of the Naici mines in Mexico.

Kids don’t want to feel like they’re being taught something, they want to experience something. Reading is the perfect way to do that. Give them the kind of adventure they won’t ever forget. The kind that could inspire curiosity for the world’s great places.

http://www.boredpanda.com/amazing-places/