How To Fill Up Time In Your Book

This is a problem that many, many authors run into--they want something to happen but they don't want it to happen too fast. If you plunge right into the climax of the story it'll seem like it's moving too fast, then it will seem like a little kids' book. If you draw it out too much then it'll get boring and people will lose interest, so what do you do? In this post, there are some chapter-long fillers for your book:

1. Have a Dream
This one is pretty hard for me, because I tend to breeze through them too quickly. But sometimes, the dream has something to do with the story so it's important to go into detail. When you have a dream, you aren't advancing what's happening in the real world of your book, but you're saying something that might be important and that takes up space.

2. Introduce a New Character
This one can be a lot of fun for you, characters are fun to play around with no matter who you are because you're creating a person--how cool is that? If you introduce a new character you can go into his/her back-story and talk about their past and mention important things about them. Description of how they look can take up a lot of space as well.


3. Have Your MC Get Lost 
Is your MC on a journey or a mission? Does he/she need to reach somewhere? Well, make them get lost. A journey isn't as exciting if they always know the way. A detour can take up a good amount of space and will do you some good if you're in a rut writing-wise.


4. Write a Chapter From Another Character's Point of View
This part can be fun for you, because you can go into the other character and talk about what they're thinking and how they're acting and what they think of the MC. This will provide an opportunity for you to get to know your character better and for your reading to get to know the character better.  This is sort of like the chapter "A Peek in the Windows" from Main Street by Ann M. Martin (book 1, Welcome to Camden Falls, Chapter 5).

5. Have Your Character Go Out to Lunch
If you make your MC meet with someone else, then you can put some interesting things in the meeting. Maybe the character they're meeting with is a bad guy who wants to know their secrets. Maybe it's an ally in disguise, whatever it is, lunch can be an exciting meal.

So there you have it! Tips to fill up your book, do you have anymore suggestions? Why don't you comment and tell me, I'd love to hear what they are!