How to add a signifigant break to a story

[HuckPilgrim]

I'm not sure if I'm using the right term, but the idea is you come to a place in your story where you want to stop, but the story isn't over yet. You want to indicate time passing or a change of scene or something. I put in two carriage returns. I'm calling it a significant break (SB).

It looks like this:


Sometimes I see it done with asterisks. Those look like this:

***

For some reason, none of the breaks I'm adding to my story have come through into the story that gets posted to Lit. I know I have to ask for italics or special formatting, but are these breaks considered special formatting? Do I have to ask for it. Do I just add asterisks?

What if I have a story that's broken into chapters, but it's maybe only three chapters and not a very long story? I could post it in a series, but some of the individual chapters might not meet the minimum requirements for length on their own. Do I just upload the whole thing and write at the top of each "chapter," Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3?

I hope this isn't too confusing.

 

[LadyVer]

This might fit better under the Authors' Hangout forum, but you may get answers here. Good luck!

 

[HuckPilgrim]

Thank you for the pointer, LadyVer. I'll repost in the other forum.

 

[NiceNastyMann]

I'm not sure if I'm using the right term, but the idea is you come to a place in your story where you want to stop, but the story isn't over yet. You want to indicate time passing or a change of scene or something. I put in two carriage returns. I'm calling it a significant break (SB).

It looks like this:


Sometimes I see it done with asterisks. Those look like this:

***

For some reason, none of the breaks I'm adding to my story have come through into the story that gets posted to Lit. I know I have to ask for italics or special formatting, but are these breaks considered special formatting? Do I have to ask for it. Do I just add asterisks?

What if I have a story that's broken into chapters, but it's maybe only three chapters and not a very long story? I could post it in a series, but some of the individual chapters might not meet the minimum requirements for length on their own. Do I just upload the whole thing and write at the top of each "chapter," Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3?

I hope this isn't too confusing.

I copy and paste the text in, don't use the upload feature. I use Word, but still have to edit what gets pasted in. You can add or delete whitespace there.

You are also able to use html tags - <br> gives you a line break.

Chaptering is done - probably by the editors. So if you submit a series, and try to break a first submission into two chapters, then later submit another there is no guarantee the numbers will stay in proper order. I'd suggest using a horizontal line or some other mechanism.

 

[amofiga]

I've used the asterisks and not had a problem. I've also broken stories into chapters that take place at different times and just added a "continued next chapter" at the end of each just to let the reader know that there was more to follow.

 

[HuckPilgrim]

You are also able to use html tags - <br> gives you a line break.

You can use HTML in the window where you copy and paste? I didn't realize this! I was using Word to get italics and such, but if I can use HTML in the upload window, I'll add my own italics, etc.

I'm going to try it out later tonight!

Thank you. And thank you amofiga.

This has been very helpful.