What are Section Breaks?

Section breaks are the white spaces or typographical symbols (like three asterisks or a hashtag) that indicate a shift within a chapter. They’re more subtle than chapter breaks but serve a similar purpose: to guide your reader smoothly through your story.

Why Are Section Breaks Important?

Section breaks help with pacing, signal changes in time, place or perspective, and prevent your reader from getting lost in the narrative. White space is your friend – it makes reading your book feel less like a marathon, and more like a pleasurable journey.

When to Use Section Breaks

1. Shifting Time

One of the most common uses for section breaks is to indicate a passage of time. If you’re moving from morning to evening, or skipping ahead a few days, a section break can elegantly signal this to your reader. If the pace means your characters are swiftly moving through time, then of course there is no need to introduce a section break with every time change. It also doesn’t matter how big the time jump is. The break is only really necessary if the time jump is particularly jarring.

Example: After an intense confrontation in the morning, use a section break to skip to the evening where your character is reflecting on the events of the day.

2. Changing Location

If your characters are moving from one location to another, especially if it’s a significant shift (say, from London to a remote village), a section break can help smooth this transition. Again, if your characters are on a journey, moving through multiple locations within one scene, then of course a scene break isn’t necessary. It also doesn’t matter how big (geographically) the shift is. A scene break is only necessary if the jump is jarring, and if it avoids the need for clunky explanations and keeps the narrative flowing.

Example: Your protagonist receives a mysterious letter in London. Use a section break before the next scene where they’re already on the train to the countryside.

3. Switching Points of View

It’s important to introduce a section break when you change the narrator or point of view character. They help the reader adjust to the new perspective without confusion. Don’t forget, you can only have access to one character’s inner dialogue, motivations, emotions and feelings at a time.

Example: You’ve just wrapped up a scene from the heroine’s perspective. Use a section break before diving into the hero’s point of view, allowing the reader to recalibrate.

4. Pacing and Tension

Section breaks also help control the pacing of your novel. If you’ve just written a dramatic, high-octane scene, providing a section break can let your readers take a breath. You can also add tension by ending a section on a cliffhanger.

Example: Your hero is about to open a door to a murder scene. Use a section break right as they turn the handle to heighten suspense before revealing what’s inside.

5. Introducing Flashbacks or Dreams

Flashbacks and dreams can be tricky to handle, and it’s an excellent idea to signpost them by using a section break to help your reader navigate where they are at.

Example: Your character is thinking about a past event. Use a section break before the flashback sequence to clearly differentiate between present and past.

6. Scene Endings and Beginnings

You might find yourself reaching a natural conclusion, but are not yet ready to end the chapter. A section break allows for a clean break and a fresh start within the same chapter.

Example: A heated argument ends abruptly with one character storming out. Use a section break before starting the next scene where the aftermath is being dealt with.

7. Changing Narrative Style

If you’re switching from a descriptive passage to rapid dialogue, or vice versa, a section break can help prepare your reader for the shift in tone and pace.

Example: After a detailed description of a bustling marketplace, use a section break before launching into a snappy dialogue between characters.

How to Format Section Breaks

1. White Space

Simply leaving a blank line between sections can be effective and is often used in printed books.

2. Symbols

Three asterisks (***) or a hashtag (#) or another other symbol centred on a line can clearly indicate a section break.

Overusing Section Breaks

While section breaks are incredibly useful, if you overuse them they can disrupt the flow of your story and make it a little choppy. Aim for balance – use them thoughtfully and purposefully to enhance your narrative.

Conclusion: Embrace the Power of Section Breaks

Section breaks are not insignificant! They can shape your novel’s readability, tone and pace. Use them sensibly and carefully and your audience will be hooked.

The post When to Use Section Breaks in Your Novel appeared first on MandaWaller.

The better your manuscript is before you send it to a fiction editor for some professional attention, the better your final, published book will be.

Authors and editors can work together to ensure better readability – this in turn will make your book more marketable and will result in better reviews.

I’m a freelance editorial professional, and my job is to look at manuscripts and check for issues with punctuation, grammar, typos, word choice, pace and inconsistencies. But there are many things that you – the novelist – can do to elevate your manuscript before you look for a book professional to copyedit, line edit and proofread your book.

Below is part one of my list of self-editing tips for indie fiction authors – see here for part 2!

1 – Let It Rest

When you’ve finished writing your first draft, and you’ve just typed “THE END”, should you start self-editing immediately?

You may be relieved to have reached the end of your manuscript, and you may need a break (everyone is entitled to a holiday, even full-time writers!).

