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I read a fic review that discussed something ocurring in the story that the reader (readers, actually) had not understood the purpose of and so felt it an unecessary situation that had no real purpose in the broader spectrum of the plot. It got me thinking about, as writers with particular fetishes, how we sometimes try to force something into a story that is either mildly unecessary or so totally unecessary that it actually ruins the fic. I've been guilty of this myself with both original stories and fanfic. I love whump but have a tendancy to get a little to explicit or heavy with the whump (that might be an understatement). The whump might have been necessary, but not how far I took it.
But when it comes to any of my stories I try hard to make everything that happens within the story count for something. If it doesn't have a purpose, whether big or small, I won't put it in.
A lot of what's necessary and what's not necessary might be more a matter of opinion. What the writer might deem as an important situation or scene to the plot, the reader might not see the purpose of. However, it is pretty dang obvious it's not intrigal when it's something you're squeezing into a chapter or scene for the mere sake of having it. Either because it's something you like or something you think would make the book more popular. A sex scene, for example, or a very violent whump scene where the one whumped recovers not long after, forgetting the whump had ever happened.
I've come across fics - slash, het, and H/C - that have left me wondering "was that really necessary?" Normally such stories will have a slash or het scene that comes out of no-where (with the story's genre label staying as gen), and had the scene been left out the story would have worked just as well if not better. I've also come across stories where a whump scene comes out of the blue because the writer, knowing how popular whump is, will plug it in in hopes of drawing in more readers (I will admit to being guilty of this myself, but mostly because I feel bad that I never give the McKay whumpers anything.) Most of the time it's no big deal. Other times, especially in the case of a slash or het scene popping into a story originally labeled as gen or not labeled at all, it's annoying.
But whether annoying or tolerable, you should always ask yourself "am I putting this slash/het/whump scene in because it has some importance, or just because I want a slash/het/whump scene?" Which sometimes means having the story end up not being slash, het or H/C. But that's okay if you're story ends up the better for it.
It also got me wondering if there was such a thing as unecessary friendship in a fic. When it comes to friendship fics, the plot usually centers around them, but I still had to wonder. I've personally yet to come upon something like that myself.
But when it comes to any of my stories I try hard to make everything that happens within the story count for something. If it doesn't have a purpose, whether big or small, I won't put it in.
A lot of what's necessary and what's not necessary might be more a matter of opinion. What the writer might deem as an important situation or scene to the plot, the reader might not see the purpose of. However, it is pretty dang obvious it's not intrigal when it's something you're squeezing into a chapter or scene for the mere sake of having it. Either because it's something you like or something you think would make the book more popular. A sex scene, for example, or a very violent whump scene where the one whumped recovers not long after, forgetting the whump had ever happened.
I've come across fics - slash, het, and H/C - that have left me wondering "was that really necessary?" Normally such stories will have a slash or het scene that comes out of no-where (with the story's genre label staying as gen), and had the scene been left out the story would have worked just as well if not better. I've also come across stories where a whump scene comes out of the blue because the writer, knowing how popular whump is, will plug it in in hopes of drawing in more readers (I will admit to being guilty of this myself, but mostly because I feel bad that I never give the McKay whumpers anything.) Most of the time it's no big deal. Other times, especially in the case of a slash or het scene popping into a story originally labeled as gen or not labeled at all, it's annoying.
But whether annoying or tolerable, you should always ask yourself "am I putting this slash/het/whump scene in because it has some importance, or just because I want a slash/het/whump scene?" Which sometimes means having the story end up not being slash, het or H/C. But that's okay if you're story ends up the better for it.
It also got me wondering if there was such a thing as unecessary friendship in a fic. When it comes to friendship fics, the plot usually centers around them, but I still had to wonder. I've personally yet to come upon something like that myself.
