While it is true that one should never artificially inflate their novel, the truth is that most publishers expect a writer’s first novel to be at least 70,000 words (sometimes even more). If you can’t for the life of you get your novel to meet that goal, then you might want to reconsider your current project for another one. There are some ways to expand your novel, however, if you’re not too far off and all you think you need are some good ideas.
If you haven’t done so already, create an outline of your novel. If you’ve already written it, summarize the events in every section; this will help you think about your novel and visually organize it. Think about questions that haven’t been answered yet, or story lines or details you left up for the imagination of the reader that might bear some fleshing out. Also look at your story under a magnifying glass. Did you rush through certain sections in a rush to get done? Are there some obstacles that could require more effort on the characters to overcome? These are some ideas that might provide legitimate ways to expand your novel.
If you aren’t finished, and are worried it might not be long enough, plan your novel with an outline. If you storyline will simply finish too soon, think about ways to make the story more detailed or exciting. Often adding more obstacles can give you something to write about. While not appropriate for all genres, introducing another storyline or character may make your main plot more meaningful or interesting. Try to make any additions genuine improvements of your story.
The problem is that beginning writers find the need to pare down their writing, and you don’t want to feel pressured to leave everything in. The best thing to do is to work it out beforehand and make sure you have enough material to easily meet any minimum word count in mind. If you really want to expend an existing novel, make sure you add enough ideas to expand your story and not just artificially inflate what you already have.
These are some ways you could use to expand your novel. If you work it out and you think you find a way to do it, then you might be in luck. If you are stuck on any ideas to flesh out your work into a longer piece, than you might want to work on another project for a while.