Writing stories: how dya get it to 300-&-summat pages?

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Question's in the title.

Am I the only writer with this problem? I get an awesome idea, but on paper I simply can't make it as long as all those books you see that are, you know, published.

Any ideas?

start small. 300 pages takes time. Start with short stories if you're doing fiction; it has the advantage of being more 'shoppable' (places to get it published) than 300-page tomes. Articles if you're doing non-fiction.

Once you get some interest, you can get some recognition (or even paid), and then you can work out longer works.

Have fun.

Here's one idea that's worked for me. Pretend that you are the main character in one
of the scenes. Have that character sit down and look around to see what else is there.
Put in as many details as you want to build the picture for yourself, don't forget to
add things like the quality of the light (noon sun, evening dusk, etc.) and the temperature
of the air, is it windy or still, what can you smell, what can you touch and what does it feel like?
All that stuff. But remember, this is just an exercise to open up your scene.
Later you will have to go back and trim away about 85% - 95% of the words, trim it down to just the very essential things.


While you are doing this, think also about your character's reactions to things, especially
to other people. I think this might be the most difficult part for an Aspie, but it's a great
learning exercise. It makes you notice how other people react to things, and by pretending
to be the main character, you are practicing the same kinds of reactions. Pretend that someone
shouts in anger at your main character (you). What do you feel? What happens to the expression
on your face? What do you do?

Well, I spent four years planning the story, wrote a 68 bullet point synopsis of the plot, tweaked it, then pretty much wrote what was in my head, improvising the dialogue and just writing what I saw in my head.
The most important technique I used to get to 345 page (and still counting) is absolutely no secret.

I didn't stop.


and I mean for ANYTHING.

to hell with writer's block, to hell with inspiration running dry. I just kept writing. That's how novel's get made.

Alright, I'm a very slow writer. I come from the Douglas Adams and James Joyce school of writing.

It took me four plus years to get past the 100K word mark, but I think that isn't bad for an amateur.

Just keep plugging at it.

Thanks for the help, you guys.

I agree with Vorzac in that sitting down and writing non stop makes it much easier for me to maintain a momentum and continuous flow of words that just seems to pour out. If I take breaks my output ends up having no continuity and has to be strung together or divided up into separate essays.
Also I find that it's much easier to write about things that you have actually experienced than it is about fictional things. I think it would be easy to do 150 pages just about a favorite pet for instance.
Keep in mind that the publisher will make your book as big or as small as they think will work during the formatting phase where page sizes, font sizes, margins, etc are worked out. As rough rule of thumb a 'trade' formattred book, 6"x9" with 12 point type will have 320 words per page so it's the word count that's important in writing, not how many 'A' size pages are in the manuscript.