How do you managing little scene breaks?

[BuckyDuckman]

How do you manage the little breaks in action where you want to signify to the reader that you're skipping some boring shit, but only a little bit? A couple questions here.

In a lot of mainstream novels, authors will use an extra line break to signify a switch from one character to another or a minor break in the action. For example, after pulling up to a fancy restaurant, the process of parking the car, walking into the restaurant, being greeted at the door, seated, placing an initial drink order - most of that isn't important to a story.

I've been using line breaks or "* * * * * * *" between those scenes. Does Lit accommodate extra line breaks between paragraphs? Do I need to use <br> or something to make that happen?

Second question: When you're using any sort of break system like that (i.e., extra lines between paragraphs), do you feel an obligation to keep the words between them roughly even? Or maybe you space them out farther and farther apart as the story evolves? As you're writing/editing, do you feel a sense of rhythm to how you space out scene breaks?

 

[NOIRTRASH]

Meanwhile Back At The Ranch

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Actually the standard is four or five *, so you are doing it correctly.

* * * *

Now for something completely different. In my published works I started using little scene break gifs.

Like...

This is from a book I'm working on currently...along with about ten others.

.

 

[GoldenCojones]

How do you manage the little breaks in action where you want to signify to the reader that you're skipping some boring shit, but only a little bit? A couple questions here.

In a lot of mainstream novels, authors will use an extra line break to signify a switch from one character to another or a minor break in the action. For example, after pulling up to a fancy restaurant, the process of parking the car, walking into the restaurant, being greeted at the door, seated, placing an initial drink order - most of that isn't important to a story.

I've been using line breaks or "* * * * * * *" between those scenes. Does Lit accommodate extra line breaks between paragraphs? Do I need to use <br> or something to make that happen?

Second question: When you're using any sort of break system like that (i.e., extra lines between paragraphs), do you feel an obligation to keep the words between them roughly even? Or maybe you space them out farther and farther apart as the story evolves? As you're writing/editing, do you feel a sense of rhythm to how you space out scene breaks?

To your first question, it depends. If I am changing POV I always use a break if not I may just begin the next paragraph with a sentence that tells the reader there was a break.

A few minutes later ...

or

After cleaning up ...

 

[legerdemer]

....
In a lot of mainstream novels, authors will use an extra line break to signify a switch from one character to another or a minor break in the action. ...

I've been using line breaks or "* * * * * * *" between those scenes. ....

I've used extra lines (one or two extra) when it's a minor break and 3 to 5 asterisks to denote major scene shifts. The extra lines have been honored by Lit's software. The only time these extra lines can get "lost" is when they coincide with a page break, but you'd have to be rather unlucky to have that happen. Still, worth a look-out.

 

[BuckyDuckman]

I've used extra lines (one or two extra) when it's a minor break and 3 to 5 asterisks to denote major scene shifts. The extra lines have been honored by Lit's software. The only time these extra lines can get "lost" is when they coincide with a page break, but you'd have to be rather unlucky to have that happen. Still, worth a look-out.

Maybe that's been why I've lost those extra lines. I cut and paste into the text window. But sometimes during the preview, I don't see the extra breaks and have wondered if I needed to go back in and add html tags.

 

[LIVINRFANTASIES]

Denny

In my very short stories my biggest problem is the spaces between paragraphs disappears and I have to go back and move the next line down what appears too far until previewed again.

 

[Hypoxia]

Depends on how major or minor the break is. I may introduce a setting (time and place) by:

<br>*<br>*** Venice, Easter Sunday ***<br>*

and then delineate scenes with ***** or ----- (stars or hyphens). Be sure to leave Laurel a note about <br> (line break) tags in the text. (I sometimes forget.) A <br> tag supposedly prevents an extra linefeed from being inserted at the end of a line.

 

[Serafina1210]

I've been using those rows of asterisks less as I go on, preferring verbal cues of the kind GoldenCojones mentions. Words are far more flexible than punctuation: you can use them to signal all kinds of shifts--spatial, temporal, POV.

I've also been experimenting with not signaling transitions at all. This needs to be done very carefully, of course: you've got to orient your reader somehow, just not necessarily with transitional phrases.

 

[Nathan_Brazil]

I describe the cat

That watched the couple enter the restaurant...

Sometimes I point out that the waitress returned from a break.

Change the character of reference... And time becomes fluid.

 

[HandsInTheDark]

If I'm switching POV, I'll use
+ + +
I'll occasionally use that when I'm not switching POV, but only jumping ahead in time.

I don't give warning about who or where I'm switching to, but I'll use someone's name in the first or second paragraph to get the reader's context right. I don't give location or time, either, unless the character has reason to bring it up. Having an anonymous godlike authorial voice announcing time and place feels like a loss of immersion. Authors are supposed to stay out of their stories.

 

[Handley_Page]

I prefer to tell the story as a narrator.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

James Ellroy transitions better than anyone.

He writes scenes, adds what I call RECAPITULATION (a music term that's a brief review of what just happened), and he sets up the next scene with a bathroom break or coffee break or phone call or whatever. All of it short.

 

[JKendallDane]

When I first started submitting stories, I just picked up the habit of using * * * * * as a time shift or scene break. That habit still remains with me more than seven years later.

In my stories Just Down the Hall and A Cat Named Cupid I experimented with using a double row of asterisks to denote a shift in character POV. That seemed to work well also.

My belief is whatever you use, be consistent with it in all your stories.

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