Chapter Seventeen

The Scene or Summary Column

In chapter fifteen, you marked the starting and stopping points of the scenes and summaries in your manuscript. The first column on the Scene Tracker is where you indicate the chapter and the scene number. By primarily tracking scenes, we emphasize their importance in carrying the full weight of the plot. We do not track summary on a scene tracker beyond noting “SU” when a summary appears between scenes. If, however, an important date is mentioned in a summary or a pivotal event is summarized, feel free to use the “SU” rows to keep notes.

The more organized you keep this column, the more organized your overall story and writing process will be. Of the many scenes you craft, not all of them will make it into the final cut of your final revision. Keeping track of your scenes and where they fall in the overall narrative becomes paramount, especially when you’re searching later for a specific scene in a particular chapter. Rather than getting bogged down in the words as you skim for the chosen scene in your manuscript, you are able to scan your Scene Tracker for the exact location of the scene and continue working forward.

The notes you write in each box of the Scene Tracker need to be legible and memorable. Don’t assume you’ll remember your shorthand later. Be specific, and assign a meaning to every word and abbreviation so when you review the Scene Tracker for what’s working and what’s missing, your words immediately bring to mind how you used that particular element in that particular scene. The practice of creating a label that matches and stands for each element helps you pinpoint the main thrust, meaning, and development in the scene.

Case Study: All the Pretty Horses

National Book Award winner Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses begins in scene:

Scene 1 from the first chapter continues for another page or so. We know it is a scene because the action is being played out moment by moment. The “candleflame” twists. He opens and closes the door and takes off his hat. The floorboards creak. These are all the makings of scene: immediacy, physicality, action.

In the Scene Tracker for this case study, I write “Ch. 1, SC 1” under Column One to indicate that this row will contain notes for the first scene in the first chapter. Noting the page number where the scene begins in your manuscript comes in handy later when you’re looking for a specific scene.

Track Your Story

With your Scene Tracker in front of you, refer to your manuscript. Did you mark the beginning passage of your story as a scene or a summary? Whatever your answer, write the chapter number and “SC” or “SU” under the Scene or Summary Column. Do not worry about being right or wrong in your labeling at this point. As you work your way through your manuscript, you will be better able to determine scenes from summaries. For now, all that matters is that you have a passage to analyze.

If the first passage is a summary, mark “SU” under the Scene or Summary Column, and continue through your chapter until you find your first scene. Mark it on your Scene Tracker. This is the passage you will analyze.

If you tend to craft many short scenes rather than one longer one, consider tracking the actual chapter instead of each individual scene.

If you are writing a historical novel, the use of summary becomes critical, because this genre is generally longer and broader in scope than most contemporary fiction. Summary covers a relatively long period of time in a relatively short number of words.

A scene shows outward action. Scenes are in the now, the physical, chronicled moment by moment. Dialogue is a scene marker, as is action.

If you would rather continue with the task of filling in your Scene Tracker, move to chapter eighteen now. If you have questions about flashbacks, read on.

Flashbacks

At this point in a plot workshop, invariably a writer asks about flashbacks.

An agent once told me that, in her opinion, readers were no longer interested in stories told in chronological order. She believed that readers wish to be less passive and more interactive in the story, meaning that they were more interested in a nonlinear format. She might have come to this conclusion based on some of the popular fiction coming out at the time. For example, more than twenty years ago, Michael Ondaatje structured The English Patient in a nonlinear format; his story moves forward and backward in time and is chronicled by more than one character. A few years after the release of The English Patient, David Guterson formatted Snow Falling on Cedars by switching effortlessly from the front story to the backstory throughout the novel.

If you choose to write in a linear fashion, starting at the very beginning, you will seldom use flashbacks. However, if you want to try a nonlinear approach, or if you just do not want to start the story at the beginning, mastering flashbacks becomes critical.

Since the introduction of the nonlinear format, I have seen reader preferences revert back to chronological, linear storylines. For instance, Ursula Hegi begins Stones from the River with the protagonist’s birth and tells everything that happens to the heroine, her village, and her country in sequence. Hegi uses no flashbacks because everything unfolds on the page as it happens in real story time.

Anita Diamant formats The Red Tent in essentially the same way, except the author starts with the mother’s story and then, when her daughter is born, tells her story in chronological order. No scenes take place before the main action of the daughter’s story.

Should you rely on flashbacks to tell your story, at least in part? To answer this question, you must first understand that story information is generally divided into two parts: the front story, which contains all the events that happen in scene as the story moves forward, and the backstory, which comprises all the history that makes the protagonist who she is today and why she sees the world in a particular way. The backstory helps the reader understand certain events and details in context. What happens before the events that take place on page 1 of the book is considered backstory. Every character has a backstory.

