High School Writing Tip Sheets - Scenes, Summaries, and Stories

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For the past few years I have been teaching high school writing in our homeschool tutorial co-op. Having seen several groups of students through the courses, I've noticed some issues and questions coming up regularly. I hope these Tip Sheets will be helpful to my students, their parents, and perhaps to other students and parent/teachers as well.

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Since I was back at my old stomping grounds this week, I had the opportunity to guest teach (it wasn't really substituting, since it was originally my class?!) at the co-op, and we talked about the difference between a scene and a narrative summary, and some related ideas when it comes to writing fiction. I thought that might be a good topic to discuss in a tip sheet too. 

Since my classes use the textbook Writing Fiction [In High School] from Writing with Sharon Watson, and follow most of the assignments in the given order, students are most often asked to write scenes. On occasion, they're assigned a short story but that's the exception. We learn about plot structures and aspects like the Major Dramatic Question that are related to an entire story, whether a short story of a couple of pages or a full-length novel, but the students are asked to write scenes. A fair question might be, "Why just scenes?" or even, "Why wait until this late in the text to explain the difference between scenes and stories?"

Writing just a scene instead of needing to write an entire story means that students can work with a smaller cast of characters, can jump into a story without developing all the background and how it all started, and can end their writing assignment on a cliffhanger, or without needing to resolve the conflicts they've created. So that answers the first why question.

The second why question is a little tougher, and after the first year I taught this course, I figured out that it was helpful right near the start of the year to explain what I expected when I assigned a scene, and what made a scene different from a whole story or narrative summary. A lot of my assignment reminders endeitd with a line something like, "Remember: you don't have to resolve all the conflicts. This is only a scene, so it's just part of a larger story that you don't have to tell in this assignment." 

The chapter that I taught from this past week, and will finish in the next class goes into the nitty gritty about the differences, discussing what constitutes a scene and what constitutes a narrative summary, and when and where a writer would need to use narrative summary.

What Is A Scene?

A scene could be defined as the action of the story being described in real time, and complete with the appropriate descriptions of action, dialog, and narrative actions. Generally, there will be enough information in a scene that it could be reconstructed and acted out without too much guesswork. If there's dialog between characters, much of it will be written out with speaker tags and narrative actions. The action of the scene will be sort of a blow-by-blow account of what the character or characters do. 

A scene is a story within a story, in a sense, because there should be a scene goal which is a lot like the Major Dramatic Question of the whole story. The protagonist, or the main character in the scene, has a goal, and some kind of obstacle arises to keep him or her from reaching that goal. By the end of the scene it's clear whether or not the character has achieved the scene goal, and there has been some conflict or tension introduced. There may be some new information introduced as well. 

A scene also takes place in one setting. A particular timeframe in the story, and in one general location in the story. It can be helpful to think of it as a scene in a stage play. The action of Scene I takes place inside the palace, for example, so that is the backdrop or set. At the end of Scene I there may be a curtain or the lights will go down so that the backdrop can be changed for Scene II, which takes place the next day in the garden. If time has passed but the location is the same, there may be a curtain in order to indicate to the audience that Scene III, which still in the garden, takes place a week later.

Beginning and Ending a Scene

The beginning of the scene needs to have setting established, so an indicator of place, time of day, weather, season, or whatever  is needed to let the reader know when and where this part of the story happens. The scene question should be stated or implied fairly early in the scene, and this can be done through dialog or description of the character's thoughts or feelings. Some conflict or obstacle will get in the way of the main character's attempt to get what he was hoping for in the scene. This may or may not be successful, but it should bring some tension into the story. 

By the end of the scene, this new conflict has been dealt with in some way, at least partially, and the character has either achieved the goal or hasn't. He may have also learned new information, or the reader may be given new information that impacts the story. The character's situation should have changed during the scene. He has learned something, lost something, gained something, been wounded, found a new ally or enemy, or won or lost a battle. The end of the scene should naturally lead to the next scene or hint at more conflict or complications to come. After all, unless this is the end of the novel, you want the reader to turn the page and keep reading!

What Is Narrative Summary?

It's called narrative summary because that's what it does. It summarizes and condenses the narrative, and it's a very useful tool when used correctly. Instead of that play-by-play dialog and action, the narrative summary will tell you in a sentence or two that the characters talked or did something, but without details. Think about a murder mystery novel. There might be a week that goes by between scenes during which the detective is working on the case but there are no significant developments. The narrative summary might be a paragraph stating just that. Or the narrative summary might be a paragraph or two that narrate the detective's thought process as he reviews all the information he has so far and figures out which lead to pursue next and how. Passages in a story that focus on what a character is thinking or their emotional state.

Narrative summary can also be used to describe setting, a character, or some detail; or to explain information that the reader will need to understand something in the story.

Narrative summary is often useful at the end of a scene, if the character needs to reflect on or process what has just happened in the scene's action. This is called a sequel. 

Quick Tips:

If your assignment is to write a scene, establish the time frame and place for your scene. You've already learned that your characters need motivation in the form of a Major Dramatic Question, so apply this same idea by giving your main character a scene goal. The overall goal for Rapunzel in the movie Tangled was to see the floating lights, but one scene goal would be to convince Flynn to be her guide. In another scene, her goal would be to heal the cut on Flynn's hand. Decide on the scene goal for your character and what conflict will get in the way of them achieving the goal. Write your scene, making sure you stay in that location and time frame. 

If you look back at what you've written and realize that it covers weeks or months or years, you've probably written narrative summary instead of a scene. If you intended to write a scene about an argument between a grown brother and sister, but most of what you've written is backstory about their childhood and why they haven't spoken to each other since they were teenagers, you've probably written narrative summary. 

If you're writing a short story, look for the same balance. The story will have more than one scene, and will need some narrative summary to connect those scenes. Generally, you want more scene than summary. That's where your proofreading and editing step can be very helpful. Have a critical eye to what is necessary to your story. Make the dialog worthwhile; use your description tools for those elements that are important for characterization and setting; make sure your narrative summary transitions are brief; and if necessary, use narrative summaries for a main character to reflect and plan between scenes.

When you write a story, you are telling yourself the story. When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are NOT the story . . . Your stuff starts out being just for you . . . but then it goes out. Once you know what the story is and get it right, as right as you can . . . it belongs to anyone who wants to read it, or criticise it. ~Stephen King

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Sources for this article include: Writing Fiction [In High School] from Writing with Sharon Watson

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