Expanding a book in progress

[BradSe]

Hi all I have written a book. Problem is it's only 9500 words. I need ideas for more plots, subplots, etc. Where can I post my book so it gets read & people could suggest ideas to me? TYVM

[CataclysmicKnight]

Without reading it, I can suggest either adding some descriptiveness or depth to things (where it would benefit the story)... Otherwise, not every story has to be a 200+ page novel how many pages is the 9500 words?

[BradSe]

It's about 78 pages in a 5X8 page size. If you would be interested in reading it, please tell me how to E-Mal it to you.

[CataclysmicKnight]

78 pages isn't too bad! I just reviewed a book a bit ago that was 104 pages, but 7 were cover/blank/post-pre book requirements like dedication and stuff.

I'll pm my email to ya since I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post it here (am I?), but I'm not sure when I'll be able to get around to reading it... I'm in the middle of a big series of books with my fiancée

[BradSe]

Your E did post & I sent the book to you. Take your time. Totally agree with METAL!! A game creator & an author. You are one busy guy.

[CataclysmicKnight]

Woohoo! Fellow metal lover! And for what it's worth, without a laptop I haven't coded a game in foreeeever so I've been super lazy... But I've worked a bit on making board/card games

[H_M_Mcghee]

I can give you some advice on how I expand my stories...sometimes when I write, I have my chapters outlined, but there is never enough sustenance or action to give me that 10 page quota for each section. So, I go back and try to breathe more life into my characters...adding spoken dialogue (usually arguments, because characters who argue are fun to read, but don't go overboard, because that gets annoying) or adding inner dialogue (the voices in their heads). Since I'm a character-driven writer, I always try to make sure my characters are the center of the story...maybe that will help you, although I have no idea of your particular story, or even if it has characters...

[TLGabelman]

You may need to double check with Scott to make sure this is allowed.

[BradSe]

Never mind all. My decrepit brain just switched back on & I now know what I am gonna do.

[moderntimes]

Congrats! You've written a novella.

Nothing wrong with that format, understand. If the story you had to tell took less than 10k words, that's fine. There's no logical way you could pad it to novel length (minimum 60k).

My recommendation is to polish and tweak those 9500 words and make them sing. Then move on to the next thing you want to write while you try to find a buyer for that novella. Perhaps the subject matter of this piece might serve as an impetus for you to write a series of short (or long) stories about the same theme. As with Joyce's "Dubliners" or other great story collections.

By the way... do not worry about "page length" -- that's determined by your publisher, the font and type size, the formatting of the book, size overall (trade paperback vs paperback, etc) and many other factors. Page count is useless to worry about. Just focus on word count. That's the index that all publishers use when evaluating your work for purchase.

There are many guidelines on what word length makes what -- short-short story, short story, novella, novelette, novel, etc. You can look them up online as a rough guideline, but they are arbitrary. When you've finished your story, stop. Do not ever attempt to pad it, because any editor will immediately redline that stuff out. But of course, if after more consideration, you think that your novella (approx 10k words) will serve as the springboard for a full length novel? Go for it!