The beta reader who told me to kill my favorite chapter

I had this 12 page chapter in my fantasy novel that took me 6 months to polish, and a beta reader from my local writing group said it read like a side quest with no stakes. I was furious at first, but when I cut it down to 3 pages and folded the one good scene into the next chapter, the whole story finally moved. Has anyone else ever had to delete something they loved because the pacing was off, and did it actually make your book better?

2 comments

2 Comments

sage_green1mo ago

Ugh YES. Killed a whole subplot once and the book finally breathed. Brutal but worth it.

lewis.terry1mo ago

...and honestly I think that's the real test, right? I had this whole B-plot with a mystery cousin nobody asked for, took me 40 pages to realize it was just me stalling. Cut it all out in one night and suddenly my main character actually had room to breathe. It felt like I was deleting a whole person but the story finally made sense.