As a strange god once said, writing is hard. It feels like there are near limitless aspects to consider during the writing process. With any luck, you should find answers to questions and learn new things in this collection of discussions.
Feel free...
The length of a scene and the amount of scenes in a novel are both vague, abstract concepts. You'll generally find suggestions that state around 1,000 - 2,000 words make up a scene, but any writer's blog will tell you that's irrelevant, that they write scenes shorter and longer than that. You'll find that the amount of scenes in a novel varies widely because of this.
Every Scene Must Matter
Every scene in a piece of literature should have a purpose. If the opening of a story needs to establish setting, character, and tone, then consider what any other scene might establish or elaborate upon. Often foolish advisors will state that "every scene must drive the plot." This is simply not true. Scenes can accomplish many more things, after all.
Drive the plot, drive the subplot, raise the stakes, or develop character. All of these things could be done simply or complexly with conflict. Perhaps from development, discovery, decision, or disaster, something must keep the story as a whole, or a section of it, moving.
Example: develop character. In the Hobbit, the dwarves get caught by spiders because they divert from the path in Mirkwood. This is clearly a disaster. Bilbo taps into his blooming bravery and frees the dwarves from their webs with the aid of the One Ring. They all fight their way out so they can continue on their way towards the mountain, the goal.
Example: develop character. In the last Lord of the Rings film, Elrond makes Aragorn aware that Gondor will be under attack from not one front, but two. This development drives Aragorn to accept the magic sword of kingliness, enter the ghost-mountain, and rise to the role of king.
Example: drive the plot. In The Lightning Thief, Percy decides to leave the camp to seek his mother after he discovers that Hades is holding her captive.
Example: drive the plot. In Supernatural, the first story-arc is thrust forward by the discovery that the Winchester father is missing. The scene in Sam's dorm is the catalyst for the whole show.
Example: drive the subplot.In the anime Fate/Zero, tension between Waver and his professor is developed and it drives Waver to the extreme. He discovers the Grail War and decides to become a master.
Example: drive the plot, drive the subplot, raise the stakes, and develop character. In the first Lord of the Rings film, the orcs attack the Fellowship of the Ring party and kill Boromir. This one death is the single developmental catalyst that causes a change in many of the characters of the story. Aragorn begins the character story of becoming king. Pippin is overwhelmed with guilt, which later pushes him into swearing fealty to a madman back in Gondor. Boromir's father loses his damn mind, though he didn't seem all there to begin with. Boromir's brother finds the strength to resist the ring because of it but is almost martyr'ed against his will, all because of Boromir's death. Poor Faramir. ... All because of that one scene.
Interact with the setting. This can also be something that occurs because of conflict, but it definitely doesn't have to be and often isn't. When heavy worldbuilding goes into a story, this aspect begins to play a part. Know that it cannot stand alone or take the forefront of a scene, but that it makes for a flavorful background element in a story.
Example: In Lord of the Rings, the hobbits light a fire while on the run from the Nazgul. That structure is clearly a ruin. In fact, several fights and integral scenes occur around ruins, enough to notice. These ruins are a juxtaposition of the Shire presented at the beginning of the story. These ruins are a constant reminder of the terrible force that Sauron was in the first war and the horrible danger the whole of the world is in. These ruins also hint at the history in these places, that which was lost but existed nonetheless.
Foreshadow. A scene can be used to allude to and hint at something later in the story. A scene can establish something that will happen again later but in a different context. Note that twists and reveals should be allowed the proper foreshadowing or they will feel cheap.
You can also foreshadow a past mystery that has yet to be revealed, a postshadow if you will. This would be if someone previously did something that hasn't been revealed yet but can be hinted at.
Present theme. In the Hobbit films, they would just talk about greed sometimes. Just, straight up present the discussion of the theme. And that's fine. You could do it in a more subtle way, and probably should. Show, don't tell and all.
If your theme has to do with, say, something to do with a strict state controlling and harming the people, then have several scenes proving that. Show police violence. Show political corruption. Show the people's suffering and their voices going unheard. These are the scenes where you say something with your story, so show it.
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A trick to being direct but indirect is having a character represent an element of your theme. You don't have to do that, just an option. In the anime Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, there were characters named after the seven deadly sins and their purpose in the theme presentation was not grey. Sure, they had A LOT more to offer than just the implications of their name and the associated sin, but it was an obvious layer of theme to work with.
Surely you, the writer, can imagine more things that a scene might achieve. Surely you also noticed at conflict plays a role in what often makes a scene valuable, though it doesn't always have to. It is also important to note that at least a little of the plot (specifically, but other stuff is fine as well) needs to be driven by decision. Strong characters make decisions that affect the outcome of the story, weak characters let the story happen around them passively. Consider this your preview of how to write strong (hint hint: female) characters.
Eliminating Scenes
Now that you know that a scene must matter, it should be clear how to deduce how to eliminate a scene in your story. The scenes that don't accomplish something should be some of the first to be cut or heavily altered in a story. This increases the efficiency of the piece and keeps the story from becoming dull or slow. That's it.
If eliminating a scene is too painful, you may need to fix it up quite a bit. Expand the purpose of the scene and make sure the structure is both "correct" and interesting. Doing these things should increase the value of a scene and push it above those around it that might still need cutting. Keep in mind that sometimes cutting scenes is the way to benefit a story, so perhaps mark possible "cut" scenes and alter the best of them if too many are marked. This will most likely correlate with the length of the story if publishing, but here on Wattpad the art is more about producing the best story possible.
Video Resource: King Arthur: How to Fail at Fantasy by The Closer Look, discussing that every scene must present something. If it doesn't, it had better be hella cool. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8k738I3D9A
Video Resource: King Arthur: How Moments Can Ruin a Movie by Filmento. However, cool moments can ruin good pieces if used incorrectly. Visually pleasing (descriptive) pieces can be incredible and add flair to your piece, but failing to give them meaning and to make them a coherent part of a scene makes them meaningless. However, don't simply skip through scenes to hit the most important points because it ruins tension and allowing for tension is a great time to use those sweeping descriptions and cool moments. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bGGj9Fv5jo
Video Resource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XATONsyKml0
