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Scene break?

I

Ivysaur

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Kind of curious, what do you guys use to determine a scene break in your writing? I've seen stuff like "------------------" and "~*~*~*~" before, but I never knew if there was a more common or "correct" way to determine a change in scene.
 
I used to do this (and still do occassionally):

"---------"

But now I just mention a scene change in a new paragraph (i.e. "That night, the party met at the inn...") or specify how much time has passed in between scenes (eg. "That night..." "Later that (x)..." "A few hours later..." "The next (x)..." or "Meanwhile, at/in (new scene's location)..."
 
I use *** for changed viewpoints, --- for a scene break but the same character, and +++ before and after author's notes at the beginning or end of a chapter (and also mention A/N).
 
I use * * *. There should properly be 3 spaces separating each star, but sometimes it gets whittled down to 1.
 
I prefer to use "***", centered, to use scene breaks when necessary.

If it's a songfic/some sort if important italic thing, I use "*", also centered.

"/*\" goes right below my (chapter) titles, and "\*/" goes at the end before any conclusion notes.

...but that's just me. I don't think there's any set way; I just use the ones that look the best for the situation. I also borrowed mine from Harry Potter, but apparently it's older than that. XD

Oh, and I might actually be coming back to the WW, after a year of... not... ._.
 
Sometimes I use ***, while other times I decide that making a sudden change is good, and change without warning. I also tend to describe a character's thoughts, link them to another's and then describe where the other character is, and what they are doing.
 
Eh. It depends. I actually just prefer to skip down a few lines to form a new scene, but for the stories in which I've always used scene breaks I now use a bolded, centered, ~ ~ ~.
 
I use ***

But every writer chooses for him/herself, naturally.
 
In books they usually leave a blank line, but since on the internet you do that everytime you go to the next line, I usually put three "-"s in there, which my writing program thingie turns into one extra big linear thingie.
 
I change it with each story and depending on which characters the given platform allows :p

For example, in FF.net, they don't allow for * or ~, so I tend to use the HR tag of HTML (it looks very ugly there, since no blank spaces are allowed and they bunch up around the HR). However, in forums, I use a varying quantity of *, ~, +, -, etc.; and can even mix them together to give a pretty format, such as +-+, ~.~, and so on...
 
Thanks for the replies, everyone! I appreciate it.
 
-x-

I think it's a personal thing. Sometimes I can actually guess who the writer is by the way they change scenes, if they're writing anonymously.
 
I used to use a "paragraph type" scene break where a paragraph "transitions over to a scene" (by means of description) but I have received several complaints about it being hard to follow so I switched to centered triple asterisks.

Also, when I do a "major scene break" (from one location to another), I add in bold letters stating the location. Like this:

25,000 feet over the Isshu Sea

The Origin Fighter soared through the clear skies at a leisurely pace of Mach 1.3. Despite the fact that the Origin Fighter’s powerful antigravity engines could propel it to a top speed of about Mach 3.5, Zero decided to conserve fuel. Speaking of him, he was currently scanning the blue seas for any sign of his destination.

Zero suddenly noticed that he was approaching a large island. He looked at his holographic map. He was apparently somewhere between Hoenn and Unova. Suddenly, the map faded and was replaced by Temeraire’s avatar.

“Temeraire, what is the meaning of this?” Zero demanded.

“Sorry Captain, but I can no longer receive real time data from satellites nor communications. I will upload a map that has been extrapolated from the most recent data,” Temeraire replied.

The AI’s avatar faded and was replaced by the new map.

The craft flew over the island, revealing mostly jungles and plains with the occasional small village and ruins.

“Nothing worth looking at this little island,” he muttered.

Zero suddenly noticed a large metropolis in the distance. Strangely, it was surrounded by dark clouds even though the rest of the island was sunny. “Or is there?” he said with a smirk.

He set a course for it.

In the process, he flew right over the Old Ruins at supersonic speeds.

[...]

***​

Tenebrae City - Mystery Island

Outside, the Origin Fighter circled and slowed down as Temeraire powered down the main antigravity engines and extended the landing struts, letting gravity and air resistance guide the craft to a gentle landing.

As the craft landed, the whine of its engines steadily died as they shut down. Of course, since restarting the palladium-hydrogen fusion reactor required a large jolt from an external power source, Temeraire made sure to keep the reactor on standby mode. There, it produced enough just enough power to keep the AI and life support systems active.
Click to expand...
 
I use three different scene breaks, depends on what kind of scene break it is.

If it is a short while after a certain scene, such as after a hour or so something else happens, where there is no change of POV, then I just leave a blank line.

If it is a long while after a certain scene, such as waiting for several hours or even days between two events, where there was no important things in between to note, and also no change of POV, then I use ". . .", aligned on left. This could somehow produce a feeling that a long time has passed, and it seems like the character had been waiting for a long time.

If it is a complete scene change where POV had also change, such as change from "current" scene to the "past" scene or to the "future" scene, or a complete change to focus on another different character in some distant places, then I use "* * *", aligned in center.

Sometimes at the end of a chapter (I should rather say episode), when I left a narrator's note, I use double blank line.


There are different ways you can use for scene changes, there are really no "correct" ways to do, but have a "common" way which many people uses. Just be consistent on your method.
 
In the Knight Pokémon University RPG, I tend to alternate between this:

~ K P U ~ K P U ~ K P U ~​

And this:

32963-eye-candy-revised.png

Having written no actual fanfiction yet, I cannot provide any examples from there.
 
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