However, you might be tempted to jump straight back to the start and begin the first round of self-editing.

Either way, it’s best not to start editing immediately. Put your manuscript in a digital drawer and leave it to percolate, ferment, breathe.

How long you do this for is up to you, but I’d recommend a minimum of two weeks.

During this time, you don’t have to stop writing, but you should try really hard not to tinker with your manuscript.

When you come back to your manuscript, you will find that you have a different perspective, and you are far more likely to pick up on far more things than if you’d barrelled straight into the editing process immediately.

Giving yourself a break is good for you, and good for your manuscript!

2 – Dialogue Tags

Is it possible to nod words? Or smile them? Or shrug them?

I’d argue that none of these work as dialogue tags (with certain exceptions – some fantasy sub-genres being one of them).

It might just about be possible to cough, sigh, hiccup or laugh a word. But definitely not a sentence.

And you really can’t sneeze words. Except maybe “aachoo”.

The safest dialogue tags are said, asked, replied. Whispered, shouted, mumbled, yelled are also perfectly fine.

I’ll leave you with these fine examples (which I’d recommend you avoid!): posited, opined, husked, ejaculated.

Note:
– If your dialogue ends with a comma before the closing quotes, what comes after the closing quotes is a dialogue tag.
– if your dialogue ends with a full stop or period before the closing quotes, what comes after the closing quotes is an action beat.

3 – That

There are a lot of people who don’t like the word “that” when it’s used as a conjunction. I’ve heard stories of authors being told to remove them all from their manuscripts.

Sometimes, the word “that” is necessary for clarity, pace or tone. But sometimes it’s just not needed.

Have a look at this:
I knew that he was going to be late -vs- I knew he was going to be late.
It was obvious that she was younger than him -vs- It was obvious she was younger than him.

In both these examples, the word “that” can be removed without affecting the meaning or clarity. You could possibly argue that the tone is slightly different, and of course that’s the author’s call.

However, if a word can be removed without impacting on clarity or meaning, it’s an indication that its use should be reviewed.

Removing the “that”s in the sentences above removes clutter, and this is always something to be promoted.

There ARE some sentences where the word “that” is needed as a conjunction:

I’ve heard that you snore -vs- I’ve heard you snore

The second example (I’ve heard you snore) could mean two different things (I’ve heard THAT you snore, or I’ve heard you snoring), so in this case, the word that is needed for clarity.

4 – Strong Verbs

You’ve probably heard how editors don’t like adverbs.

This is because the presence of adverbs often indicates the presence of weaker verbs.

(An adverb is just a word that modifies a verb – so in the sentence “I ran quickly”, the word “quickly” is an adverb, modifying the verb “to run”.)

Have a look at the verbs you are using in your manuscript.

Do you find yourself leaning on adverbs to support weaker verbs?

Are your characters running quickly (when they could be sprinting), walking cautiously (when they could be tiptoeing), speaking quietly (when they could be whispering), speaking quickly (when they could be blurting)?

Often, adverbs are an indicator that your narrative (or dialogue) could be strengthened by reviewing your verbs.

5 – Lengthy Monologues

Have a look at your dialogue.

Do you have large paragraphs where one person is constantly speaking?

This doesn’t tend to happen in real life.

Even when someone is giving a speech, they are still looking around the room, looking down at their notes, taking a sip of water, pointing at something on the screen.

In everyday conversation, when someone is talking it’s very rare for them to go on for too long without being interrupted, or without the other people in the room saying or doing something.

Not only is it unrealistic to have lengthy uninterrupted monologues in your novel, it also results in a lack of white space on the pace. Solid blocks of text make your manuscript harder to read, and too many of them are likely to put your readers off (even if only subconsciously).

So this tip is to review your lengthy monologues and see if they can be broken up with action beats, or other characters joining in.

6 – Removing Redundancy

Can you shrug any part of your body except your shoulders?
(he shrugged his shoulders becomes simply he shrugged)

Can you kick any part of your body except your feet?
(she kicked the ball with her foot becomes simply she kicked the ball)

Can you clasp with anything other than your hands?
(he clasped the paper in his hand becomes simply he clasped the paper)

It’s important to remove unnecessary clutter, and to make every word count.

7 – Removing Repetition

Repetition is not just about words that have been duplicated (although obviously these need removing!) – it can happen in multiple, unexpected ways.

A really common (and often overlooked) one is where the narrative repeats what the dialogue has just told us:

“Hello.” Rebecca greeted me.
“I would like to explain.” David felt the need to clarify.

In both these examples, the narrative is unnecessarily repeating what we have just been told in the dialogue.

