Scene & Summary: Mastering When To Use Which

Scene & Summary: Mastering When to Use Which

Writers regularly need both scene and summary to tell a great story, but sometimes it can be difficult to discern when to use which, for best effect. Occasionally when editing another’s work, I find the writer made what really should have been summaries into scenes, and what really should have been scenes, into summaries.

This can weaken any story. Just imagine what The Hunger Games would have been like if Suzanne Collins summarized the high points of the Games—the cornucopia battle, the tracker jackers, or the mutts at the end. Then consider how slow and boring the story would be if she wrote a scene for every time Katniss went to bed or woke up and ate breakfast while in the Capitol. A high-stakes, fast-paced story would have turned into a drag—and would have been rejected before Effie could say “Primrose Everdeen.”

Writers run into this problem for several reasons:

They can’t yet tell the difference between scene and summary

They can’t yet discern what the story’s major turning points are

They feel too intimidated to write what needs to happen in a scene

They don’t know how to write a strong scene

They don’t know how to write a strong summary

Hi all, September C. Fawkes ( @septembercfawkes ) here for this week’s article. And I will be addressing each of these.

Scene & Summary: Mastering When To Use Which

What’s the Difference Between Scene and Summary?

How can you know when to use which when you don’t really know what each is?

Here are the key features of scenes and summaries to help you develop a better eye for them.

Scene:

A scene will happen in real time. The audience will “watch” the characters move across the setting, interact, and speak, as if it is all taking place in the real world.

The characters will be acting within a specific location. They may be sitting at a kitchen table, or on an airplane, or venturing into a forest. Often (though not always) when a scene ends and a new scene begins, the location will have changed. (Alternatively, the story may have jumped forward or backward in time.)

Scenes are “shown” more than “told” to the audience. This means what happens is dramatized. We don’t tell the audience “Matt was angry for the whole dinner.” We show he’s angry through his behavior. He may make a passive-aggressive comment, complain his meat is undercooked, or, if he’s really angry, throw his drink at his girlfriend.

Scenes will be mostly concrete. Because a scene is dramatized, it will more likely appeal to our senses and the physical world and experience.

Summary:

A summary happens over condensed time, not real time. A sentence may span a day, a week, a month, a year. Summaries may talk about recurring events over a period of time, within one paragraph. They may relay past—or even future—events within a brief moment.

The characters or locations may change swiftly, or in some cases, may not even be present. The text may guide the reader through different places, people, or time frames with ease.

Summaries use more “telling” than “showing.” This is because what is happening isn’t in real time. This gives summary a stronger, guiding, narrative hand. Rather than experiencing the passage like the character, it’s more like the audience is being guided by a storyteller.

Because summaries use more telling and can move swiftly from one thing to another, they will be more abstract. They will convey ideas and concepts, rather than recreate specific experiences.

To illustrate the differences, check out these two examples from Ender’s Game.

Scene Example:

(Note: Because scenes often take place over pages, this is just part of a scene.)

Anderson palmed the locks that kept students out of the officers’ quarters; finally they came to where Graff had taken root on a swivel chair bolted to the steel floor. His belly spilled over both armrests now, even when he sat upright… . Time and tension were not being kind to the administrator of the Battle School.

“Seven days since your first battle, Ender,” said Graff.

Ender did not reply.

“And you’ve won seven battles, once a day.”

Ender nodded.

“Your scores are unusually high, too.”

Ender blinked.

“To what, commander, do you attribute your remarkable success?”

“You gave me an army that does whatever I can think for it to do.”

Summary Example:

Ender put them through the obstacle course twice, then split them into rotations on the tramp, the mat, and the bench… . He didn’t need to worry about exhaustion. They were in good shape, light and agile, and above all excited about the battle to come. A few of them spontaneously began to wrestle—the gym, instead of being tedious, was suddenly fun… . At 0640 he had them dress out. He talked to the toon leaders and their seconds while they dressed. At 0650 he made them all lie down on the mats and relax. Then, at 0656, he ordered them up and they jogged along the corridor to the battleroom.

Worth noting is that it is possible to mix scene and summary. For example, you may have a bit of summary within a scene that briefly provides background information. Or, you may write a long passage of summary that has short moments of dramatization. No need to get too strict on keeping summary out of scene or vice versa—but it is important to know the difference between them.

What Should be Scene and What Should be Summary?

A good rule of thumb is, the more important the moment, the more likely it needs to be rendered as a scene.

What Should be Scene

Scenes take place in real time, concretely, which means they are almost always more impactful than summary. Scenes immerse the audience powerfully into the story. We want to dramatize the most important parts for best effect.

If you are familiar with story structure, you can use it as a guide. Major turning points should almost unequivocally be scenes:

The inciting incident should be a scene.

