Scene vs. Summary

To get the most out of this post, you might want to read Joyce Carol Oates's "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" here first.



One of the most difficult aspects of writing for beginners to master is the art of balancing scene and summary. At its most basic, the distinction between these is not that complicated. Summary, by definition, encompasses a large amount of information in a condensed form. A scene, on the other hand, is a place or a vista, something we experience in its...