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Hi, Quinn,

Wow. It’s not quite as easy as that. It’s a long process of planning out the story you want to tell and the people you’re going to use in order to tell it. You don’t “stretch out” your story. It has to be complex enough to be long enough to qualify as book-length.

My advice: develop an idea for a story, making plenty of notes. Add complications in reaching the goal of the characters. Cast the parts as if you were casting a movie. Name everyone so that they become real people to you, or almost real. The best way to do this is to choose a book you really enjoyed reading and make notes on it, taking it apart, following what the characters did, how they faced adversity, or gave up, or did something brave, or even dishonest. Analyze someone else’s book, and that may help you see how writing  novel is done.

Good luck! I hope to be writing you a fan letter one day!                                      —–Gordon Korman—–