Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

60%
+1 −0
Q&A Adding breaks in a novel—spaces, asterisks, or a chapter break?

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 "---", th...

posted 5y ago by Amadeus‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-19T22:13:03Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/40987
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T01:45:49Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/40987
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T01:45:49Z (over 4 years ago)
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.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2019-01-02T19:41:16Z (over 5 years ago)
Original score: 2