: Re: How to write intercut scenes in a novel? I wish to write an intercut scene for a novel, where two very contrasting things are happening at the same time. The technique works really well on

@Welton431

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The standard way of doing this in a novel is to use a single line with "---" centered or "***" centered, in between the intercuts. Don't let your editor auto-correct that into a horizontal line, it should be "---" or "***" (without the quotes). The typesetter for the book will convert this into whatever rule they decide on, it can be a curly separator or bold line or whatever, not up to you.

A centered separator is also a signal to the reader that one scene ended and another is beginning, so they expect a POV change. Alternatively, we use the same thing to indicate a passage of uneventful time; i.e. end one section with

"She parked in the driveway, finally home, ready to collapse into bed."
Then center ---, then
"The alarm woke her up at eight. She could have slept hours longer, ..."

It is the same mechanism used for both, kind of a vertical ellipsis in away. If you want to sell your work, this is standard typesetting practice. I do not recommend inventing your own, unless you are self-publishing from a Word document and are your own typesetter. If you are submitting to agents and/or publishers, follow the standard. See Correctly Formatting Your Novel Manuscript.

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