Scene Versus Summary: Which Is the Best for Your Story

when you are a new writer one of the most difficult lessons to learn is how to make sure you are staying in scene in your story instead of summarizing it then once you become an experienced writer you should still double check to make sure you're using scenes in the best places that's why today i want to talk about scene versus summary which is the best for your story in general seeing trump's summary because that's where your readers get to feel your story and live vicariously through it summary lacks the specific details needed to create this emotional response but they do both have their place if you hang on until the end of this video i'll tell you how you can get a revision checklist that will help you fix this balance this is ignited inc writing a channel dedicated to helping authors like you transform your writing so it lingers with your readers because writing that lingers gets remembered and recommended to others i'm caitlin burvey editor and writer let's start with defining in scene and summary one definition of scene is a continuous action in a book play movie something along those lines when we say a section of writing is in scene we mean it's in the moment it's filled with specific details and is creating an emotional response in your reader because of it here's an example of unseen from bullet in the brain by tobias wolfe with the line still doubled around the rope one of the tellers stuck a position closed sign in her window and walked to the back of the bank where she leaned against a desk and began to pass the time with a man shuffling papers the women in front of anders broke off their conversation and watched the teller with hatred oh that's nice one of them said she turned to anders and added confident of his accord one of those little human touches that keeps us coming back for more this is insane because the action setting and dialogue feel as if they're happening right now in this moment a reader feels as if they get to be a little bit of a spy camera watching what's happening summary is the opposite of this one of the definitions of summary is a brief statement or account of something in creative writing summary means you are not telling things as they're happening instead you're reporting it back to the reader you're stating what a character is like instead of showing and generally telling the story instead of showing it summary is more like a reporter stating facts than a storyteller weaving an enthralling tale but summary does have its uses here's an example of that from bullet in the brain anders did not remember his wife whom he had also loved before she exhausted him with her predictability or his daughter now a solon professor of economics at dartmouth he did not remember standing just outside his daughter's door as she lectured her bear about his naughtiness and described the truly appalling punishments paz would receive unless he changed his ways this is summary because a reader doesn't get to see ander's daughter have this conversation with her bear we don't get to know exactly what she really said we also don't get to watch anders fall out of love with his wife this is a summary it's a report of these things it's telling not showing in general you should have significantly more scenes than summary you can think of scenes as the bricks for your story and summary as the mortar if you have too much mortar and not enough bricks your building is going to collapse if you have too much summary and not enough seen your story will fail so let's talk about when to use scenes which is most of the time readers want scenes because that's when they get to be transported into the world of your story scenes have detailed description which means your readers get to picture the events settings and characters of your story scenes have dialogue which means your readers get to feel like they are listening in on your character's conversations this means they get to learn more about your characters and the events of your story scenes have action so your readers get to watch what's happening in real time with tension and suspense all of these things mean you have a well-paced story you have tension and suspense to drive your reader and keep them reading and you have enough details that your reader can easily picture what is happening so when should you use scenes any defining moments should be in scene your character makes a pivotal realization insane a storm tears through the town terrifying your characters insane your character meets their love interest definitely insane there is an obstacle or conflict that your character has to overcome in scene the final battle between good and evil is raging that better be insane you want your reader to believe your character is quirky cruel sweet stubborn hot-headed you better show that insane basically most of the things you're told make for a good story are part of scenes if you want to create three-dimensional well-rounded characters you do that by showing those faucets of your characters in scene if you want to create a fast-paced page turner you do that by showing the events of your story insane so here's another example of scene he was short and heavy and moved with peculiar slowness even torpor buzz him in his partner said the man with the shotgun opened the gate and sauntered along the lines of tellers handing each of them a hefty bag when he came to the empty position he looked over at the man with the pistol who said whose slot is that anders watched the teller she put her hand to her throat and turned to the man she'd been talking to he nodded mine she said then get your ugly ass in gear and fill that bag there you go anders said to the woman in front of him justice is done hey bright boy did i tell you to talk the bank robbery and anders interaction with the robbers is the most important conflict of this short story because this is the moment the stakes are raised to literal physical death did you notice the tension in this scene were you able to see the teller's fear and anders lack of fear what about the robber's anger we get to see and experience all of these emotions because they are shown through scene through the characters