Janice Harayda
Oct 22, 2023

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That's great. It's only two paragraphs, which is the limit I try to observe for plot summary in fiction, though I'll go longer on summarizing the facts in nonfiction because people can learn from those.

You could probably do a good story just on summarizing a plot with examples like those. A question you often hear from new writers is "How much plot summary is too much?" And it's tough to answer because you have to do it by feel.

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Janice Harayda
Janice Harayda

Written by Janice Harayda

Critic, novelist, award-winning journalist. Former book editor of the Plain Dealer and book columnist for Glamour. Words in NYT, WSJ, and other major media.

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