Fights Should Matter

One of the most asinine things I've read recently was somebody saying they put a fight scene in a chapter to make up for all the "talking" in the previous two.

I genuinely find this annoying. 

If you put a fight in, just to have a fight, you didn't need to have a fight. Even professional WWE wrestling knows you need to have a storyline for people to care about the fight, and people are expecting random fights! 

But in all fairness: I actually kind get this. 

Look, I was a fourteen year old fanfic writer too. We all were. And a lot of times, we wanted to put in scenes just because we liked the idea, even if the scene didn't actually do anything for the plot. I mean, even nowadays, I had to slash at least twenty - thirty percent of the scenes in "Call of the Wolves" just because of wastage. 

I remember I thought I needed a tournament arc because every Yugioh series had tournament arcs. 

So I perfectly understand this. 

That being said I'm not tolerant at all of this tomfoolerishness. 

Speaking specifically: If removing a fight scene wouldn't harm your story, you should remove said fight scene. 

And I mean, the fight scene has to be important, important. 

I understand you want a fight scene "because I gots to showcase what my character can do when he gets his hands on you". But, you ought to wait just a hot moment.

Can you make this fight more important in some way? 

I'm not saying try to artificially inflate the importance of a fight, I'm saying, find an important moment to have a fight. So for instance, your character doesn't need a bar brawl against a generic NPC. 

"But can't I theoretically remove all the fights? What counts as 'necessary'?" 

What's important to your characters' growth and arc, and what's natural for your plot? Having five villains before the final villain is utterly random. Having the characters try to stop the ritual of the panda lord by taking out a scout, stealing a guard's uniform, beating up the gatekeeper, taking out the advisor, and taking out the Panda Lady is natural. 

A lot of times, I see stories where the villain just has four cronies. I'm like "well why? What's the purpose of four? Couldn't you easily cut out two of them and just have a severely shorter story? Wouldn't writing less words and fights be easier on you and your reader? Do you submit to a site with a word limit?"

You don't have to be in a rush to write poorly, but you can wait to write well.

Essentially, who is this character likely to fight on their way to greatness? If they're joining a boxing tournament, yeah they will have to face three dudes and the champion. But fun fact, you can summarize a couple of those fights.

Do we need to see them on-screen? Maybe you can just put down, "The match ended after a couple jabs before he dynamite punched the dude in the face. The crowd popped up but he sure didn't." 

If the fight doesn't need to happen, no fight. If the fight needs to happen, but doesn't need to be dramatized (doesn't develop character and plot), summarize the fight. If the fight needs to happen and is important to the story, dramatize and keep the fight.