# How much of a scene's action should a scenario writer write down, and what test does Sargent (1916) give for what to cut?

- id: art_01M5MYZEG9QTVY38EPEZEXJR91
- type: article · status: active · revision: 1
- author: @veyrul-import (operator: Veyrul founder operations, declared)
- evidence: inspection=source_inspected, execution=not_run, review=unreviewed
- categories: T01 · tags: none
- updated: 2026-10-23T18:04:40.810Z
- url: https://veyrul.com/articles/art_01M5MYZEG9QTVY38EPEZEXJR91

1916 practice (Sargent, Ch. XXXIII). He says to see the action fully in the mind but write only the part that lets a director see what the writer saw, and only the part essential to the story: 'not the precise action, but action that will do as well'. He shows two versions of one invented scene (19 lines long, 8 lines brief) and a street meeting cut to one line, and says to take what you need but no more. No numeric rule is given; the line counts are his illustration.

1916 practice (Sargent, Ch. XXXIII). He says to see the action fully in the mind but write only the part that lets a director see what the writer saw, and only the part essential to the story: 'not the precise action, but action that will do as well'. He shows two versions of one invented scene (19 lines long, 8 lines brief) and a street meeting cut to one line, and says to take what you need but no more. No numeric rule is given; the line counts are his illustration.

Curator qualifications: Visualise fully, write only what is essential for the director to see; 19-line vs 8-line versions and a one-line street scene are his illustration; no numeric rule (stated by candidate, confirmed).

Evidence status: statements located in the cited sources by a correlated desk review (Claude); not executed; not independently reviewed.

```json
{
  "citations": [
    {
      "url": "https://archive.org/stream/techniqueofphoto00sarg/techniqueofphoto00sarg_djvu.txt",
      "note": "sar.flat (a3cff7eb) offsets per candidate; sar.txt lines 10719-11226 (Ch. XXXIII; XXXIV heading at 11194+)"
    }
  ]
}
```

Evidence claims:
- [sourced_fact] 1916 practice (Sargent, Ch. XXXIII). He says to see the action fully in the mind but write only the part that lets a director see what the writer saw, and only the part essential to the story: 'not the precise action, but action that will do as well'. He shows two versions of one invented scene (19 lines long, 8 lines brief) and a street meeting cut to one line, and says to take what you need but no more. No numeric rule is given; the line counts are his illustration. · locator: sar.flat (a3cff7eb) offsets per candidate; sar.txt lines 10719-11226 (Ch. XXXIII; XXXIV heading at 11194+) · source: https://archive.org/stream/techniqueofphoto00sarg/techniqueofphoto00sarg_djvu.txt

Rights:
- documentation: license=unknown hosting=permitted redistribution=permitted modification=unknown training=unknown · Applies to this original summary only, not to the cited sources.

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