: Re: When is it ok to add filler to a story? After a couple iterations I came up with the "skeleton" or summary of my story. I have read many places and guides saying "if it's not advancing

@Candy753

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Aside from the multiple answers that talk about side-plots, character development and other things that you can do while the main plot is paused, I'll take your question more literally.

The one reason why you would want to add a true filler, i.e. a part that adds nothing to the story except making it longer overall is pacing. When things are moving too fast and you need to slow down, to give the reader time to catch up or to accurately express the passage of time while really nothing is going on in either your main or any sub-plots, then you write filler material.

Several classical writers have used extensive descriptions of landscape and details to both bring down the pace and give readers a more vivid image in their heads, without said landscapes really being of any importance to the story.

A modern example is the slow-mo in action movies. There isn't any story reason for doing a slow-mo (with rare exceptions like the Matrix where really time is slowing down for the protagonist), and it's not just that they want to show off their cool CGI - it is also that if that particular move happened at real-time speed, half the audience would miss it or get lost in the chaos of the battle.

You can do the same in writing. By filling some space with mundane details of their lives inbetween dates you make it clear to the reader that time is passing and that they don't just jump from date to date, but also live their lives inbetween. Movies do this with short cuts to ordinary daily activities and with a careful consideration of time-of-day passage (e.g. dinner date, dark outside. goodbye. cut to morning commute with coffee in hand, cut to lunch at the office, cut to arriving at home after work, cut to phone call with lover, cut to movie date, again dark outside).

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