One thing I seem to struggle with (or over analyze) is the flowing from one scene into another scene. For example, going from an evening dinner to an event or discussion in the middle of the night/next morning without starting a new chapter. Does anyone have any suggestions in making it seem effortless while making it so the reader understands the lapse of time? I have no exact examples, just hoping for some pointers on what not to do or to do. All and any help is welcomed, thank you!
You can do it with a simple break. In WORD, you would do this by completing a paragraph, hitting <enter>, going to a center alignment, typing a single "#", then going to left alignment on the next line and beginning the new paragraph in your next scene. You should include something in the first sentence to alert the reader to the change. Not as cliched as "Meanwhile, back at the ranch..." but serving the same purpose.
I tend to make my page breaks a bit bigger, but the above ones will work. You should put something that allows the reader to know the passage of time when you change a scene, unless it's something that's concurrently happening. I'm typing the very last chapter of my novel that's being hard copy edited now, and while there'll be a page break between scenes, there all happening concurrently so time differences don't really need to be explained. However, if it needs it, then time passage will need an explanation.
My understanding is that the method I mentioned above is the standard of what publishers expect to see in a manuscript.
Are page breaks a requirement for a scene change? If you have a good transitional sentence or two do you still need the break? (I ask this because I honestly have no clue, not cuz I;m questioning anyone )
Section breaks are at your discretion. I'm more inclined to use them if the transition involves a large change in time or location, or if the POV character changes.
