5 Indicators That You Should Delete A Scene

1. You get bored writing and editing it: If you find yourself in a position where you feel like you’re forcing yourself to work on a scene that’s not a good sign. You shouldn’t feel like you’re forcing your way through a scene so that you can get to the good stuff later on. Ask yourself if the scene is necessary or if it can be replaced or deleted completely.

2. It’s a dream sequence: As you’ve heard from me a million times now, you should delete all dream sequences. Dream sequences regularly disrupt the flow of novels and add nothing valuable to the story. There are exceptions to every rule, but 99.9999% of the time that dream sequence needs to go.

3. It’s just exposition: An example of this would be a fantasy that does nothing more than explain the world and government style. Most times this kind of information can be woven into the story in a more organic fashion. Exposition dumps can be difficult for readers to get through. Majority of the time readers will care more about your characters than the geopolitical landscape of the world you’ve created.

4. It’s a point that’s already been pointed out: You always want to do your best to avoid rehashing information that the reader already knows about. An overly repetitive story has a high likelihood of boring the reader. Sometimes you should delete the scene, but other times it’s possible to merge the two scenes that display the same information together. Characters shouldn’t be learning the same lesson twice, nor should the same thing be said in a different setting.

5. It doesn’t educate or entertain: A scene should always have some kind of purpose and never be there just to be there. Always attempt to reveal crucial information, raise the stakes, or generate more conflict in every scene you write. If your scene doesn’t do that then try to add one of those three things to it to make it stronger or delete the scene entirely.