Kasper Hviid
Sage
I think it's mostly plotters who like the idea that every scene must advance the plot. Discovery writers are more focused on the journey, not the destination.
Anyways, to me, this advice just seems unnecessary mechanical and rigid. It's replacing deeper understanding with a shallow bullet-point list. The strong aversion I feel towards this advice is best illustrated in the Understanding Poetry Scene from Dead Poets Society.
Advice like this is also limiting your thinking. Like, here's a thing I have noticed whilst reading fiction: Often, the Very Cool Scene was NOT added because the plot demanded it. Rather, the plot was twisted about so that the Very Cool Scene fitted in. Dirty trick, but it works. But it requires that you think outside the paradigm that it is the scene that has to fit the plot. Also, the scene doesn't necessarily need to actually have any significance to the plot. The reader just has to have the feeling it does, that the story feels progressive, alive, at the moment he read through it.
In this video on Writing Productive Filler it's preached that the very act of writing filler can help you move forward in your story, even if it might get cut later.
The video gives the usual advice:
"Anything that doesn't contribute substantively to characterization or the plot should be cut"
But also declares that:
"I think there's a danger to the idea of every single word and every single scene and moment being super precious."
Anyways, to me, this advice just seems unnecessary mechanical and rigid. It's replacing deeper understanding with a shallow bullet-point list. The strong aversion I feel towards this advice is best illustrated in the Understanding Poetry Scene from Dead Poets Society.
Advice like this is also limiting your thinking. Like, here's a thing I have noticed whilst reading fiction: Often, the Very Cool Scene was NOT added because the plot demanded it. Rather, the plot was twisted about so that the Very Cool Scene fitted in. Dirty trick, but it works. But it requires that you think outside the paradigm that it is the scene that has to fit the plot. Also, the scene doesn't necessarily need to actually have any significance to the plot. The reader just has to have the feeling it does, that the story feels progressive, alive, at the moment he read through it.
In this video on Writing Productive Filler it's preached that the very act of writing filler can help you move forward in your story, even if it might get cut later.
The video gives the usual advice:
"Anything that doesn't contribute substantively to characterization or the plot should be cut"
But also declares that:
"I think there's a danger to the idea of every single word and every single scene and moment being super precious."