hey friend, thank you for the question. ♡ first of all, i don’t personally really believe in ‘fluffing up’ chapters, because something finished is finished~ but if you want to make your scenes feel more alive, i have a few tips!!

1) have your characters interact with their surroundings. so, if two people are in a conversation, have them do something—interact with an object, fuss with their hands or hair, or move somewhere. this way, characters are still interacting and conveying the message you want, while the scene feels more expressive and breathes more life.

1.5) also, the above tip also may help you contextualise where you’re characters are. earlier in my writing journey, i often wanted to write conversations but i didn’t place them in a physical space. generally don’t start with first describing the rooms, but sprinkle it in between. your readers know that if you say someone is taking a drink out of the fridge in the middle of the conversation to avoid answering a question, they’re probably not in the bathroom.

2) describe sensory experiences. don’t do this too often, but you can say that a character who is sitting in a cafe maybe hears the music and the chatter around them, and they may smell the freshly baked waffles. or someone walking outside may be chilly, and think about taking their scarf out of storage, or they’re hot and thinking about having an iced drink later.

3) lore-sprinkling ! and i use lore in the most broadest sense here. for fics that i’ve beta’d, the best tip i can give you—if it’s mentioned, then you can elaborate. so if people are talking about their weekend, you can go in depth about an awkward moment the main character doesn’t want to talk about. or if someone is walking past a bookstore, they can have a flashback to the time they bumped into their crush there and made a fool of themselves. it gives the reader a bigger understanding about the characters, their personalities, and their backstories. and since you’re writing a romantasy, maybe your character sees a dragon zipping around with a little backpack, and they can think back to the time they dreamed about becoming a postal worker with the dragons to deliver mail, but they found out they’re allergic to dragon scales.

these are just some broad tips that don’t necessarily are about fluffing up a chapter, but breathing more life into it. again, if you’ve already done all of this, then 1800 words is really a fine chapter. when we’re reading a book, we’re not surprised by a chapter that’s only 3 or 4 pages, so why should a fic be different? i hope this could help you a little bit, and i’m excited to see what you put out ^^