Relentless Filler: Thoughts and Actions Surrounding What is and isn’t Important to Feature

With the post I made on December 24, 2023, I would like to go over some of the principles and ideas The Eferian Day project are being made with surrounding the concept of ‘filler text’ and information about how the Sagen world is planned to be presented within the main series.

Related: Valid Critique v. Nonsense Nitpicking: How Eferian Handles ‘’Realistic’’ v. ‘’Grounded’’ Arguments

This is also an extension of the ’Kill your Darlings’ section of the previous post since the ideas of what ‘filler text’ is have connections with the phrase overall.

What is ’Filler Text’?

Before one can talk about filler text, one must be able to define what the term ‘filler’ means in this context.

The primary definition of interest to the points made in this post have to do with the text’s overall ability to give information which fall in line to the reader’s interests of relevant knowledge. Therefore, the term ’filler’ refers to text prolonging the reader’s time to gain the relevant information needed to understand the chapter’s/book’s message and overarching story. An example of this is spending paragraphs of text describing the characters’ clothing when the scene surrounds an active battlefield. Due to the clothing of the characters not being of relevancy to the event taking place in the chapter, the text is then seen as ‘filler’ and unnecessary.

A vital part of the relevant definition of the term also has to do with the amount of buildup the book has before events of the story begins to take place. One common concern surrounding how Fantasy books have the pointless need to spend the former half of the book depicting non-essential scenes. An example of this is having chapters surrounding one singular conversation between characters within a singular location. Though it is possible to depict such scenes as interesting and information rich. The need to feature tiring dialogue scenes between characters to then ‘fill’ the book with text is of no value to the reader who will become bored reading through it.

Especially when those pages could be featuring ’show don’t tell’ scenes giving the same information.

What is ‘Necessary’?

The word ’necessary’ is not a great word to use when talking about Fantasy worldbuilding. Like mentioned previously in the “Valid Critique” post: what is important information will always depend on the individual person. It is therefore necessary to understand the creation limit and to go into the worldbuilding process with the knowledge of limited expectations.

Being able to please every person who are going to read the text given out is impossible.

Period.

However, the important thing to remember is the understanding of the underlining reason to create the world and the work to begin with. The main goal should always be within the will of the creator to make something they are interested in. For it is from the maker’s perspective where the creative work can thrive and gain traction. The work will only come to fruition if the person making it have the will to create it. Other people liking it is then a side effect from its creation. So, talking about what is necessary to be included within the text will always be of subjective opinion.

Yet there are, on the other hand, many arguments able to be made for the inclusion of others into the enjoyment of the worldbuilding. One of which is the concept of ’filler text’. The need to give relevant information in a compact, easy-to-follow manner within the text is something the work should always strive towards. The question then turns into the reasonings behind featuring some information surrounding the characters, events, and environments but not others.

The Fantasy world will always be the same. It is the presentation that is the important part. And too the ability to give relevant information alongside other information of different kinds sprinkled in. Yet the primary goal is for the reader to have an enjoyable experience with the time and money they spent into the Fantasy world the maker creates. And, for that reason, to give focus on aspects many consider to be of importance such as environments, character thoughts and feelings and the progression of the story in a way that does not feel long-winded. I say ‘many’ since this too is subjective depending on the person.

But this line of thinking should not overrule the ones who seek out detailed worldbuilding and enjoy the text which feature whose types of side-tracking topics. For The Eferian Day is in a genre built on extensively describing and detailing a fictional world to great extents. Being able to find a balanced way of giving insights into the Fantasy world is beneficial for everyone involved. And this is especially true within modern time where the ability to engross oneself within immense fictional worlds is extremely easy to do. This makes the need to be able to convey the storyline of The Eferian Day within a well-structured and compact way indeed necessary to not waste the time of both me and the person who reads it.

Devil’s Advocate: Filler will Always Be Necessary

Being worldbuilding and within the Fantasy genre, it should be fairly apparent of the need for filler text to exist within the written work. A large part of the genre function by given tremendous detailing for the fictional world the story takes place in. Books surrounding the real-world don’t have the need to give extensive explanations for how the world works nor the things in it since we all live in it. And since the Fantasy world is an entire new place to the reader: the need to explain it to the point where said person can gain a detailed picture of the world is then important for the storytelling.

This is true.

As mentioned previously: what ’filler text’ is will always be subjective. And too is it necessary to feature many different aspects of the world one would think is not important at first glance. If the text only features information which is of dire need for events taking place in the chapters, the chances of missing out on engrossing detailing is much more likely to happen.

’Optimizing’ text for the sake of speed is not an optimal thing to do when it comes to the Fantasy genre. Since it is within the work’s best interest to be able to depict a fictional world to the extent where a person can feel it being real. And this will always be the main priority of any Fantasy world. The ability for the reader to picture the made-up world to the point where it sounds real is of major accomplishment for me as the maker of it.

It being fun to read is the most important part.

What is Being Done?

Plenty of action is being taken to prevent needless exposition and drawn-out filler text.

One of which being how the Haan system is being presented within published text. If the system were to be featured completely into the main text, the text would become filled with scenes created for the sole purpose of showing off and talking about the elements within the system. This is not optimal. And too would it become tiring to continuously side-track just to feature these types of ideas. So, the action being taken is for the system to have its own place within the back of the volumes. Called ‘’the Haan Study’’ chapters. This makes it possible for casual readers to enjoy the books without having to learn the Haan concepts beforehand. It also allows for more hardcore readers to learn about the system in a more compact and structured format.

Another action being taken is for the text to be built on the principle of giving as much information as possible within the shortest text. This is implemented in a multitude of ways. Being able to condense a paragraph into a singular sentence ensures the text don’t end up stumbling through an ocean of words to say one simple thing. Though this is not the case for all text everywhere since it always varies in context and purpose of the text itself.

And of course, new actions to better the work overall will come into play with every new thing one learns throughout the making of anything creative work. Regardless of what the work is.