Web fiction
Filler
Serialized media's padding problem: content created to fill a slot or stall for time rather than advance the story.
In broadcast media, filler is "material of lower cost or quality that is used to fill a certain television or radio time slot or physical medium." In serialized anime the word has a precise production meaning: televised anime is produced faster than the manga it adapts, so "producers may have to create their own arcs to stall for time while the mangaka and their team catches up." Naruto and Bleach are the standard examples of filler-heavy series.
In serial communities the word has widened to mean any chapter that seems to exist to keep the schedule rather than move the story, and the pressure is structural: an advance chapter buffer and a daily cadence always want more chapters. The craft defense is making quiet chapters earn their place: deliberate slice of life beats that advance relationships and world knowledge are not filler. The test is whether anything is genuinely different afterward.