interactions and dialogue what if instead wolff had written something like this the head robber ordered the bank staff to let his partner in the back his partner collected money from each teller station after ordering the rude worker to open her drawer she was afraid anders made a funny comment about the situation making the robber angry this paragraph is summary not seen notice how it tells the reader what's happening instead of showing them what's happening the emotions don't come across as strong because i'm telling you what they're feeling instead of showing them feeling that wit is also diminished because we don't get to see his actual comment there also isn't the same amount of tension the important moments of your story need to be told in scene if you want them to be impactful but again summary isn't all bad so next i want to share when to use summary which is sparingly despite its pitfalls stories wouldn't work without summary there are some things that really don't need to be in scene because they would be boring or drag on there are bits of information your reader needs to understand what's happening but they don't need to see it in real time or want to these are things that are transitional or that we just don't need to see happen that'd be boring so here are some examples of situations when you might want to use summary instead of seeing has a lot of time passed summarize that have you switched locations summarize the journey if nothing interesting happened is your character telling another character about the events that your reader already saw happen summarize that conversation we don't need a repeat need a quick bit of backstory to be released you can use a summary sentence and if you want to de-emphasize something to make it seem less important summary can work for that too in the previous example of summary wolf is summarizing what anders doesn't remember this is an excellent example of when to use summary if you're trying to relate what a character doesn't remember that means it's not as important so we're going to summarize it because what is important is what they do remember so we want to spend our words there but that doesn't mean summary gets to be boring and just a report notice how wolff reveals specific details in his summary this is what keeps it unique and interesting and allows it to still drive the story forward so wolfe doesn't just say that anders no longer loved his wife he provides a specific reason why wolfe doesn't just say that anders listened outside his daughter's door he provides specific details about what anders heard when he did that this both helps deepen the characters it provides description that a reader can picture and it makes the summary more interesting so even though you might be summarizing something that doesn't mean you get to be lazy you still need to provide specific details this is still story now that we've talked about scene in summary i want to share an editor and author's thoughts on scene and summary scene versus summary is just another way of saying showing versus telling seeing and showing are almost always favored over summary and telling we want to watch the events of your story happen as readers we don't want you to summarize them in a report for us here are a couple of tricks you can quickly use to figure out if you have a good balance of scene and summary now remember this is not an equal balance so first glance through your document and look for white space do you have a lot of white space that's a good indicator that you have lots of scenes because the way we format dialog makes a lot of space on the page that means white space and dialogue is usually a part of scenes so if you have more white space it's a good indicator that you have a decent scene and summary balance then do a word search for was or is if you have a lot of those words that probably means you're summarizing because those verbs are used a lot in summary if you don't have very many it's a good indicator that you have more scenes unless you tend to use a different word instead of those then look for whatever that tendency word of yours is so those are two quick ways you can check the balance of scene and summary you have in your story now remember you want to write in scene the important parts the parts that are the meat of your story where your character is growing or changing where the events are happening where you need detailed description and dialogue you want to summarize the in-between stuff the moments of transition the tidbits of backstory that your reader needs but doesn't need to watch happen so when do you prefer to read and write scene or summary share your preferences in the comments below and for more videos helping you identify and create good solid scenes subscribe to ignitedinkwriting a channel dedicated to helping authors like you transform your writing so it lingers with your readers because writing that lingers gets remembered and recommended to others i'm caitlin burvey editor and writer to find out more about me go to www.ignitedinkwriting.com that's where you will find that revision checklist that will help you revise your scenes and summary and make sure you're using the correct techniques in the best places if you want to see how i strike this balance in my writing you can go to caitlinburvy.com that's where you will find my collection of modern fairy tales win magic calls where i hope i struck a good balance you can also find a couple of my short stories there and now that you have a better understanding of when to use scene versus summary go back through your manuscript and make sure you have the correct balance you might need to do some rewriting to ignite your ink [Music] you

Channel: Ignited Ink Writing

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Keywords: Ignited Ink Writing, Ignite Your Ink, Caitlin Berve, Writing Tips, Writing Books, Writing Novels, Fiction, Nonfiction, When to Summarize Your Story, When to Write Scenes, What is a scene in writing, what is summary in writing, how to show don’t tell, show don’t tell in writing, scene vs summary, which is best for your story

Id: HCCgvNtvmGs

Length: 14min 28sec (868 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 04 2021