Well then, it has been a while, hasn't it now? Wait, did I just end that sentence with a preposition? Damn it, now I have to check.

No, no I did not, thank the FSM. But you know what I am guilty of? Using a preposition at the end of that the sentence that came right before this one. And failing to give you, the readers/students who continue to validate and give my rather doldrum life some semblance of meaning, a proper way to signify that I had left you for several minutes to find my old English notes. I failed to show you a proper passage of time, a change of setting, or a change of characters. How else would you know that I am not the real Klondike, but rather his master-minded, handsome, witty, and clop-writing cousin Yukon?

When writing fiction from certain point-of-view styles, namely third and first person points-of-view, it becomes necessary to change between the points of view of characters (screw it, I'm saying PoV from now on, regardless of the filthy implications) without closing a chapter and starting a new one. While it is not wrong to change without a visible indication, it is heavily frowned upon. For example, if you are telling a story from the viewpoint of Bob, it will confuse the reader to suddenly start talking about Bill's thoughts and feelings in the same paragraph.

Scene transitions are useful in this type of situation, as well as in multiple other situations. A scene transition will be most effectively used if the PoV of the reader switches from one character to another, allowing the reader to glance at the other character's thoughts and feelings for awhile; if a significant amount of time passes without much plot relevant actions and dialogue occurring; or if the setting of the story shifts to another location.

It's like A Game of Thrones. It jumps between different characters, different PoV's (wait, wouldn't that be P'soV? Points-of-view?) and different locations all the freaking time. While George Martin excuses this practice by making each scene and the character whose PoV that scene is told from its own chapter, we of the mortal realm cannot function in that way. For those of us who have to have more than one character's thoughts and feelings in a scene, we must make do with dividing the individual chapter into several short scenes.

So when something occurs off-scene, and suddenly you jump to where that something happened, use some kind of visible marker to show the reader that you have changed perspectives.

Something like this:

***************************

(That's the one I use.)

Or this:

:[-]:

Just use some little text doohickey, even an extra line or something! Get creative with it, have fun, personalize that little bastard that shows the readers that the serious scene with Twilight in the Crystal Empire's library is over and that the perspective has shifted to the scene later that night with Rainbow Dash dancing shit-faced drunk on top of the statue of Discord.

Of course, once you have closed out the scene prefacing the scene you are currently working on, give us some setting information. Tell us (subtly!) where we are now, what time of the day it is, and who we are hearing the thoughts and feelings of now. How will we know that the silvery light of the moon danced off the waves as Applejack kept her widow's vigil long through the night if you don't tell us?

I wrote this lecture mainly for the brand new writer, just like most of my lectures. I'm tired of seeing stories on the front page turn to a mishmash of jumbled thoughts and odd perspectives all assailing my senses at the same time. I want the new writer to understand this: perspective is half of narrative. Everyone in the story has differing opinions on certain issues and events, and unless we get a chance to see from their point of view, the story is incomplete and what we're left with is a mindless and aimless narrative that will most likely fizzle out. Say Lyra leaves Bonbon for some reason that only Lyra knows. Would it be fair if we didn't get some time alone to hear Bonbon's thoughts on the matter? If a character has significance to the story, give them some of their own personal face time, and remember to use a proper scene transition.

I'm curious how you'd suggest handling a situation where the scene transitions fairly rapidly? Would you suggest littering the view with a lot of scene breaks with but a paragraph or two between them? Or would you suggest something else?

How about a lot of flashbacks, for example? In the "main scene" some stuff happens, while a character thinks about a bunch of (hopefully interesting) stuff as they're reminded of them by various stimuli around them? We're essentially changing back and forth between scenes, often returning to a common one, sprinkled with potentially a bunch of wildly different ones.

(these may not be beginner questions, but they're on my mind)

2020936 Question, when do you think it's appropriate to have a simple sentence that summarizes events much more quickly than the rest of the story, in place of a scene break?

For example, two characters search for a specific book in the archive, all in the perspective of one character, and the next scene is only five minutes later when they've gone to the office of their superior down the hall.

2021022 One time I had flashbacks presented by having the paragraphs of flashbacks being italicized.

2021053

Re: down the hall

Somewhat depends on how you define "setting." If the events "down the hall" are very brief before some other major traveling happens, simply define the setting not as one room, but both rooms of the building. Changing rooms within a house like that seems perfectly fine to hold within a single setting.

