Wattpad Rants

Pointless Scenes/Dialogue

Everyone's read them, even if you don't exactly know how to distinguish them. Pointless scenes can be created by giving the characters' actions too much detail, or too little detail. For example, if the author writes a whole chapter describing how the MC got ready for school, then that's a pointless scene. Mundane tasks like getting dressed, reading a book, or bumping into a stranger do not need to have a whole paragraph or chapter describing each and every single little detail unless it has importance to the plot. This is a mistake made by a lot of new writers and was something I did in my first stages of writing too. I thought that if I really went into depth with it, readers would see how well I knew my story, but in reality, it made me look like an idiot.

The same thing goes for dialogue. If I open a book and the story starts off with five or more lines of speech, then I can tell this book is probably going to suck, but then again, my judgment is pretty bad. Just remember, you're writing a book, not a script. And because a lot of contemporary novels have scenes that involve a coffee shop, there's no point in having a character bump into an acquaintance if they have no impact on the story. Yes, it happens in real life, but there's no point to it. Also, for really basic conversations like, "Hey, how was your day?", you don't need to write out every single word. Just generalize it: they nodded and greeted each other with smiles before moving on down the street.

Generalizing is not an excuse to be lazy and give your scenes little to no detail. She woke up and left the house.

Did the main character feel tired? Did they brush their teeth, or eat breakfast? Apparently not, according to the sentence. So, lesson of the day, have a good balance between details. Not too much, not too little, but just right.

QOTD: Favorite tv show? I'm running out of things to watch and I need some recommendations!