I believe that flashbacks, in which part of a character’s backstory is revealed, are much abused. Sadly we too often confuse the information that is critical for the writer to know (such as the complete history of the character) with what is necessary to include in the text. When in doubt, writers too often revert to “telling” the backstory through the use of flashbacks.

A flashback is not the only way to include crucial backstory information. However, it is more difficult to show the backstory through the characters’ actions and reactions, by their decision-making process and the consequences their choices reap. It is worth the effort to search for just the right details your character might notice or the few, well-chosen words she might use in the front story as a consequence of the backstory rather than resort to a flashback.

A flashback is a simple, though much abused, way to incorporate the backstory into the front story.

The careless use of flashbacks is one of the surest ways to break your reader from the trance. The last thing writers want to do is jar the reader from the dream they have so carefully crafted. This is what happens when you jump in time, either by taking a big leap forward or making a U-turn into the past in a flashback.

Keep in mind that when an event in the past is shown in moment-by-moment action, as if it is happening right now in the story, you’re in a flashback. If the character is simply remembering an event in the past in summary, he’s simply recalling a memory.

Using Flashbacks

“I write as straight as I can, just as I walk as straight as I can, because that is the best way to get there.” —H.G. Wells

There are times when the effective use of a flashback will add significantly to the overall meaning of your story.

Flashbacks can be as short as one sentence, or they can be the longest part of the story. The one-liners can be incorporated through dialogue and description or as a memory without too much fear of impeding the forward movement of the story. Flashbacks that make up most of the story will essentially become, when well plotted, the forward-moving storyline. Incorporating intermediate flashbacks into the narrative can be far trickier.

A good rule of thumb is to only use flashbacks that appear above the line on your Plot Planner or those that contain important turning points in the character’s development.

When you do use flashbacks, craft them in such a way that they are full of conflict, tension, and/or suspense. This is the best way to ensure that your flashbacks deliver only the essential information that informs the present action of the story and that pushes the story forward. A well-placed and well-crafted flashback can give the reader an important context to the main character’s overall development.

Once you are convinced that a flashback is critical to the story, here are some ways to use flashbacks effectively:

1. Do not use too many of them—less is more.
2. Plot out your flashbacks, and give them their own conflict and tension. (Think of a flashback as a mini-story within the story.)
3. Bring in the past only when it has a direct bearing on what is happening in the present.
4. Start the story by firmly grounding the readers in the who, what, when, where, and why of the front story before going into a flashback.
5. Before you dive into the backstory, leave the reader with a memorable and authentic detail at a high or low place in the story. When you return to present time, use that detail again. This way, readers will recognize when they are leaving the front story for the backstory and when they are returning.
6. If you are writing your front story in present tense, then the flashback will be in simple past tense. (For example: “Times were not always this miserable. When we were small, we used to laugh until we cried.”) If past tense is used for the primary action or the front story, then shift into past-perfect tense, using the word had for the flashback. (For example: “Times had not always been this miserable. When we had been small, we had laughed until we cried.”) Had will alert the reader that the past is being introduced. If the flashback is long, use had once or twice to establish the time frame and continue with the simple past tense.
7. Use space breaks on either side of a flashback.
8. Explicitly mention the date or time when you enter the flashback, and mention the date and time of the present day when you leave the flashback.
9. If you feel that you must use a flashback, wait to use it in the middle of the story. By then, the reader has had time to become grounded in the front story and is more comfortable transitioning back and forth in time.
10. A flashback is portrayed moment by moment in scene. Consider if using a memory (summary) is more appropriate.
11. If flashbacks are integral to the overall plot and structure, do as Audrey Niffenegger does in The Time Traveler's Wife: Make the storyline nonlinear and create the structure of your story based on time jumps.

If you have written a draft or two of your project and employed the use of flashbacks, take some time now to read over your work. The development of a flashback can be an opportunity for you as the writer to get to know your characters better. It’s a chance to delve deeper into their essence or their history. Once you know that information, you can work to incorporate it in less intrusive ways into the story. See if you can come up with ways to weave important information into the front story without having to resort to the use of a flashback. If you no longer need the flashback, cut it.

If at any time during the tracking of your story you do come across a flashback, indicate that under the Scene/Summary Column. This way, you can track how many flashbacks you have and where they occur.

For example, if your story begins in flashback and the flashback is written in scene, then mark the Scene or Summary Column thus: