LTUE - How to Make a Novel Fill 100,00 Words

How Novelists Fill 100,000 Words and Still Keep the Story Interesting Panel Discussion with David Farland, Tracy Hickman, Laura Hickman, Paul Genesse, L.E. Modesitt Jr., and Brandon Sanderson - To ensure that a novel reaches its fullest potential (and exceeds 100,000 words) the bonus (or the foundation) of the book must be solid, well built, and well put together. - Instead of doing a load dump at the beginning of the book describing the story setting try to interweave the details throughout the story. - Let tension continue to build throughout the story so that something that should have been attainable seems less and less attainable as the story progresses. - The reader has to feel a sense of progression throughout the story. There are three ways of doing this:

 - a trave log - where main characters are moving to different locations to achieve their goal

 - a time bomb - where the main characters are in one location but time is counting down to something bad happening and they have to stop it

 - the reader has to learn something new providing a sense of continuing revelation

- To have a really good story and one that reaches 100,000+ words you should make the bad guys really smart. Anybody in a position to dominate a society, city, people, etc., will not be slow or an idiot. Try to have the bad guy one step ahead of the heroes through a good portion of the story. - Make your main characters think that the world is "this way" and then realize/learn that their view of the way the world is is not really the truth. - The villain needs to be convinced that he/she is the good guy and is the one who is absolutely convinced that he/she is the one saving the world. - Use characters to extend the story length

 - give your hero flaws that lead to confrontations or avoidances

 - add more conflict for or to your characters which causes them to make choices which have consequences

 - ask the evil guy who he thinks the good guy is as a person

 - ask why your main character is the person to save the world

I do hope that you find this information as helpful as I did in helping you to lengthen your stories. Don't give up hope and keep up the great work!!!