And then you have Stephen King "short stories" that run in excess of 80,000 words.

On what planet is that a short story?! My novel must therefore just be a sentence.

Asimov wrote, in the notes accompanying a short story in one of his collections, words to the effect that each story has its own length. As others have said, padding (or even paring down) to suit a specific word count doesn't work. One way or another, you lose something in the process.

I would recommend simply getting the story to the point where you feel it is finished, without worrying about word count.

Alex

My first novel came in at 45,000. Thought it was perfect( of course) until I took another look after a long break. Good storyline but the characters needed filling out. I've not gone back to it, maybe one day.
Kat

That's another good ploy: write the first draft then let it lie fallow for three or four months. I've also found it useful to work on other projects concurrently. I seem to pick up different writing tricks with different pieces of work, which then gives me a new perspective when I take another look at something I haven't touched in a while.

Alex

This has been one of my main worries for my own novel. A word count on MS Word calculates it at 62,000 words but I can not think of a way to expand the book without losing the flow. It works out just over 200 pages A4 double spacing at Arial 12pts.

Thus this was one of the questions I was going to bring up myself.

It's so hard to see the trees when you're standing back and gazing at the wood. Alex, you're absolutely right, that time away from it is often the key.

Emma