: Can I have scenes that aren't directly related to the main plot but strengthen the relationship between two characters (which is a subplot)? I have some scenes in my novel that have nothing

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The answer is of course, yes. The comprehensive answer provided by Amadeus is sound but I would go further. The general advice offered on this and many other boards is appropriate for simple story writing but more substantial works do not work that way.

Within a story all scenes are relevant. The art of the craft is the author's control of when the scene becomes relevant, and what it is it relevant to.

In "The Blues Brothers" Carrie Fisher spends a good deal of the story trying to kill John Belushi using increasingly violent methods. Nobody knows who this woman is or why she is trying to kill him. It is arguable that the character or her motivations have anything to do with the plot.

In "Sixth Sense" Bruce Willis is portrayed in difficult scenes with his wife. None of these scenes are relevant in real time, however, they are understood by the audience retrospectively.

Indeed, in one of my own stories, in the opening scene, a woman is dancing naked in her apartment with the curtains open - apparently irrelevant. (In the denouement we discover the scene's relevance).

In most good thrillers all the apparently irrelevant scenes come into focus in the finale.

The key is confidence. The reader needs to trust the author. "I wouldn't be shown this unless it contains information I need to know."

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Yes, absolutely. Every scene should advance something, but that includes the main plot,sub plot, characterizations, explanations of setting, etc.

Sometimes these are inter-linked, and a single scene can do work on multiple things at once. But it is okay if it doesn't.

For example, I generally have sex scenes in my stories. I don't write erotica, but I do think sex is a part of life, and my adult characters experience it. Especially if I have a love story subplot, which is often the case.

I almost never write a sex scene to do anything else except be a sex scene; whether that is consummation of a building relationship, a reconnection, or just having sex for the fun of it.

I am not trying to advance the main plot at all.

Write your "date night", or hanging out, advance the characterization of the two characters involved (for good or ill), and strengthen or weaken their bond with each other. That's enough to accomplish, and the state of their emotional connections is typically very important to the reader, they are living this story vicariously through your characters.

The only scene you shouldn't write is one in which absolutely nothing new is revealed, or nothing changes; a scene you could delete without the reader being confused at all. Unless it is just there for comic relief, I'd delete it.

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