Section Breaks vs. Scene Breaks

by Jill Williamson

Have you ever been reading a book and noticed that sometimes a break in a scene is depicted by asterisks or some other fancy symbols, and sometimes there is only a wide space before a new scene begins? 

What’s the difference between the two, and how do you know which to use?

Scene Breaks
A scene break is when you hit enter (or return) three times, in a double-spaced document, leaving two blank lines between one section of text and the next section of text. A scene break is a separation between related scenes. It's used to indicate time passing or a change of location that continues in the same scene. In the following example, you can see how the scene break shows that time has passed.

Ex:

         “You believe in angels and demons?”
         “I guess.”
         “Ees real, Es-pensor.” And she turned back and opened her
book again.
         I wanted to say, “Don’t go!” but all I could do was settle
back in my seat and try to think of another question to ask.


Claustrophobia. I’d never understood the full meaning of that
word until now. Coach seats were not meant for guys over six
feet tall. At least I had the aisle to stretch my right leg...

Both examples I'm using today are from my new book The New Recruit. In the scene above, Spencer was on an airplane, talking to a girl that he thought was cute. The conversation ended, some time passed--indicated by the scene break--and when we returned, Spencer was still on the airplane.

Section Breaks
A section break is made by hitting enter to leave one blank line, centering three asterisks on the next line, hitting enter to leave another blank line, then hitting enter to type the next paragraph. A section break is used to indicate a complete scene break or a character point of view change. In the next example, you can see how the section break separates two different scenes.

Ex:

         “Try to hold tightly to your temper when you are playing
the sport of basketball à la gym . . . These things come to me.
In my dreams.”
         I didn't like the idea that Prière and I had things in common.
Not at all.

                                                           *    *    *

         At lunch the next day, everyone had already heard what had
happened with Nick. The Mission League kids had infiltrated
the basketball table . . . again. I really wasn't in the mood to
deal with them, Isabel excepted.     

In the above example, Spencer was talking with Prière, an intercessor, who was trying to give Spencer a warning. The scene ended completely, the asterisks showed the end of the scene, and a new scene began at lunch the next day.

New Chapters
Starting a new chapter can be another way of beginning a completely new scene--though some use chapter endings as cliffhangers, cutting the scene in the middle. This is really clever, and I highly recommend you do it when you can. But starting a new chapter at the end of a scene can be a good thing too, especially if your story has been moving along, super fast-paced, and you need to give your reader a breather.

To be honest, I don't actually use the guidelines above in my manuscripts. I've always used three asterisks for both scene breaks and section breaks, and my editors have changed them during the editing process.

And it doesn't matter whether you use three asterisks or four or whether you tab in between them or not. But don't add your own cool graphics. I know it's tempting, but adding pretties to your manuscript is a red flag for an editor or agent that screams, "We've got an amateur writer here!"

So, follow the definitions above and use proper scene and section breaks, or use asterisks for both, like I do. As long as you're consistent in what you do in this area, editors and agents won’t be bothered.

Just for fun, give me a great last line of a scene or chapter that would make your reader want to keep reading.