This is K.M. Wyland and you are listening to the 293rd episode of the Helping Writers Become Authors podcast.

I was thrilled to learn that Helping Writers Become Authors was listed once more in Writers Digest's 101 best websites for writers this year.

So of course I have to send out a major thank you to all of you word players who wrote in to nominate it. So thank you. I have such fun sharing

my writing journey and discoveries with all of you. So thank you for joining me in this little

corner of the writing world every week.

The latest post in the video series on my blog is the lazy technique that can cripple

suspenseful chapter endings.

It offers an example of what might seem to be a great chapter ending,

and then shows you why it's lazy and how to make it's been fantastic instead. To find the post

visit my site at helping writers become authors.com. And now I hope you enjoy

this week's podcast, entitled Most Common Writing Mistakes Part 40,

Scenes That Don't Matter to The Story.

What is a story but scenes? Put one scene after another and you have a story.

Of course it's a little more complicated than that. These scenes have to hang together in a way that makes sense.

They have to create a contiguous arc. Every one of those scenes needs to be integral to that arc.

If a scene isn't integral, then it doesn't belong in the story.

So as we're going to find out in this one of our most common writing mistakes,

it's just as simple as that. And just as hard. Because sometimes

writers can't see the forest for the trees. When you're writing along, creating as you go, it can be difficult to realize

when you've just written a scene that doesn't matter to your story. It can be even harder when you've written a scene that you know isn't 100% essential,

but you can't bear to cut it because it's so darn fun. Surely a scene like that can get a free pass and stay

in the story. What's it going to hurt? Right? Turns out, it might hurt your entire book.

...