In the first draft of my novel, ‘The Spa Resort’, I presently have 42 chapters and 190 scenes. I may not make any changes to the number of chapters. But as I edit, I definitely will be dropping or combining many of the existing scenes to something more digestible to the reader. In my editing, I will be going over each transition from one scene to the next to ensure that they flow seamlessly and are clear to the reader.

Did you ever read a book that had no chapters? It ends up ominously looking like one whole long chapter. Chapters are just another manner of creating a scene break. It’s the author’s choice whether or not they use them, or just write scene breaks into an ongoing story. Most authors though, utilize both chapters, and scene breaks to manage the flow of their novel. Personally, I prefer a book with chapters. It gives the reader a place for a bathroom break if nothing else. Individual scenes could be as short as a single sentence. Though in most novels, scenes run on average between 750 words all the way up to 5,000 words. You should be careful that your scenes don’t end up being interchangeable, or if nothing much changes from one scene to the next.

There are many reasons to end a scene and begin a new one: 
• To introduce a change in setting.
• To introduce a change in time.
• To present a different character’s perspective.
• To change the pacing of the story.
• To strengthen your story’s clarity.
• To mark a change in the mindset of a character.
• As characters move from internal thoughts to outward actions.
• To provide description.
• To break tension.
• To skip boring events.
• To create or switch the feel of your story.
• To switch between the character in the present and their backstory.
• To let the character breathe and react to something that’s just taken place.

Scenes can seamlessly transition by using chapters, since readers expect transitions between them. When changing scenes within a chapter, remember to give the reader a visual cue by adding an extra empty line between paragraphs or adding type such as ***** or ~~~~~~ or #####. You don’t want your reader to get lost because you’ve failed to adequately alert them to a change of scene. Each time this happens the reader is jerked out of the story they were trying to get immersed into. And you will have lost their trust.

Transitions can be short. A two-word transition might be That night… Be wary of making a scene transition longer than a paragraph. If they are too long they end up ‘telling’ the story instead of ‘showing it’. Succinct, brief narration though, can be an efficient way to indicate such things as a change in place or time and provide details without becoming a scene of its own.

Within a chapter, transitions in time can be presented by simply mentioning the time, day or date. Or by using phrases like, ‘By the next week, she…’ or ‘A week later…’ or ‘A year had past since I’d heard from her’ or ‘After’. Or the grandmother of all scene changes, Later…

Some authors use the senses in admirable ways to present a change of place. ‘The poorly lit room full of the smell of oil and petrol made her feel ill at ease as she called out the garage owner’s name.’

Transitions are like punctuation. They act as periods ending the action. Or as dashes giving the reader pause. They can leave a question in a readers mind. Transitions need some structure and require a bit of planning. Often transitions happen easily enough in the story contained in the author’s head, but are not translated fully to the written page. These poor transitions are often invisible to the author and only show up during the editing phase of an novel’s creation.