Adding breaks in a novel—spaces, asterisks, or a chapter break?

In addition to your guesses:

A chapter break can also be mostly for dramatic purposes; the scene can continue over the chapter break with the same characters and POV. (Think of a commercial break, which then returns to the same moment.)

I would also use an extra space to indicate a scene change: different characters at the same time in a different location, different characters at a later time with location irrelevant. (Think of a scene change in a TV show: the scene just changes, and you have to figure out from context like time of day and scenery when and where we are.)

I actually don't care for asterisks or hash marks. The only time I would use them is at the top or bottom of a page to indicate "If this were falling in the middle of the page, I would just use an extra space, but since you can't tell that from where the copy lies, I'm throwing in these markers to let you know the next bit of copy is a new scene."

posted over 13 years ago

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Lauren Ipsum‭

2098 reputation 13 1143 397 1

It's not clear if the OP is referring to self publication or seeking representation.

My understanding is the industry standard (when subbing to an agent, for example) is defined. It may vary by agent, but I think industry standard is to place a hash mark (centered) between scenes.

Also, I believe chapters start 1/3 way down the page. I believe chapter ends have a page break.

I believe the pages are to be numbered, and the header has contact information and manuscript metrics.

I believe the text itself should be Times New Roman, 12 point, double spaced. Standard margins (1 inch).

These beliefs have been formed by various conversations and googles over the past year but I've not rigorously checked them.

But again, the OP was not clear as to what sort of document they are writing, for self-publication, querying/submitting a manuscript, or other.

posted almost 6 years ago

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DPT‭

660 reputation 40 73 114 0

I was taught (long ago) to use three centered "---" on a line by itself in order to represent, within a chapter, a scene change or the passage of time. e.g. if somebody falls asleep; then "---", then "She woke to the alarm at 7:00 AM."

Similarly, if your whole scene is changing but you don't want to end the chapter for some reason,

"Jack lugged his bags downstairs, and met the driver at the curb, and was on his way to the Chicago."
Then "---",
Then, "The following morning, the doorman found him a cab and he arrived at the Argyle building at nine."

I was specifically taught to never use extra vertical spacing, either break to a new chapter or put in a line of three dashes centered to indicate an intra-chapter break.

posted almost 6 years ago

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Amadeus‭

3156 reputation 2 1399 613 37

If you are writing content, then use the proper sematic markup that indicates a break; e.g. a paragraph style made for that purpose.

Are you designing a style sheet or the layout of a work to be published? This is the wrong S.E.

Point is, focus on the content, not the formatting. That's what Adobe InDesign is for.

posted over 7 years ago

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JDługosz‭

45 reputation 2 2 7 0

If you are looking for some sort of lowest common denominator, Kindle may be a good platform to target.

Kindle has 2 concepts. Chapters, and *** breaks. You could in theory use blank lines on Kindle but because you have no guarantee that these lines won't be on the bottom of a page for some device and thus invisible, they are best not used.

Once you publish to kindle you will have to replace all the *** with their special section break style to have it correctly understood by devices like text to speech.

So consider that if you want to use anything else, and plan to release on Kindle, you won't get any other separators that are 100% accessible to all users.

posted almost 6 years ago

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Andrey‭

125 reputation 7 13 23 0