Scene breaks at page top/bottom

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

For eBooks, I like two blank lines and then a non-indented paragraph to start off the new section. If because the line spaces are at the bottom of the page, it's easy to tell when the page is turned and the next paragraph is not indented.

That's a bit too "subtle" for me, Jon. I like to see a "positive" indication of a scene break. Blank lines don't really work with the present crop of ADE devices, because they all do widow/orphan control, and will leave a blank line at the bottom of a page rather than display a single line of a paragraph there.

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by Jack Tingle

You can even get cute and use something like:

-=oOo=-

or some other attractive string. I've seen this done if the author was feeling energetic.

You can use an image too.

[Solitaire1]

When it comes to scene changes, I prefer to do one of the following:

- Insert a centered marker like "* * *" or "- - -" with a blank line above and below it.

- Insert a flush-left scene header like "Meanwhile at City Hall..." in a san-serif typeface with a blank line above and below it.

The main reason I don't use blank lines to indicate scene changes is that in the ebooks I format myself, I separate the paragraphs with blank lines. When formatted like this, blank lines don't provide any visual indication of a scene change. If I formatted my paragraphs by indenting the first line of each paragraph without blank lines, I would still including the markers/scene headings as above to ensure clarity.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by HarryT

That's a bit too "subtle" for me, Jon. I like to see a "positive" indication of a scene break. Blank lines don't really work with the present crop of ADE devices, because they all do widow/orphan control, and will leave a blank line at the bottom of a page rather than display a single line of a paragraph there.

Well, one thing I do when I edit my ePubs is to turn off widows and orphans.

body {
widows: 0;
orphans: 0
}

That works to remove windows and orphans. Then I don't have any issues with blank lines as scene separators.

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

That works to remove windows and orphans.

Quite the contrary, that puts back the widows and orphans that would have been removed otherwise

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Jellby

Quite the contrary, that puts back the widows and orphans that would have been removed otherwise

Ah right. My mistake in wording it. But actually, I rather like having no widows and orphans.