If you spend a substantial amount of time in each room, and some major stuff happens in each, then perhaps a scene change is warranted.

Re: Italics

That's what I've done so far. I'm interested in seeing if there is a preferred way, and/or contribute to others who read this.

2021022 If it's something like the character having several flashbacks in a single scene, you might do that as an italicized section rather than giving it a scene break each time.

2021053 It's probably fine to summarize a short jaunt down the hallway with a single sentence. A proper scene break would be more appropriate if a character starts in the library, then the next scene has them at the other side of the city, or at their home. As for the passage of time, I wouldn't use a scene break unless it has been a minimum of several hours. For example, the character falls asleep at noon, then wakes up at midnight; that might mandate a scene break.

2020936

On a related note, please please please don't jump between characters willy-nilly just to get in their heads for a moment. For example, if Twilight and RD are having a romantic dinner, or even fighting zombie Celestia clones, don't keep jumping between the two mares within the same scene. It's jarring and kills the momentum of the scene. One, MAYBE two jumps is okay. Jumping every eleven seconds to tell the reader little things like how Twilight thinks the spaghetti twirls on her fork like RD twirls in midair is pointless.

Having clear transitions helps this, as the main culprits are usually writers who flit from one character to another and back all in the space of a single paragraph or two.

2021093 I'm heavy on the flashbacks in my October contest entry (which I'll hopefully finish tonight and polish in the days to come), and I didn't use any scene-breaks or italicized sections. I think it's really just necessary to do those things if you can't do it in a more elegant way.

Twilight stopped in the center of the great hall. Wind howled through the broken windows, stirring up dust amassed over the course of centuries. This was the place she had been crowned a princess... it might have been just yesterday: Rays of sunshine traveling through the multicolored windows had bathed everypony in an ocean of light, banishing all the fear and anxiety she had been feeling up to this point. Smiles and laughter everywhere she had looked, joy washing away every worry on this brightest day of her life.

Now, lifetimes later, she stood in the ruins of what once was, a lonely immortal in a world long dead.

That's my attempt at a flashback I just made up on the spot. Unlike a change in PoV or a change of time and space, a flashback has to be in character (IMHO, which isn't saying much since I'm not an accomplished writer). I mean, italicizing a flashback is like adding "he shouted" behind a phrase. If you wrote the shout well enough, stating it's a shout is redundant.

2021556 That jumping between PoVs has been bugging me, too. It's just utterly immersionbreaking to me and a cheap workaround of actually describing facial expressions or body language.

2020936

How else would you know that I am not the real Klondike, but rather his master-minded, handsome, witty, and clop-writing cousin Yukon?

UnicornYukon did nothing wrong.

While George Martin excuses this practice by making each scene and the character whose PoV that scene is told from its own chapter, we of the mortal realm cannot function in that way.

klondike pls

More seriously, though, I have to write the transitions for one character slipping into her memories back and forth several times.
Like when a character starts fantasizing and another calls him back and another character interrupts him, with his voice breaking into the fantasy.
What would you recommend in this case.
And no "that's only on tv" excuse.

2022535
The one with the separation plot?
That's fun. I hope I finish mine on time.

I've found that switching perspectives can be pulled off well just by having paragraph breaks, as long as the two characters are a) in the same scene and b) the paragraphs are clear about whose perspective I'm reading. (which would be another lecture)

also: the horizontal rule:

Accomplished buy typing [ hr ], but without the spaces.

Looks pretty on fimfic, but doesn't work across formats. Still, since we assume that people reading this are publishing on fimfic, I will say this: learn how to format on fimfic. Learn the ways, young padawan.

2024850

More seriously, though, I have to write the transitions for one character slipping into her memories back and forth several times.
Like when a character starts fantasizing and another calls him back and another character interrupts him, with his voice breaking into the fantasy.
What would you recommend in this case.

Depends on how long the memory is. If it's short, like a paragraph or two, I find that italicizing is sufficient and no break is necessary. Then you can interrupt the dream with either non-italicized dialogue or just cut right back to reality.

One benefit of this is that if you establish early on that italicization means memories, you can insert little one-liners throughout the story and the reader knows the character is remembering something without having to be told.

On one hoof, this makes sense. On the other hoof, what's a narrative? (8th grader here. Haven't learned that in school yet.)