Tender Sweets
If you type out fifty k worth of nonsensical sentences does it make a novel?
Discuss: What do you think is more important, bulk or quality?
I think bulk is what should be achieved when you aim for quality. When you add more in to make things more clear, exciting, poetic, romantic, or whatever, then you end up with a quality bulk.
I have aimed not to add any sort of fluff the entire time. I am making sure every line, every dialogue, every observation is relevant at some point in the story. And by writing all my chapters out of order, it's allowed me to plan ahead, and develop things a lot more beautifully. If I find a line that turns out to be irrelevant or seemingly unaddressed later in the writing, I take it out without a second thought. I then make sure that everything else around it still flows as intended.
Bulk is nice, but it's just filler if it's not quality. It would be like reading this post 100 times in a row, or reading one of Stephanie Meyer's books. I mean, seriously, how the hell did she get published. More than half of her books is bulk fluff about how dreamy the main character thinks the vampire is. I don't want to read that every other page. I get it.
I remind my readers of certain important things for the first few chapters it is introduced. After that, they should have it dedicated to memory as they read. My characters accent should not need to be mentioned on chapters four and up. It's mentioned before, so why again?
Bulk is never good when it is fluff or filler. That is the worst kind of bulk. You should make your bulk engaging, changing, and dynamic. That gives it quality.
NOTE: How do I write in bulk the first time and retain quality? I write rough drafts in my head by playing it like a movie, and tweaking it there until it's just how I like it. This eliminated 20 minutes of re-writing when I want to take a few lines out of a scene.
Aim for Quality. Then aim for even higher quality. The right amount of bulk will find its way in.