How do you decide if a scene should be cut?

This isn't going to help, but I always make these kind of decision based on a gt feeling.

Do YOU want to keep it, or bin it? (please dismiss the ego from this particular board meeting!)

Does it reveal character?

Does it advance the plot?

If the answer to both of these is no, cut it.

... if you haven't finished the WIP, yet, I'd advise you to do so. When the whole WIP is layed out it's easier to determine whether a scene is truly serving a function or not. You might also come back to the scene at a later date. Helps to give one a more objective perspective, I find.

So it's not so much about "Does this scene deserve to be here?" as "How should I present it?"

I've had that problem. This is just me, but I go for concise. If I can make a chapter do double duty (reveal character and advance plot, say, or reveal a secret and explain what so-and-so was doing in such-and-such a place at whatever time) then I do so. I present the information needed in as few chapters as possible, so as to avoid boring the reader. I hope!

I suppose you could write as excessively as possible in any given scene. That way, you could later cut what's really excess and keep what's really important. I find myself doing the same as you - writing as concise as possible - and end up leaving alot of description (be it character or world building).

I think you shouldn't worry much about boring the reader and rather focus on making your scenes richer. Beta readers will help tell you which is overly rich and which should be scraped all together.

It's possible that once you finish the whole thing you'll find a better way to tell that particular scene. This is one of those hard parts. Sometimes it does contain relevant information but should still be cut. If you're concerned with pacing, then once you have the entire work as a whole, it will be much easier to see pacing and make a decision. You might look at it and say, "This slows down way too much...I know, I'll put this bit later on and this bit earlier" and just play around with it until it works. I agree with the idea that it shouldn't be something you worry about too much right now.

In my personal experience, if I'm questioning whether or not to leave a scene in, it's because it's not working. I take it out (and, of course, save it in another document). If I need it back, I can get it back, but so far, almost never have I put the cut scene back in.

You could also try writing it both ways, waiting a week or so, then seeing which works better.

Have you run this past some betareaders? If a majority of them favors one particular way and give an articulate reason (not based on so-called writing rules) then you have your answer.

It maybe interesting to know what led to a certain ending (in this case is the dead MC.) But to me, it's far more interesting to see what leads to a yet-unknown fate. I think it would be interesting if throughout the story we don't know that the MC was dead from the beginning and the book is a recount of what killed the MC.

If it doesn't serve the story and/or it's an info dump, I cut it.

I don't decide until after I've finished the book or short story.

Then during revision, I try to summarize the plot of the whole thing, either in a few paragraphs (a kind of unofficial synopsis) or by writing an actual synopsis. Whatever wasn't important enough to be included in the summary is axed. So if a scene doesn't directly support or explain an important part of the plot, it goes.

I'm of the opinion that world-building can nearly always be done successfully WHILE you also advance plot.

Every sentence must drive the paragraph; every paragraph must drive the chapter; every chapter must drive the story.

Any questions?

Ask yourself: What is the goal of this scene?

Either it doesn't fulfill that goal, so you fix it. Or it doesn't fulfill that goal, so cut you it.

I agree with several here. Don't start massive cuts or moving around until you have "the story" The complete plot written down. When you have a stack of 1000 sheets of paper in front of you, and you need to shorten it by 50,000 words, then consider what to cut.

Yeah, finish first, then decide.

I've found that halfway through a book I'll suddenly notice a trend, something that I want to continue at all costs, and it's usually something that only works with half of what's gone before it - so you edit the rest.

If you wind up with an ending that you love, and it's actually the subplot that made you jump with joy, then chances are you'll need to change a lot around (subtly, often) to make it all click.

I've been trying to add extra description or inner thoughts to my current WIP, because my previous books were all lacking in that somewhat... I'm not a descriptive person, and don't like a lot of it in the books I'm reading. Like, if someone hits themselves with a whip, I don't care what the ritual is called and I certainly don't care what type of whip it is by name at least - a simple "it had nine tongues with studs" will do, and then "it was meant to be a cleansing through pain" - none of this "The ancient Jerkwads used this practice for 1000 years and it was called X and blah blah blah." Just a pet peeve of mine.

But the point of my trying to write extra description is that some of it will be necessary, so even though I'll chop most of it out in the end, at least some good bits survive, which for some readers would be essential.

Basically, more is better if only for the fact that you can then edit freely and be merciless with what gets the chop.

But back to my original point - leave the scene in until you're done writing the whole story. You said you've got a follow-up scene, which is something you're preferring due to the daylight thing. Definitely keep that, and then later you can probably make a better decision.

And as always, back up your work, every last word of it - if you start editing, keep an original copy, etc etc.

I get a little twitchy when a story is described as "very thematically rich." This is not a bad thing, but it can mean the writer is over-prescribing the subtle aspects of the story, which usually impacts the surface story, many times in a heavy-handed way.

As writers, we want to lead the readers on our story's journey, but we also should want the readers to have some freedom of interpretation in the subtleties of that story. Ten readers may get ten somewhat different themes from a single story, and this is not a bad thing. The worst thing we can do is put a ring through the nose of our readers, tie a rope to the ring, and pull them down a narrow path of a story. Our job is to continually nudge the readers in the story's direction, allowing each reader to discover his/her own footstrikes.

In this respect, if the scene in question is there to develop a heavy theme, make sure it doesn't put blinders on the readers' imaginative interpretations of such story subtleties and in so doing, restrict the readers' emotional involvement in the story. As new and developing writers, we all tend to over-describe and over-prescribe our stories.

We should always consider setting the readers free within the broad confines of our stories. In other words, we should recognize that readers have highly-functional brains and they want to take the hackimores out and let those brains have a good run in our stories.


Note added in edit: If there is a scene that sticks out because it is explanatory or expositional, it can sometimes be dealt with by taking bit and pieces, or even large chunks, and sprinkling them throughout the story. This way, it takes on more of a nudging nature rather than a nose-ring tug.

If you cut the scene, does a major character fail to develop? Does a key piece of plot go missing?

If the answer is no, cut it.

JeanneTGC said:

In my personal experience, if I'm questioning whether or not to leave a scene in, it's because it's not working.

Click to expand...

ditto.

If the scene is one I like, I leave it in.

The exception is when the novel is too long, and something has to go, even if I do like it.