Another type of repetition relates to adverbs:

He yelled loudly. (The adverb “loudly” is repeating what we’ve been told by the verb “yell”.)
He briefly summarised. (The word “summarise” means to make something briefer, so the adverb “briefly” is repeating what we have been told by the verb “summarise”.)

Removing repetition removes clutter and brings more definition to your writing.

8 – Unnecessary Timeline Nudges

Do you need to include timeline nudges in your novel?
(Timeline nudges are words like then, after, while, before, with that.)

Often, authors think that readers need these nudges, so they can keep track of what’s going on. However, the sequence in which you write events indicates the sequence in which they happen.

You don’t need to say “X happened then Y happened”.
Instead, you can say “X happened, and Y happened” and the reader will understand that Y happened after X.

Using timeline nudges too frequently can be distracting – and your readers can end up focusing more on when things happen, and less on what you are trying to describe on the page.

Removing these nudges removes clutter and brings more definition to your writing.

9 – As You Know, Bob

So what on earth is As You Know, Bob? Also called Maid and Butler Dialogue, it’s when the characters on the page share information that everyone present already knows – purely so the reader can know it too.

Have a look at this:

“I heard your wife, Rebecca, is learning the piano?”

The person being addressed clearly already knows that their wife is called Rebecca – the only reason the writer has presented it this way is so that the readers can know all about Rebecca too.

Instead, it would be better to write it as:

“I heard Rebecca is learning the piano?”
“Yes, my wife is a very talented woman.”

This then tells us all the information, in a more natural way.

With longer, more complicated pieces of information, it might be a good idea to introduce a new character who doesn’t have all the facts, so the other characters can discuss the details with them, and thereby keep the reader fully informed.

10 – Vocatives

Are you overusing vocatives in your novel?

A vocative is a word that’s used to address someone – normally a name.

In real life, we don’t tend to use people’s names very often in conversation. Maybe at the start, when we first meet them, we might say “Hello, Name”, but then during the natural course of the conversation, we would be unlikely to repeat their name many times.

If there are only two people present, we might not use their name at all.

And if there are multiple people present, we might use a name to make sure everyone knows who we are talking to, but we might also look at someone, nudge them or tap them on the shoulder.

Often, authors use names in dialogue far more than is natural. Have a look at your dialogue – have you used names too frequently?

If you are worried that the reader isn’t going to follow who is speaking/being addressed, this is what dialogue tags and action beats are for.

Dialogue is really hard to write, and this is just one way to make it sound more natural.

In Conclusion

This is part one of my self-editing tips for indie fiction authors – please see here for part 2. And if any of the above tips are unclear, please do email me – I’d love to hear from you.

The post Self-Editing Tips for Fiction Authors appeared first on MandaWaller.

Formatting (probably the most productive way to self-edit a novel)

• make your manuscript double spaced
• use Times New Roman, font size 12
• delete all double spaces (replace with single space, even after a full stop/period)
• delete all tabs
• indent entire document to 1” margin
• justify the document to the left
• use a page break between each chapter (ctrl-enter will give you a page break on a PC) – never use multiple paragraph returns to force a new page!
• if you know how to use Word Styles, apply a style to each chapter heading

Quick checks

• run your manuscript through a spell-checker – it will pick up the worst offenders
• do not run your manuscript through Grammarly. Many of the suggestions made by Grammarly are not right! You will be wasting your time trying to work out which suggestions to apply, and it will increase the editing time if an editor has to undo all your changes!

Punctuation

• does every paragraph end in a full stop/period?
• is every full stop/period followed by a capital letter?
• have you used single quotes or double quotes consistently? It doesn’t matter which you choose, so long as it’s consistent.
• check your use of it’s – this word only means it is. It is NEVER possessive!
• is there punctuation at the end of every piece of dialogue, inside the final speech marks?

Dialogue

• does the dialogue for a new speaker start on a new line? (It should!)
• have you used sensible dialogue tags? (Preference is for said!)
• where there are only two people speaking, have you said who is speaking on every line? (This is not necessary, the reader can work it out if you throw in an occasional name.)
• have you put a comma in front of a name when someone is being addressed? For example “Nice to meet you, David.” (This is a vocative comma, and it’s important!)

Consistency

• are all your characters’ names spelled consistently throughout the book?
• did you change a character’s name at any point? Is the old name still there somewhere?

Of course, if you’d rather not take these steps to self-edit a novel, then that’s absolutely fine. I address each of these points as I work my way through a manuscript. For further information on prices, or to receive a detailed quote, please get in touch.

The post How to Self-Edit a Novel appeared first on MandaWaller.