How can I expand a simple story concept into a rich, novel-length narrative without adding unnecessary fluff?

I was asked this question recently over the internet. I had many questions to ask in return. How long do you think a novel should be? what do you consider "fluff"

With answers I responded.

Start writing.

That it is all that it takes. Lol- and what is unessessary fluff? Nobel Prize winning Hermann Hesse wrote a novel which was, I grew up and all that worried me in the process, but called “Peter Camenzind” It was full of fluff about his feelings and sense of dislocation.

For some readers, the fluff is anathema, to be avoided. They wish short clipped sentences, Why use ten words when one will suffice.

I consider them journalistic readers. They worship at the altar of Hemingway, Greene and the like. Nothing wrong with that exept that you often miss the poetry and beauty of language.

“Genre” writers span all world's, they can be the best and worst of writers but live in a world where the story becomes all.

“Philisophical” writers span a huge chasm where writing and human thought combine creating works that sell few copies but are appreciated the world over by thinkers.

I could go on and on detailing more in the way of discovery and what the “fluff” is.

Sometimes the “fluff” is the most important part of the book.

I just wish to finish, (you will be glad to know) with a short example of fluff, Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet) considered his play “Candide” to be a work of ridicule, of fluff. Three centuries later it is still considered essential reading.

Just write it and hope for the best. Oh, and good luck.

Darkest of Faerie tales, a mystery, romance,