#formating

Chapters: 19/19 Fandom: EPIC - Jorge Rivera-Herrans (Albums) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con Relationships: Odysseus/Penelope (EPIC: The Musical), Athena & Odysseus (EPIC: The Musical), Odysseus & Telemachus (EPIC: The Musical), Eurylochus & Odysseus (EPIC: The Musical), Odysseus & Polites (EPIC: The Musical), Penelope & Telemachus (EPIC: The Musical), Eurylochus & Odysseus & Polites (EPIC: The Musical), Hermes & Odysseus (EPIC: The Musical), Odysseus & Odysseus' Crew (EPIC: The Musical), Odysseus & Poseidon (EPIC: The Musical), Odysseus & Zeus (EPIC: The Musical)  Characters: Odysseus (EPIC: The Musical), Odysseus' Crew (EPIC: The Musical), Eurylochus (EPIC: The Musical), Polites (EPIC: The Musical), Elpenor (EPIC: The Musical), Perimedes (EPIC: The Musical), Soldier 1 (EPIC: The Musical), Soldier 2 (EPIC: The Musical), Soldier 3 (EPIC: The Musical), Soldier 4 (EPIC: The Musical), Winions (EPIC: The Musical), Princess Winion (EPIC: The Musical), ”Scary Cave” Winion (EPIC: The Musical), Winion 1 (EPIC: The Musical), Penelope (EPIC: The Musical), Telemachus (EPIC: The Musical), Circe (EPIC: The Musical), Anticlea (EPIC: The Musical), Tiresias (EPIC: The Musical), The Suitors (EPIC: The Musical), Antinous (EPIC: The Musical), Eurymachus (EPIC: The Musical), Amphinomus (EPIC: The Musical), Melanthius (EPIC: The Musical), EPIC Ensemble (EPIC: The Musical), Cyclops (EPIC: The Musical), Cyclops 1 (EPIC: The Musical), Polyphemus (EPIC: The Musical), Laestrygonians (EPIC: The Musical), The Sirens (EPIC: The Musical), Siren Pretending to be Penelope (EPIC: The Musical), Scylla (EPIC: The Musical), Athena (EPIC: The Musical), Aeolus (EPIC: The Musical), Poseidon (EPIC: The Musical), Hermes (EPIC: The Musical), Zeus (EPIC: The Musical), Apollo (EPIC: The Musical), Hephaestus (EPIC: The Musical), Aphrodite (EPIC: The Musical), Ares (EPIC: The Musical), Hera (EPIC: The Musical), Calypso (EPIC: The Musical), Jorge Rivera-Herrans, Talya Sindel, Luke Holt, Teagan Earley, Troy Doherty, Steven Dookie, Armando Julián, Ayron Alexander, Earl Greshman Jr., Anna Lea, Miguel Veloso | MICO, Wanda Herrans, Mason Olshavsky, KJ Burkhauser, Steven Rodriguez, Mike Rivera, Sarah Botelho | POESY  Additional Tags: Screenplay/Script Format, Theatre, Inspired by EPIC: The Musical - Jorge Rivera-Herrans Summary:

ADAPTED FOR PERSONAL USAGE, SCRIPT HAS NO MUSIC SHEETS. THIS WORK IS NOT MONETIZED AND ALL INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY IS JORGE MIGUEL RIVERA-HERRANS.

This is a great question! 

First, I want to discuss this a little more as a formatting choice. I did a little more digging on proper formatting for scene breaks (like when you are showing the passage of time or a change in location) and it seems like there isn't a complete consensus on what to do, since in some cases it is just shown with extra space and in some there are three dots/asterisks or a little symbol. I’ll link some of the more useful posts if you want to read yourself (one, two, three). Some suggest that the asterisks are for a more substantial scene break, but from what I’ve found it mostly boils down to the author’s preference or the publisher’s type setter. I looked through some of the published books I have to see what’s more common and seems like just leaving extra space is more widely used, like this:

(Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. pg. 138) In this case, the break indicates that quite some time has passed and the first line after the break tells us about how much. In the same book there is this sort of break:

(pg. 141) In this case, because the scene break happens at the end of the printed page that little line in necessary so the reader doesn't think they’re just reading the following paragraph on the other side of the page in the same scene. There are quite a few of these breaks through Station Eleven, like multiple times per chapter, and they’re pretty consistent with just the extra space except in this sort of case when they use a line. Then there’s this example from Ransom Riggs’ Hollow City (pg. 280):

This book is also consistent with using the * * * instead of the extra space, so I’m inclined to believe it is just preference. Also, based on a quick flip through it seems this book uses the scene breaks less than Station Eleven. I actually flipped through a few books looking for this kind of break and just to see how often/how different authors use their scene breaks and it really just depends on the author. Some use it very often, others hardly at all. 

