Fiction writing: what’s a “scene?”
A scene is a unit of action. It takes place in real time: it’s happening NOW.
In a way, a scene is a microcosm of your fiction. A scene has rising action, a climax of some kind, and a conclusion. Important: something happens in a scene — something changes.
Scenes can be short or long.
This might be an entire scene: “He tried the door. It was locked.”
Or, a scene might be 4,000 words in length.
Most authors aim for a certain number of words in an average scene, depending on the genre they’re writing.