YA & Christianity discussion

I know we have a few authors in this group, so I have a question. How do you stretch out your story without it being boring? How do you reach a certain amount of pages?

Ooh! Good question!

For me, I don't care about the pages or the word count. I care about the story. Every story has certain twists and turns and surprises as I'm writing them that require time/pages to explore. Plus, there is the climax which I like to make sure is set up well. But what matters most is the story that is told. Adding content might be interesting and will increase the page count, but if it's not helping the story then it's better to leave it out. I find that when I write for the story the things that need to be added are things that will help the story make sense and will strengthen the plot.

I used to outline, a lot. And at the time it really helped me to understand the flow of the story. It was easier to see how quickly I would get to the ending or what areas I might need to add more content to so that the ending would make sense. Also, outlining gave me a feel for what amount of content a story needs that will make it a certain page count. If the story is big enough, then it will just naturally have long page counts.

If you have a story that you want to stretch, it might be helpful to add a minor plot point to it. Just be careful because sometimes other plot points ruin characters or the ending. Hope this helps! :)

Thanks Christina!

Soooooo I don’t have a outline but I have an idea in my mind how can I keep myself from doing too much detail

And a longer story

And how do I not get distracted

Peypey wrote: "Soooooo I don’t have a outline but I have an idea in my mind how can I keep myself from doing too much detail"

Just write the story idea you have. You can always take parts out or add parts in later! Plus, writing it out will give you a better idea of how you want the story to go.

Okay thank you

Conflict, conflict, conflict!!

For me, it’s knowing the “beats” of each chapter (the point of the chapter, what I’m achieving with this chapter, does it leave readers with questions, etc.)