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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/36174
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/36174
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

There are several potential issues that could affect the length of your story.

## How you tell it

Let me start with an example, from Jim Butcher's _Storm Front_ (the first of the _Dresden Files_ novels).

What could have been

> Harry made a love potion with Bob's help

is instead

> I grumbled, and set the first potion to simmering, then started on the next one. I hesitated, after Bob told me the first ingredient.  
> "Tequila?" I asked him, sceptically. "Are you sure on that one? I thought the base for a love potion was supposed to be champagne."  
> "Champagne, tequila, what's the difference, so long as it'll lower her inhibitions?" Bob said.  
> "Uh. I'm thinking it's going to get us a, um, sleazier result."  
> "Hey!" Bob protested, "Who's the memory spirit here! Me or you?"  
> "Well-"  
> "Who's got all the experience with women here? Me or you?"  
> "Bob-"  
> "Harry," Bob lectured me, "I was seducing shepherdesses when you weren't a twinkle in your great-grandcestor's eyes. I think I know what I'm doing."

and it goes on in this vein for a couple of _pages_.

**The example above isn't padding**. It isn't merely "showing vs telling" either. It shows Harry making a potion alright, but it also shows something about his character, something about Bob's character, something about how magic works (worldbuilding). It is also interesting, it has juice, it takes the reader onto a journey, as opposed to the dry "he made a potion".

To be able to write such a scene, you must know the characters and the world enough to be able to give the details and the tone. And then - look at what could be expended. Look at what scenes look bright and vivid in your mind, and write them. You can always cut things out later, if you've slowed things down too much.

## How much is happening

Back to _Dresden Files_. Harry Dresden is a wizard and a detective. In a short story, he gets a case (for example a lost child), he goes and solves it, there's one or two complications along the way, one or two support characters, but the plot is fairly straightforward.  
In a novel, on the other hand, Harry might start with a case, but then there would be multiple factions not wanting him to solve the case, or wanting him to do something else instead, there are several problems he needs to solve, there are complex interactions with multiple support characters. **There are multiple things going on at the same time** , plotlines interacting with each other.

Are your characters fully fleshed out, with their own attitudes, passions, ways of seeing the world?

Does your plot follows one problem from start to finish with only a couple of hindrances, or do your characters face multiple issues that affect each other?

These are ways to add flesh, content, to your story, while avoiding empty padding.

Original score: 4