Course Overview

Overview

Every important moment in a draft is an editorial decision: scene or summary. The decision happens hundreds of times per draft. Getting it wrong in either direction breaks the work — over-scening drags it; over-summarizing flattens it. Six weeks on the decision at every important moment. We teach you to ask the same three questions every time and never get this wrong again. By the end the decision becomes reflex. Six weeks. Thirty lessons. The deepest course in the catalog on this single craft choice — and the one most editors say their submitters most need.

What’s inside

• 6 modules, 30 lessons + decision sheets — the deepest decision course in the catalog
• Mindset Maven Test that names YOUR specific decision-bias and provides a custom protocol
• 6 guided meditations averaging 11 minutes — paired to decision practice at multiple scales
• Toolkit: the Three-Question Decision Protocol + the Per-Chapter Decision Audit
• Lifetime access, unlimited retakes — the decision skill compounds across decades
• Companion blog post per module — public, perfect for the writer making this call hundreds of times per draft without a framework

Who this is for

• Novelists
• Memoirists
• Screenwriters
• Editors

FAQs

Why a six-week course on one decision?
Because most writers make this decision thousands of times across their careers and never explicitly think about it. The depth pays back over decades. Editors especially benefit from the framework — many use it as their developmental edit tool.

How is this different from BM-185?
BM-185 covers the three-way decision (show/tell/skip) at the framework level. BM-188 goes much deeper specifically on scene-vs-summary, with multi-week practice and decision drills.

What are the three questions?
Module 1 introduces them. Short version: Does this moment generate or test something? Does the reader need to be present, or informed? Does the scene’s cost in length earn its cost? Each question has follow-ups; the protocol is in the toolkit.

Will this work for editors as well as writers?
Yes — module 5 has an editor-specific track. Many of the course’s beta testers were developmental editors using it on client work.

What’s the right scene-to-summary ratio?
Varies by form and genre. Module 4 covers calibration. Most working novels run 60-70% scene, 25-35% summary, 0-10% skip. Memoir often inverts.

Can I retake?
Yes. Unlimited.

What one student said

★★★★☆

“I have written prizewinning essays. I had no idea I was making the scene-or-summary decision badly until this course. The three-question framework is what every craft book I’ve taught from has been gesturing at without saying. By week three I had identified four scenes in my current essay collection that should have been summary, and two paragraphs of summary that should have been scenes. Four stars because the title undersells what this course actually delivers — ‘Scene-vs-Summary’ sounds like a craft refresher. It is not a refresher. It is an overhaul. The marketing should be more accurate; experienced writers will think they don’t need it.”

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