The climax should be a scene.

The midpoint should be a scene.

And the high points in each act should be a scene.

And the pinch points should be scenes.

Anything the story has been building and building and building up to, should probably be a scene.

If you are working with multiple plotlines, all of the major events of the primary plotline should probably be a scene. The less important the plotline, the more you can get away with summarizing important events or even having those events happen “off page.”

Another rule of thumb is that if the moment significantly progresses the character arc, plot, or theme, it needs to be a scene.

Finally, most genres will have what professional editor Shawn Coyne (creator of The Story Grid) calls “obligatory scenes.” These are scenes that the audience expects to see in the story when they pick up the book. For example, in a murder mystery, we expect to have a scene where the body is discovered. In a romance, we expect to have a first kiss scene.

What Should be Summary

On the other side of the spectrum, we have summary. Not everything that happens in a story needs to be dramatized in a full-blown scene. The narrative would become long, flat, and boring.

Use summary when the audience needs to know the fact that something happened, but it’s not important for them to experience it.

For example, we may need to know the fact that Henry slept terribly last night because it will affect his test-taking skills in the next scene, but we don’t really need to share his experience of that. It may not be interesting enough to make into a scene, and if we try, it’d likely be dull. How much conflict can you really get out of that scenario?

Summary is also useful when you need to cover a broad length of time in a short amount of space, or when you need to talk about recurring events. If your characters have to go by sea to a new land, and the plot isn’t really about the boat ride, then you’ll be better off summarizing the voyage. And similarly—rather than rendering the fact that Macy is late to work every day, scene after scene, it will probably be more efficient to summarize that, since it’s a recurring issue.

Additionally, summary can work well to transition from one scene to another—particularly when something noteworthy happened between those scenes, but isn’t worth dramatizing.

Finally, summary can be important in providing the reader with context. It may be used to set up a situation or provide background information so the audience can follow what is happening in a plot accurately. For example, summary may be used to briefly explain an ongoing feud between two families, so that the reader will understand why Yolanda and her siblings are sabotaging the Greens’ block party.

Keep reading

STOP DOING THIS IN INJURY FICS!!

Bleeding:

Blood is warm. if blood is cold, you’re really fucking feverish or the person is dead. it’s only sticky after it coagulates.

It smells! like iron, obv, but very metallic. heavy blood loss has a really potent smell, someone will notice.

Unless in a state of shock or fight-flight mode, a character will know they’re bleeding. stop with the ‘i didn’t even feel it’ yeah you did. drowsiness, confusion, pale complexion, nausea, clumsiness, and memory loss are symptoms to include.

blood flow ebbs. sometimes it’s really gushin’, other times it’s a trickle. could be the same wound at different points.

it’s slow. use this to your advantage! more sad writer times hehehe.

Stab wounds:

I have been mildly impaled with rebar on an occasion, so let me explain from experience. being stabbed is bizarre af. your body is soft. you can squish it, feel it jiggle when you move. whatever just stabbed you? not jiggly. it feels stiff and numb after the pain fades. often, stab wounds lead to nerve damage. hands, arms, feet, neck, all have more motor nerve clusters than the torso. fingers may go numb or useless if a tendon is nicked.

also, bleeding takes FOREVER to stop, as mentioned above.

if the wound has an exit wound, like a bullet clean through or a spear through the whole limb, DONT REMOVE THE OBJECT. character will die. leave it, bandage around it. could be a good opportunity for some touchy touchy :)

whump writers - good opportunity for caretaker angst and fluff w/ trying to manhandle whumpee into a good position to access both sites

Concussion:

despite the amnesia and confusion, people ain’t that articulate. even if they’re mumbling about how much they love (person) - if that’s ur trope - or a secret, it’s gonna make no sense. garbled nonsense, no full sentences, just a coupla words here and there.

if the concussion is mild, they’re gonna feel fine. until….bam! out like a light. kinda funny to witness, but also a good time for some caretaking fluff.

Fever:

you die at 110F. no 'oh no his fever is 120F!! ahhh!“ no his fever is 0F because he’s fucking dead. you lose consciousness around 103, sometimes less if it’s a child. brain damage occurs at over 104.

ACTUAL SYMPTOMS:

sluggishness

seizures (severe)

inability to speak clearly

feeling chilly/shivering

nausea

pain

delirium

symptoms increase as fever rises. slow build that secret sickness! feverish people can be irritable, maybe a bit of sass followed by some hurt/comfort. never hurt anybody.

ALSO about fevers - they absolutely can cause hallucinations. Sometimes these alter memory and future memory processing. they're scary shit guys.

fevers are a big deal! bad shit can happen! milk that till its dry (chill out) and get some good hurt/comfort whumpee shit.

keep writing u sadistic nerds xox love you

ALSO I FORGOT LEMME ADD ON:

YOU DIE AT 85F

sorry I forgot. at that point for a sustained period of time you're too cold to survive.

pt 2

also please stop traumadumping in the notes/tags, that's not the point of this post. it's really upsetting to see on my feed, so i'm muting the notifs for this post. if you have a question about this post, dm me, but i don't want a constant influx of traumatic stories. xox

35K notes View Post

luace-ferareoftumbler

2 years ago

PenelopexCallisto fanarts part2

(Also known as 칼리페페)

(Penelope begging Callisto not to die / Callisto begging Penelope not to die)

Artist: @apprii98

Artist: @JyuutSpice

Artist: @_nemunm

Artist: @gug_di17

Artist: @_doOwOob_do

318 notes View Post

luace-ferareoftumbler

2 years ago

AU- Callisto follows Siyeon to Korea

throwing ideas back and forth with @sakihime02 helps get brain juice flowing for ditoeftv/vadd

Through the bullshit that is the game system, when Callisto follows Siyeon back, he has identification and other basic necessary stuff(I'm lazy k)

Anyways, Siyeon tracks Callisto down after she recovers in the hospital and they move in together

Sidenote, he looked at her original run-down apartment and had to be held back from going over and killing her first brother

Sadly, no murders happened, and out of guilt Siyeon's dad provides her with a bank account with monthly deposits of money and a luxurious penthouse apartment

Siyeon shows everyone just how driven she can be when she tears through the coursework that she missed when she was in a coma due to her stomach cancer and being thrown into the game, graduating early with flying colors

At the same time, she teaches Callisto about the modern world

Like Siyeon, Callisto has a natural drive to be good at everything, which stems from his time as Crown Prince

So he gets adjusted to modern life pretty quick, but ngl he misses Eorka sometimes because then he could kill whoever looked at Siyeon with lustful eyes

Anyways, Siyeon travels around doing archaeology, Callisto basically hitching a ride and getting to travel with his beautiful girlfriend around the world

Years later, they come back to Korea and settle down, Siyeon becoming an archaeology professor

Callisto's a househusband and a damn good one at that

Let's be honest. If he wanted to, he could've been a supermodel, he had enough scouts approaching him

But he didn't want to leave Siyeon, so he stuck onto her like a tick LMAO

When the two go shopping, heads turn at their collective beauty

They usually get stopped for streetwear photography accounts

Callisto runs a popular Instagram account filled with pictures of their trips, Siyeon being focused on her work, couple outfits and pictures, Siyeon waving back at the camera-

Later on, there are a lot of pictures of Judith

On a side note, when he played "The Lady's Love Project" he was super frustrated and basically spent nights hugging and kissing Siyeon after he chose his own route in hard mode, or when the player succeeded Callisto's route and Penelope died

Ok so when Judith is born, Siyeon begrudgingly lets her family come see Judith

Her dad cried, and her brothers are awkward but trying to do their best(better than Derrick)

Anyways, Callisto is super smitten with their little bundle of joy

He's the one who usually wakes up in the middle of the night to soothe Judith back to sleep, patting her back and telling her stories

As she babbles back at him

Because Siyeon usually has long hours working and lecturing, she comes back exhausted most of the time

So she's tired, but plays with Judith and basically has mother-daughter bonding time in the evenings and early mornings

Callisto is the gold-standard papa y'all

He tries to hold onto some reminder of Eorka in his modern life

Like, for example, he commissioned a jeweler to recreate his mother's keepsake, the pendant Penelope gave him, and has a replica of the cufflinks she gave him

He also incorporates some of Eorkan fashion into Judith's clothing, because "our princess should look like a princess"

Callisto: Looks at Korean children's fashion "psh I can do much better"

He learns how to sew and basically makes/modifies most if not all of Judith's clothing

He made a bunch of clothes for Siyeon, too

The tiny family matches

They rescued a dog a little before Judith was born when they first settled back down in Korea

Big floofy dog, very gentle :D head empty no thoughts

Callisto definitely learned how to do Judith's hair

Ok so- once Siyeon was in a rush to get to a lecture and forgot the lunch that he made for her

So Callisto bundles up Judith, gets the lunchbox, and drives all the way to her university

*He's a car person but goes for safety when driving with Siyeon and Judith

Callisto arrives looking like a goddamn SNACK with his white trenchcoat, black slacks, burgundy sweater, and swept-up blond hair- MMPH

He has Judith balanced on one hip with a bag slung over another, holding Siyeon's lunch

"Hi I'm looking for Cha Siyeon?"

"She's in a class right now, can I get a name and reason for visiting?"

