Scene or Summary? — July 7, 2025
Otter at Moss Landing, CA — Sept. 2018 photo
“The first draft is you just telling yourself the story.” – Terry Pratchett
The surface of the water swirls, and an otter’s face appears. It drums its forepaws on a rock jutting up toward the shore, water streaming from its coat. Then it swipes a paw across its mouth and slurps. Broken bits of clamshell roll down the face of the rock.
Yup. Lunch. That’s what’s going on in the picture above. I could have spared detail and just said that after a dive otters often return to the shoreline to crack clamshells on the rocks so they can slurp down the soft meat inside.
What to do – show or tell? Do I detail the action in a scene or do I summarize?
In the first draft of my novel when I was still working out the plot and wasn’t sure which moments were critical turning points for my characters, I wrote a lot of summary. In my second draft, when I knew where my story was going, I transformed a lot of that summary into scenes, slowing down the action beat by beat.
My rule of thumb is that if a section of text is not driving the plot forward, cut it out. If it needs to be there just to mark time, or lend color to the background, or to weave scenes together, summarize. But for all the really important happenings, including turning points and moments of crises or confrontation, the more you can write in the moment, the more your reader will be there with you.
