Hello! I have yet another question, rather something I wanted to make sure of. The ***s in books, they mean a break, a small time-skip? Just something I wanted to make sure of, as I had mentioned before. Thank you!
In manuscript, you insert a single centered # on its own line to denote a section break. When printed, it mat be converted to a group of asterisks or dingbats, or some other graphic. A section break is a major division between scenes in the same chapter. For minor breaks, such as some participants in a scene leaving together and conversing, you generally don't bother with section breaks. But if you jump to a room on the other side of the city with a different group of characters, you probably would use a section break to clue the reader in that this is a sharp transition.
Usually, when printed, I've seen scene breaks converted from the working-manuscript symbol of # to simply space. When you have a symbol/graphic is when the scene break falls on a page break, traditionally, as it then gets confusing if a non-indicated scene break falls at a page break. I think maybe more in commercial fiction, YA markets in particular, is where I've seen symbols for all scene breaks. Scene breaks usually occur when there's a shift in time, place or pov. Many writers prefer just breaking and re-opening a scene instead of summarizing the 3 minutes it took to walk to the new location and getting prepped for meaningful action.
I use the "#" break when I'm switching POVs within the same chapter, or moving to a scene several hours, days or weeks later (even with the same character as the last scene).
