POV page breaks

[Teresa Edgerton]

If you've publishing the book yourself, you can use whatever you like. I do like the asterisks, because they remind me of old books.

But if the book comes out from a traditional publisher, you can figure that ***** in the finished book was a # in the manuscript.

I used to do my own little designs for scene breaks, ~*~ for instance. I thought it quite pretty, but the copy edited manuscript always came back to me with that part circled in red and the little loopy thing that means delete. And then a big red
#
I think my creativity put them a little out of sorts.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Likewise, asterisks. But there is scope for variety, I reckon...

 

[Anne Lyle]

I used to do my own little designs for scene breaks, ~*~ for instance. I thought it quite pretty, but the copy edited manuscript always came back to me with that part circled in red and the little loopy thing that means delete. And then a big red
#
I think my creativity put them a little out of sorts.

Another reason to love Scrivener - you can set your own scene break character when you output the file. So, you can have a fancy custom one for when you want to print the ms for your own use, then select the boring old # when you send it out to the agent or editor.

 

[Boneman]

And just to clarify something: do you indent the first line after the *** or whatever you use? Is there an 'accepted' norm?

 

[Ursa major]

In the US (and, I assume, Canada), the first paragraph of a scene is always indented (by ½").

As for the UK, I'm not sure. I've been leaving them unindented, but keep getting the itch to change them.




By the way, I've been trawling through Anna Mini's Formatpalooza rolleyes - not her only palooza - but her advice is for the US market. We could do with a UK Anna Mini.

 

[Ursa major]

Oops!

I should have added a note to my previous post: Unless the agent or publisher indicates a particular preference, in which case you do as they ask.

 

[Anne Lyle]

I don't indent the first paragraph - but Scrivener's "novel manuscript" export setting changes that, so I assume it's commonplace to indent everything.

So far I've used custom settings to override it, but it's easily changed.

 

[Susan Boulton]

And just to clarify something: do you indent the first line after the *** or whatever you use? Is there an 'accepted' norm?

Yes, as you are starting a new paragraph as well as a scene/POV change. Least I hope you would be.

 

[Anne Lyle]

Sorry to disagree, but five books pulled off my shelves at random all have unindented paragraphs at the beginnings of chapters/scenes. That includes UK publishers and even US imports such as Baen.

 

[Ursa major]

As Anna Mini is (perhaps over) fond of saying:

MANUSCRIPTS AND PUBLISHED BOOKS AREN’T SUPPOSED TO LOOK THE SAME.

Her emphasis.

 

[Anne Lyle]

Good point. We'll see if I have to change my ms format when it gets accepted...

 

[Susan Boulton]

If you are having your whole manuscript read by an agent or publisher, it is not going to be a deal breaker, but it was and is just part of the formatting I had it driven into my brain by a published friend. I find I can't write a draft in any other format now, it feels and looks wrong.

Also the fact that you follow an agents/publishers guidelines to the letter. No second guessing, no sending 24 pages when they have asked for 20 just because you want to finish the scene/chapter. Cut it off at the end of the nearest paragraph. (sorry, I needed to get that off my chest lol)

 

[Ursa major]

If one were of an optimistic disposition** (and don't aspiring writers have to be?), one might see the abrupt ending of one's text as one reason, at least, for the agency (reader) to want to see more of it.







** - And there was a blue moon, the planets were aligned, there was a R in the month and it was an ... er ... read-letter day....