I agree, Catkin. I have struggled with this especially with things like adverbs and adjectives. I like the way they sound in many sentences.

I know we're not supposed to use them (much), but sometimes I just like the way the sentence sounds with them!

Edited by debac at 11:52:00 on 21 July 2013

but the sentence wouldn't sound half so good without the 'unnecessary' word or words.

Oh, yes, absolutely. All the time.

In my experience when people say "unnecessary" they're talking about the denotation - the basics of what the sentence means.

But there are so many other things that the words in your sentence are doing: connotation, sound, rhythm within the sentence, the rhythm of the paragraph in which the sentence sits, echoes of denotation and connotation across the wider canvas of the story...

I thought more about denotation and connotation here:

http://emmadarwin.typepad.com/thisitchofwriting/2010/09/denotation-and-connotation.html

which was actually jumped of a WW post ages ago...