in Design
Scene breaks: blank lines, ornaments and page turns
A blank line is the simplest scene break, and the easiest to lose. How to mark a shift in time or place so the reader never misses it.
Within a chapter, a novel often needs to signal a shift: a jump in time, a change of place, a move to another character’s point of view. The device that marks it is a scene break, sometimes called a section break or space break. It is a small thing, but a missed scene break can leave a reader confused for a page or more.
The blank line
The simplest scene break is a single blank line, one line of the text grid left empty. It is quiet and unobtrusive, and in the middle of a page it works well.
Its weakness is the page break. If a blank line falls at the foot of one page or the head of the next, it disappears. The reader sees a full page followed by another full page, with no sign that anything has changed. Typesetters have to watch for this in every book that uses blank-line breaks, and the problem cannot be solved by software settings alone.
The usual remedy is to replace the blank line with a visible mark wherever it would otherwise fall at a page break. That works, but it means the book uses two different kinds of scene break, which some designers and editors prefer to avoid.
Ornaments
For that reason, many books use a visible mark for every scene break. Common choices include a centred asterisk, three spaced asterisks, an asterism, which is three asterisks arranged in a triangle, a small typographic ornament or fleuron, or a short rule. A centred mark of this kind is sometimes called a dinkus.
A mark is unambiguous wherever it falls. It also gives the designer a chance to add a small, consistent detail that belongs to the book, perhaps echoing an ornament used on the chapter openers or the cover.
The mark should be modest. It sits in the text block and will appear many times, so it should be no heavier than the text and no larger than it needs to be to be seen. It usually occupies a single line of the grid, with the space above and below it adding up to whole lines, so that the text on either side stays aligned with the facing page.
The text after the break
The first paragraph after a scene break is normally set without an indent, just like the first paragraph of a chapter. The indent marks a new paragraph within continuous text; after a break, the space already does that job.
Some books also set the first few words after a break in small caps. This helps readers find the new section, and it gives the break a clear visual start. It is a matter of taste and should match the chapter openings, where small caps are often used as well.
Page turns, manuscripts and ebooks
Occasionally an author wants a stronger break, a shift so significant that it deserves a new page but not a new chapter. This is usually a decision for the author and editor rather than the designer, and it should be marked clearly in the manuscript. Otherwise, scene breaks run on with the text, and the typesetter should never start a new page simply to avoid an awkward break.
The manuscript needs to be clear about all of this. Authors mark breaks in different ways, and a blank line in a word-processor file can easily be lost or introduced by accident. It helps to mark every intended break with a consistent symbol in the manuscript before typesetting begins.
In a reflowable ebook, page breaks depend on the reader’s device and settings, so blank-line scene breaks can vanish at the top or bottom of a screen for any reader. A visible mark or a styled horizontal rule is the safer choice, and it is common practice for ebooks even when the print edition uses blank lines.
Whatever mark is chosen, it should tell the reader one thing clearly: something has changed.