"Callisto(or whatever Korean name he gets), her husband. She forgot something at home"

The receptionist sends a message to Siyeon and cooes over a sleepy Judith, who's still incoherently whining quietly and burying her head into Callisto's chest

Siyeon's like "let them in" and so they get in

He gets to her classroom and opens the door, it's a period for their class to go over their research projects and discuss with partners, so that's why she lets them into the classroom, otherwise she'd just have him drop off the lunch with the front desk

"You forgot your lunch, love," as he plonks down the lunchbox and kisses her cheek

The students are squealing, even more as Judith yawns and rubs her eyes sleepily

"Mama!" Judith stretches her arms out as Siyeon scoops up her daughter, kissing her forehead. "Look, look! Daddy helped do my hair today!" Even more awws from the crowd of students

"This is a new dress, did daddy make it for you?" Her voice is soft but still could be heard by all of the students

"mhm!! look, look, we match now! Daddy let me choose the lace!" Pastel purple outfits, because Siyeon's outfit in the manhwa was basically a pastel purple shirt and white pants

Instant KO for the students

The female students are all crowding around like "PROFESSOR WHERE DID YOU GET A GUY LIKE HIM"

the guys are like "goddamnit why's he so perfect"

Soon enough the two became known as the "perfect couple", cemented by the fact that someone caught Callisto calling Siyeon "my darling empress" tenderly

Siyeon has him come in for a demonstration when she's doing a unit on weaponry found in archaeology, and how to look for specific wear and tear on weapons

Callisto is just happy he gets to use a sword and other weapons again

Judith is like giggling and clapping her hands in Siyeon's lap "again! again, servant emperor!"

439 notes View Post

luace-ferareoftumbler

1 year ago

accepting that i want a comfortable life rather than a successful one.

0 notes View Post

luace-ferareoftumbler

3 years ago

Prompt #178

Write the story of a young child being named the next ruler of their Kingdom, despite not having any royal blood or being raised in a royal household.

71 notes View Post

luace-ferareoftumbler

3 years ago

59K notes View Post

luace-ferareoftumbler

3 weeks ago

I always find it crazy how we can basically see everything on the internet including people's lives but feel so powerless when it comes to social injustices and war crimes like what's happening in Gaza right now, a genocide.

It genuinely sucks because I have access to the internet and technology but I do not have enough power nor resources to actually help those in needs.

I am nothing but a high-school student and I'm devastatingly watching people die simply for existing just like the Holocaust in the past.

I have enough resources and power to know and see what's currently happening but it's not enough where I can help them and it's truly sickening.

All I can do is help spread awareness and boycott ;(

My Journey to Escape the War in Gaza

My name is Abdelmajed. I never imagined I’d be sharing my story like this, but life in Gaza has become unbearable. I am a survivor of the war here, and in the blink of an eye, everything I once knew—my home, my safety, my community—was ripped away from me.

The war has transformed Gaza into a graveyard of broken dreams. The buildings that once stood as symbols of life and resilience are now piles of rubble. Every corner is filled with the echoes of explosions. Every moment is shrouded in uncertainty. There is no security. There is no stability. There is no light at the end of the tunnel.

Basic needs have become luxuries. Food is scarce. Clean water is even scarcer. Hospitals are overwhelmed and under-resourced, and there is almost no medical care to be found. Every night, families go to bed hungry, praying they’ll wake up to see another day. The cost of basic necessities has skyrocketed, and it’s become a daily battle just to survive.

I’ve seen things I never thought possible—standing in long lines for a piece of bread, rationing every drop of water, and watching my people suffer in silence. I have lost everything—my home, my safety, my dignity.

Escape from Gaza is my only hope, but it’s almost impossible without financial help. The cost of evacuation is far beyond my means, and without support, I’m trapped in a warzone with no way out.

I’m reaching out to you now, in the hopes that someone, anyone, can help. I am not asking for luxury. I am asking for a chance—just a chance—to live. A chance to escape this never-ending cycle of fear, destruction, and loss. A chance to rebuild my life somewhere safe, where I can begin again, where I can find hope once more.

Chuffed

Help Abdelmajed Escape Gaza and Rebuild His Life

My name is Abdelmajed, and I am a survivor of the war in Gaza. Everything I once knew has been taken away—my home, my safety, and the people

Any amount you can give will help me get closer to safety. Even the smallest donation will make a difference—it could be the lifeline I need to survive. If you are unable to donate, please share my story. The more people who hear it, the better the chance that I can find the support I desperately need.

Your kindness and support mean the world to me. You’re not just helping me escape a war; you’re giving me a chance to live, to rebuild, to breathe again.

Thank you for listening. Thank you for caring.