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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/36141
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

You definitely don't pad. If you are starting with plot, it sounds as though you may not be getting into the characters as much as you might need to.

Here's an idea: Take your favorite Crichton book. Write a quick outline (one page) of what happens in the book:

Ex: **Jurassic Park** : My quick outline off the top of my head:

Kids go to island, dinosaurs get loose, Kids in danger, High drama and T Rex saves the day against velociraptors.

That might be the basic plot. But there's a lot missing between that recollection and what he actually wrote. Those things might (or might not) be the things you're missing. Think about what's missing in my recollection of JP from the story:

1. All the stuff up front - Alan at a dig in Montana. Establishing relationship with Sadler as his student. Them needing cash (NSF funding is never very good) and taking the deal from the JP guy. Character development. Seeing nifty apatosaurs and triceratops with kids; a little bit of learning/teaching about dino's becoming birds. Humor with Ellie Sadler digging through poop. 
2. The guy that is smuggling the eggs out of the park and gets eaten by dinosaurs. this was a few chapters. Absolutely crucial subplot woven through. Crichton could have had a mundane reason to kill power to the fences but this was better way to do it.
3. Sadler needing to .... do something with the electrical equipment? (I forget but Sadler did something in a bunker with a bad leg and a velociraptor in pursuit.)

Crichton split the people up and had multiple lines going simultaneously. He had all that fun stuff at the beginning. He had science about genetic engineering. He had Mr. DNA give a little narrated film. These things aren't padding, they're deepening.

Here's an idea: Map out the parts you've written in a story ... to one of Crichton's novels. Put the 'equivalent' things lined up to one another.

What does Crichton have, that you don't? Did you skip the character establishment stuff at the beginning? The subplots? Just ... Ask yourself what else he built into his story that you don't have.

Crichton follows a standard 3-act structure. If you aren't sure what that is, go ahead and learn about that, too. It might help you spot what's missing ...

Original score: 25