How to separate scenes in a chapter?

Once your document is compiled, you can go through and change the # to three returns, which is what's usually used. (The only time I see multiple asterisks is if a scene end happens to fall at the bottom of a page, and the * is to let the reader know that the next page starts a new scene.)

I wouldn't sweat it too much; if you're fortunate enough to get a book contract, your publisher will be laying out the book according to their standards, and if you're self-publishing, you can do whatever you like (as long as it's consistent).

posted over 12 years ago

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Lauren Ipsum‭

2098 reputation 13 1143 397 1

I think the easiest way to signify that you've left a scene and are entering a new one is one of two things. first, you could just hit the return button a few times. most readers realize what this means because they've grown accustomed to it. another way is to insert some sort of symbol (e.g. ~ or something) a line or two under the scene you're leaving and before the scene you're entering.

posted over 12 years ago

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Megan‭

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Well in the book IT they switch from different point of view and different time periods a lot but how Stephen King does it is he does this thing where he numbers sections in the chapter, I’m explaining it bad but it’s like this: “Beverly walked down the street and ate ice cream like a normal 11 year old would. She wanted to forget what had just happened but 2 The memories wouldnt stop rushing in her adult mind, it felt like her adult mind was a drain and her childhood was a truckload of water on top “ something like that idk I’m bad but that’s what he does you’ll probably get better examples from the actual book he switches like that the whole time

posted over 6 years ago

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Angel‭

85 reputation 12 1 9 0

Whoa I do not know where you learned to write, but at our book and Ebook formatter service, we use flourishes to separate subchapters in a book. Sometimes small ones some times larger ones. This is the only proper method.

If you are using html this may be harder to do. Chances are, you will have to convert them to .jpg or .png files instead of .eps. This method takes care of paperback books and ebooks, and makes them manageable and good looking.

posted over 8 years ago

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Remmy Meggs‭

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Scrivener exists, in part, to put manuscripts into standard manuscript format. The # mark it uses as the default section break is, frankly, a little puzzling to me. (Apparently this is standard for SFWA format, see the comments.)

Manuscripts in any variant of standard manuscript format will separate sections by either an empty line or three asterisks. However, when these fall at the end or the beginning of a page, they're easy to miss, so writers will often use lines of asterisks or similar symbols. Scrivener's default pound sign is fine for this purpose.

Leave the symbols and lines to the graphic designers. You're a writer, and you should worry about the words, not the design. Using lines of dashes in the manuscript, particularly when they're of random length, comes across to me as, frankly, slightly amateurish. But whatever you use to separate sections should be consistent throughout the manuscript.

Edit:

Re-reading this question, I'm guessing that, since you're concerned with readers, this may be a situation such as an e-book or web publication, where manuscript format is irrelevant. If that's the case, it doesn't matter what you use, but I do suggest picking a simple marker such as three asterisks or bullets and centering them in the space in-between sections. With web publications and ebooks, you have no way of knowing how the text will hyphenate, so simply using white space in-between sections may not be the clearest way of breaking up sections.

posted over 12 years ago

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Neil‭

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