I found a great article that lays out four cases when to use scene breaks. I think a good exercise if you’re still unclear about how and when to use them would be to flip through a book you’ve already read and know pretty well and look at when this author has used them. Why did they do this? What is accomplished with this scene break? How does the following sentence/paragraph tell you what has occurred in between? 

This has been a very long way to say that you absolutely can use scene breaks (as asterisks or just empty space) and you actually should for the sake of clarity when you are moving around in time, location, or POVs within the same chapter. As for how many times you use it, I don’t think there is like a maximum quota per chapter or work, especially since chapter lengths and the lengths of a short story/novella/novel all vary, but you just want to be conscious of the pacing and clarity. If you are jumping around every other paragraph that’s probably going to be confusing and it’s also not enough time to actually get anything done in a scene. On the other hand, not everyone uses scene breaks because their work is shorter or takes place over a fairly short amount of time, or the author just leaves these shifts to chapter breaks, but I would say you would be hard pressed to find a full novel without any at all. 

Finally, yes, it is okay to vary how much time has passed between these breaks, and if you look at any book that takes place over a few weeks, months, or years, you’ll see that sometimes a scene or chapter will only skip a few hours or move to another POV, and some will skip over whole years because that’s what’s necessary for the plot. One of the best examples of this is in coming-of-age novels that have a few chapters discussing key moments in a character’s childhood then jump ahead ten years to their late teens, for example. I think for the more substantial breaks it would be best to start a new chapter rather than a scene break because with a larger gap in time it is less likely that the events that happen after the break are consistent with what happened before. A chapter has a little mini plot line within the larger work that has a beginning, middle, and end and is dependent on something to tie it together whether it is an event, a theme, a specific character or location or something like that and if you are jumping ahead six months within the same chapter it’s harder for that chapter to be cohesive, but this is not a hard and fast rule. 

Hello! As promised I have a master post of how I structure my handwritten notes for university! This is hardly a method but I like to structure my notes in a way that allow me for the most freedom. Throughout the post, I will include stationary I use to make these notes as well! I will be making a full stationary post later on. 

01 - The right notebook and I format the pages.

I have always used unruled notebooks from since I can remember as I have always had very small handwriting and I don’t like how my small writing looks when ruled lines are present. I have also always loved to draw and this gives me the best option. My notebook is Moleskine Cahier Journal in extra large and unruled. If you are interested in the book, here is the link! ✨

The way I structure my pages stemmed from the early years of high school when my teacher showed this way allowed more freedom to expand and draw out your ideas. 

I fold my pages in half and draw a light pencil line down the crease to indicate a light border between the columns. 

02 - Notes!! 

My writing and note-taking!! I write down each column all of my notes for the lecture. The black writing is all of the general note taking and then the pink pen is all of the important points or key points I have to remember. The pens I use are both Muji 0.38 pens, in black and pink! (I don’t have a link sorry... no muji in my country)

I usually take fast messy notes during the lecture in a different book, and then, later on, re-write them in this notebook. I have always believed that taking second notes after a lecture has been beneficial when you have to re-write or rethink about something, you are mesmerising what you just learnt. The second time you write it out, when you take time to lay them out into an understanding way, you can really embed the information in your mind. 

I also use the second column to sometimes draw an arrow from the first to expand out my ideas and notes. 

03 - highlighting is KEY

highlighting!! This is a key step in my note-taking! It is so important to highlight what you are writing, I usually dedicate two colours to two different types of notes. I use a pink highlighter for main points and an orange highlighter for examples. Both are from Muji again! 

04 - Drawings 

As an Architecture student, I am constantly needing to draw out my notes and use diagrams to support my notes, this column format really helps as I can expand out over the page and utilising the space. I understand that a lot of other degrees don’t really require a lot of drawing but the point is that it's a good idea to visualise our study notes, especially if you are a visual learner like me it can be very beneficial to draw sketches out to visualise your ideas.