Tuesday Pil asked Shannon Messenger:

I'm writing a book, and I'm pretty sure it'll only reach up to about 100 pages... Do you have any tips on how to make a book longer, as in...about 200/300 pages at least?

Shannon Messenger It's so hard to know how to answer, because I always feel like length should be decided by the story. For instance, I had NO idea that the KEEPER books would be so long. In fact, in the beginning I kept trying to force them to be shorter and more "normal length" for middle grade. But I had to realize that for how complicated the plot is, if I really wanted to tell the story right, the books needed to be longer. And on the opposite end of the spectrum, there are many books that are more "novella" length, so the final finished product is more like 100 pages. Those can be harder to sell to traditional publishing, but that doesn't mean they should be longer. You don't want to make the story long just for the sake of being long, y'know? It would just get boring.

So I guess my advice is: listen to your story. Are there things you aren't fully developing yet? If so, can you add them? The best place to look is your side characters. Do they have subplots they haven't shared with you? Get to know them better and you may find that they add a lot to your story.

But don't FORCE it either. More is not always better. Sometimes more is just more. Always trust the story.

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