Quote:
Originally Posted by GeoffR
I think of a scenebreak as an empty header, rather than an empty paragraph. <h6 class="scenebreak"> rather than <p class="scenebreak">. In some books the scenes are numbered, or might have a title like "Meanwhile, on the other side of town ...", or a timestamp.
Simply adding a margin to the top of the first paragraph of a scene to indicate the break is a bad idea because that margin could be absorbed into the @page margin if the scene happens to begin at the top of a page, and if the reader has chosen to read ragged right then there may be no way to tell that there was a break at all.
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You mean, like in print, where it's
exactly the same? This happens all the time in print; a scene-break paragraph falls at the top of a new page. Thus, it, too, has it's top-margin "absorbed" by the book's trim and margins. Nonetheless, print readers manage to figure out that it's a new scene.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Turtle91
Excellent point! although I'm not sure what ragged right has to do with it?? Wouldn't justified be just as difficult to determine?
I make a scenebreak non-indented as well to handle that particular instance.
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Yes, both ragged-right and justified would have the same problem. And, in theory, if the preceding paragraph is JUST long enough, in either instance, with a flush-left para at the top of the following page, it's remotely possible that the reader mightn't know that they were in a new scene. Normally, in print, you adjust this by tightly kerning the prior para (at the bottom of the prior page) enough to clearly indicate that the last line is the end of the paragraph. This way, the flush-left start to the new para is clearly indicative to the reader that a new scene has commenced.
Obviously, in eBooks, you cannot kern like this.
In either instance, it's not uncommon for the designer to determine to use an incipit mechanism for the first line of a new chapter's first paragraph (smallcaps, Raised Initial, etc.) AND for each instance of a scene-break. That's another "tell" for the reader.
A third option is fleurons--hopefully, not simply the ubiquitous "***".
FWIW, we use top-margin for scene-breaks ALL the time.
Hitch