Scene Transitions....?

[lonewolfwanderer]

What is the best way to go about them. A line break? A paragraph break? Ease the reader by way of middle ground between the two scenes?

And, on a slightly different note... Are you finished with a scene when you feel it has said what it is you wanted to say, no matter how long? Or does the length of a particular scene matter in terms of pacing, or whatever other reason they may be?

 

[Jo Zebedee]

A line break with a hash tag is the most usual approach. Like this.
#
The scene can be whatever length you need it to be, although a long one might be a chapter in its own right.

 

[lonewolfwanderer]

A line break with a hash tag is the most usual approach. Like this.
#
The scene can be whatever length you need it to be, although a long one might be a chapter in its own right.

Okay i see... So a chapter can be, obviously with exceptions, a few shorter scenes, or one longer one.

Thanks a bunch

 

[David Evil Overlord]

I would suggest you do what seems right to you...what works for the story you wish to tell.

 

[Glitch]

What is the best way to go about them. A line break? A paragraph break? Ease the reader by way of middle ground between the two scenes?

As springs said. A # centred on the page. How it's used can be a matter of style. I usually use it with an extra blank line above and below.

And, on a slightly different note... Are you finished with a scene when you feel it has said what it is you wanted to say, no matter how long? Or does the length of a particular scene matter in terms of pacing, or whatever other reason they may be?

Both what the scene needs to say and the length for pacing. It depends what feedback you get from readers.

 

[lonewolfwanderer]

I'm glad that there is that flexibility. In my WIP the first scene of it is very short, but there are multiple scenes in the chapter that seem be getting longer. They seem to balance it out.

Thanks for the help, I really appreciate it.

 

[barrett1987]

What does the hash symbol in the centre mean? is it some coding thing for ebooks or just choice? I currently use * or *** should i be using hash symbol instead?

 

[lonewolfwanderer]

What does the hash symbol in the centre mean? is it some coding thing for ebooks or just choice? I currently use * or *** should i be using hash symbol instead?

I read somewhere that the hash tags are used so that the printers know to put a paragraph break when you get the book published.

Whether they have to be hash tags, or if they can be stars, someone else will need to clarify.

 

[Glitch]

It's a style choice, which may or may not have had an actual reasoning in the past.

A quick look through books on my shelf show different publishers using different styles. One uses just an extra blank line, another uses a thick black line. The main point would be to be consistent with yourself. A publisher can change the character to their house style if they want.

 

[Mouse]

Scene Breaks | Proper Manuscript Format | William Shunn

Most places ask that you format your MS the William Shunn way. The above link is scene break specific.

 

[tinkerdan]

It's always good to check with the editor or publisher to get some feel for how scene breaks will be handled. (How they need to see it from you to them since they will handle it from there when they send it to the formatting group.)

The reason I say this is because some do look at # as a scene break while others might think you want '#' to be placed right there.(or whatever character you put there.)
Some use conventions of ## for scene breaks ### chapter end and #### final page. They will usually have that in the guidelines if it's important to them.

Even with scene breaks handled by the publisher there can be breakdowns which might be alleviated if the publisher puts each beginning paragraph for chapters and scene breaks with no indent and all other paragraphs with an indent. I have had scene breaks disappear from one page to the next when it falls at the end of a page.

On another note for e-books you need to be very careful and for that reason I started using ~*~ for scene breaks and they seem to neatly end up in both the book and the e-book just like that. The reason this is important for e-books is presently the formating of some converters will have problems with multiple carriage returns and will often remove or at least have problem with more than three carriage returns sometimes two. If a single carriage return appears in the middle of a chapter for the scene break the converter will more often than not remove that; sometimes a double will work or it will be rejected. So I've gotten into just putting ~*~ with a carriage return on either side.

If you are doing your own e-book I'd suggest first to look at the guidelines that Smashwords uses and then I think there are places you can get guidelines from Amazon. I only use Smashwords for e-books I do myself. If you sell enough you eventually qualify to be distributed to Amazon otherwise you still get a fair distribution outside of Amazon.

 

[Nick B]

That was a good question and not one i had considered yet, thank you for the clarifications everyone. i had been using a simple line space with a *, not so different but better to be as right as possible!

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Unless you're formatting your own, I think there's no need to get too worried. Make sure there's a clean break - however you do it. No agent is going to reject you for using two hash tags instead of one etc.

Shorts might be different - they're usually going direct to a publisher - and for that, I think Mouse's link is the clearest.

But, really, don't get too tied up with the small stuff.

 

[lonewolfwanderer]

Can you have a time jump without changing scenes?

 

[tinkerdan]

I can't even have a time change without changing my pants.

Seriously; if the POV participates in some time travel time jump I'd say you might pull that off. Other wise all time jump scenes must have some delineation or the reader will suffer severe time lag syndrome resulting in vomiting onto your precious work.

I do the time jump as in it was noon now its midnight with some work to speed things up and avoid trivial mundane matters and those always have a space for a scene break so that the reader knows something has happened out side of the ordinary.

 

[lonewolfwanderer]

I can't even have a time change without changing my pants.

Seriously; if the POV participates in some time travel time jump I'd say you might pull that off. Other wise all time jump scenes must have some delineation or the reader will suffer severe time lag syndrome resulting in vomiting onto your precious work.

I do the time jump as in it was noon now its midnight with some work to speed things up and avoid trivial mundane matters and those always have a space for a scene break so that the reader knows something has happened out side of the ordinary.

Thanks for the clarity, ye it wouldn't be a major time jump. It's exactly as you said: to avoid the mundane matters. However, my piece, as it stands now, has quite a few scene breaks already, and it somehow feels, wrong?? Yet, there isn't much i can't put in to join them, without going into mundane matters.