A couple weeks back, I put out a call for writing questions through our Go Teen Writers Instagram account. Oodles of you responded and I was able to answer several of those questions in a quick hits post.

A few of the questions required a longer reply, and so today, I thought I’d dig into this one:

“Do you have any advice for underwriters?”

I do have advice for underwriters! It’s a funny word, isn’t it? But underwriting is a problem many writers struggle with, especially early on. In truth, underwriting a first draft is very, very common and often wise.

Because early drafts are often rewritten and revised multiple times, laying down the bones of the story without a ton of description or secondary story lines is a legitimate way to go about it all.

That said, if you’ve revised and revised and you’re still feeling like your story needs more words, I have three ideas for you.

1. Tap into all five senses: Oftentimes our early drafts focus on one or two senses to the tragic neglect of the others. To immerse your readers fully in the world you’re painting, you need to do more than show them what it looks like. You must allow them to experience it in all its textures and sensations.

Consider all five senses: sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch.

How are you incorporating each of these into your descriptions? Perhaps you haven’t considered what your story world smells or sounds like. You certainly should!

I have a story idea I’ve been toying with for years. It takes place on the grounds of a real life gold mine in the heart of California. It’s a state park now and I visit it frequently. The grounds are glorious with a sprawling lawn and stately gardens. The fountains are bluer than blue and just past two of them sits a traditional English cottage, right smack in the middle of gold country. It doesn’t take much effort at all to imagine it the scene of a beautiful garden party with a string quartet and maybe even dancing.

As lovely as it is to fall into that fantasy, it would never be so easy. Not if I want to stay true to my setting. Research taught me that at that particular mine, the stamp mill ran day and night. Huge, massive machines that pounded the hard rock into bits so the miners could get to the gold. They say it was so loud on the grounds that the owner had his cottage walls built extra thick to make the living arrangements more bearable. But even then, his family rarely stayed onsite because the noise was so bothersome.

Of course, I could work around that, couldn’t I? I could pretend that in my story world things work a little different. But what kind of delicious conflict would it create to have this ruckus just barreling out over the site all the time? It might make for a curious dilemma and serve to elevate tensions if my characters had to live their lives in a place where shouting was the norm.

As tempting as it is to skim over the senses, for underwriters I suggest taking a deep dive into all five of them, and truly consider how your characters interact with each one.

Don’t forget, it’s not just your story world that needs describing. Your characters needs some showing off as well. One of the most vivid descriptions in any book is how Katniss describes President Snow in The Hunger Games. Remember? She says he smells of roses and blood. Such a vivid, lingering description!

2. Give your main character an internal struggle: Oftentimes, we remember to give our characters one big external problem to solve. A dilemma or goal that takes them from the beginning of the story all the way to the end. But if there’s only the one problem, you might find your story is a little shallow and light on words.

One of things we must consider is how this overarching external problem or goal (winning the race, climbing the mountain, slaying the dragon), impacts our characters and their internal lives.

In short, how do your characters feel about all the things they encounter on their journey? Whatever they feel, it should be compelling. A strong emotion that causes them to ponder or struggle with the external goal. Internal conflict makes for much more interesting external conflict.

Back to The Hunger Games. Think of Katniss. She doesn’t want to kill any of the other tributes, but if she doesn’t, she will die and her family will starve. She has definite feelings about that and it motivates her to kill despite her reservations. And then the author ups the stakes, adding to that internal struggle by allowing Katniss to befriend other tributes. Talk about conflict!

So much of Katniss’s narration focuses on this internal struggle–how she feels about what she must do. If you need more words, consider adding to or creating an internal struggle for your point of view character.

3. Let your main character fail: If you’ve given your hero a doozy of a problem, you’re on the right track. But if you allow them to solve the problem on their first try, you’re missing a lot of story opportunity.

Readers want to see characters they can identify with, and that means your heroes can’t be heroes all the time. They must fail. They must get things wrong. They need to have moments of uncertainty and shame. They need to fall into black holes so readers can cheer them out again.

Along with making your characters more relatable, by allowing them to fail, you’ll be adding conflict, tension and WORDS to your story. For more information on using try/fail cycles, click here.

And for reading up on why failure is so important to both you and your heroes, click here.

These are just three ways to add content, and therefore words, to your stories. But you guys are good at this too. Tell me, what do you do when you need to fill out your works in progress? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Shannon Dittemore is an author and speaker. Her books include the Angel Eyes trilogy, a supernatural foray into the realm of angels and demons, as well as the fantastical adventure novel Winter, White and Wicked. Its sequel, Rebel, Brave and Brutal is due out January 10, 2023.

Shannon’s stories feature strong female leads grappling with fear and faith as they venture into the wilds of the unknown. She’s often wondered if she’s writing her own quest for bravery again and again.

It’s a choice she values highly. Bravery. And she’s never more inspired than when young people ball up their fist and punch fear in the face.

To that end, Shannon takes great joy in working with young writers, both in person and online at Go Teen Writers, an instructional blog recognized by Writer’s Digest four years running as a “101 Best Websites for Writers” selection.

For more about Shannon and her books, please visit her website, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.