What, exactly, is a scene? I find it helps to think of scene as a mini-story, complete with a beginning, middle, and end. A scene, like a story, begins with a conflict or an implied question that begs to be answered, and builds to a climax. Whereas a story generally fades to some sort of resolution, a scene often ends on a more ambiguous note, compelling the reader to keep reading.
Anything very important that happens in your novel should be written as a scene.
Large spans of time in which something happens should be summarized.
Today, write the scene of an important moment in your character’s life in 1500 words or more.
Then, summarize five years of your character’s life in 500 words or fewer.