Authors, what plot point of your own novel did you later realize was completely unnecessary?

[RinThao]

So originally in my story, I had characters gain the ability to see how much "power level" a certain character would have. Basically, a scouter from Dragon Ball. It was just unnecessary because it didn't contribute to the story. It just added shock value to the other characters when my main character just defeated a guy who had higher "power level" than himself, and it felt unrewarding. So I completely removed that aspect entirely.

 

[TheEldritchGod]

None. Ever. It is all part of the every increasingly complex tapestry of my mind.
I am dreaming all of you, after all. I don't think a single one of you has gone to waste.

 

[EternalSunset0]

Early Fractal Plane had the whole "monsters divided into ranks" thing based on how strong they are.

The thing that goes from E/D (mooks and fodder but still dangerous to non-powered people) to S (the real boss monsters in terms of durability, powers, sentience, etc), stuff like that. I found it to just be a crutch to up the supposed threat level of monsters, but I found it being less and less relevant as the story started moving to human antagonists and "super monster" boss fights (ranked S) at around the third/fourth volume or so.

And as usual with shounen/action anime power creep, the early arc boss monsters (ranked B) have been relegated to just elite mooks/dungeon mid-bosses by the time of writing (I'm currently writing volume 7), and the system has lost most relevance since the ranking system has pretty much capped out and I don't plan to escalate further using such system.

Ironically, I think I fell into the same trap RinThao did haha

 

[AliceShiki]

>.>
<.<

The very premise of the one story I finished writing.

It's a romance novel, yet the premise is about the MC being in a heroes' guild surrounded by OP people while she is kinda normal and whatever... It was all unnecessary to the story I wanted to tell. Most side characters introduced (not like there were many) were also unnecessary.

If I ever rewrite this story, I'll go with a completely different premise. One that allows the romance to be the proper focus of the story instead of something surrounded by pointless distractions.

... Tbf, my original plan was to write a story more focused on this whole heroes' guild and whatever, it's just that the story took a completely different turn and focused almost entirely on the romance, with the original plan being essentially a waste of time that created some bad and unnecessary developments... I just don't control where my stories go much. They flow on their own.

But yeah, the whole original premise of the story was unnecessary. Actually made my synopsis become something that doesn't reflect the story I wrote at all, since it's talking about a premise that I didn't really make much use of~