I love to throw scenes away. (crumple, crumple...Yeah!) But I am also meticulous about saving copies of everything and backing up my hard-drive. That's not a contradiction: I have a system. Here are the criteria I use to decide what I take out of my book and what I keep for a rewrite:
1) You dread writing. That scene has painted you into a corner. Now you're stuck, surrounded by wet, sloppy plot, and writing isn't fun anymore.
2) Your characters are acting out of character. It happens. You need one of them to do something to move the plot along, but it isn't what they'd do naturally. You've forced them and it shows.
3) The scene is gorgeous, witty, intelligent and has absolutely nothing to do with the plot. Admire your handiwork for a few more minutes, then scrap it. Pretty is as pretty does, and if that scene isn't doing anything for your plot, it's ugly.
4) You've rewritten it four times and it still sounds wrong. Give up already!
5)You love it, you love it, you love it---and all your readers hate it. If you've chosen your readers wisely, trust them.
Now what? You're a kind person; you can't just throw your words out on the street. Indeed not. Make a Humane Society for Writing and put them there. I suggest a box. Maybe later, you'll adopt some of those ideas for a different work. Now, go back to your desk with a clean heart.
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