They are the same thing. A break within a chapter that signals a shift of time, place or viewpoint, without starting a new chapter.
The terms differ by community. Writers say scene break. The style authorities say space break or section break. Neither the Chicago Manual of Style nor its blog uses "scene break" as its term, and a search of the CMOS editors' blog for "dinkus" returns nothing at all.
So if you are looking for a rule and cannot find one, you may be searching the wrong word.
The One Rule Everyone Agrees On
Two independent authorities give the same instruction, and it is the most useful thing on this page.
The Chicago Manual of Style's editors:
"If you're a writer, be sure to mark section breaks with asterisks in your manuscript, regardless of how they are intended to appear when published. Extra line space alone may get overlooked during the editing process."
Yale University Press says the same as a house rule:
"If you do not use subheads in the book, it is fine to have untitled section breaks within a chapter. Indicate these section breaks in the manuscript by typing three spaced asterisks in a line by themselves where you want the section break to appear. This will make your intention clear to us."
In the manuscript: asterisks. In the finished book: whatever the designer chooses. Those are two separate decisions, and confusing them is the usual mistake.
The reason for the asterisks is mechanical rather than aesthetic. Blank space is invisible when it lands at a page boundary, and it can be lost entirely in editing and conversion. The same logic drives scene break formatting in a submitted manuscript.
How It Appears in the Finished Book
The Chicago editors' survey of published fiction describes several realisations: a blank line space, ornaments such as fleurons, asterisks, rules or dots, small capitals opening the following paragraph, or a flush-left paragraph opener.
They also record the specific problem blank space creates, and a designer's solution:
"When such a break occurs across two pages, the reader is likely to miss it... The book designer for Less solved this problem in the print version by placing three centered dots in the otherwise blank line that landed at the bottom or top of a page whenever a section break coincided with a page break."
That is the argument for a visible mark in one sentence. A break you cannot see is a break that does not exist, and page breaks move as a book is typeset.
One more point from the same source: treating section breaks identically in print and ebook "just so happens to be the recommendation in CMOS 1.58".
Where the Terms Do Diverge
Two distinctions worth keeping straight, because they are real:
Section break as a word processor feature is something else entirely. In Word, a section break changes page layout, numbering or headers. It has nothing to do with a scene division and inserting one will not produce a visible break in your text.
Subheads are titled divisions within a chapter, common in non-fiction and rare in fiction. Yale is discouraging: "We recommend that you use subheads only sparingly, if at all." If your break needs a heading, it is a subhead rather than a scene break, and Chicago's rule then applies that a chapter with an A-head needs at least two.
What Deckle Does
Deckle handles the break as a structural object rather than typed characters, since a chapter is made of scene documents and the boundary between two scenes is a real thing in the manuscript.
Six scene break styles are available in the Styler: Whitespace, Asterisks, Asterism, Fleuron, Em dashes, or a Custom ornament image. The default is a fleuron.
One thing worth knowing given the sources above: Whitespace is the style the authorities warn about, because a blank line falling at a page boundary disappears. If you choose it, it is worth checking the print PDF for breaks that land at the top or foot of a page. The other five all produce a visible mark.
In the DOCX export the break becomes a centred * * * carrying a dedicated Scene Break paragraph style, which is exactly what Chicago and Yale ask for in a manuscript, and being a style rather than direct formatting means a typesetter can restyle every break in one action.
There is also a Scenes on New Page option, which turns each scene boundary into a real page break instead. When that is on, the glyph is dropped, since a mark immediately below a fresh page start reads as redundant.
For the manuscript convention, see how to format scene breaks in a manuscript. For what a scene is as opposed to a chapter, see scene vs chapter.
Common Mistakes
- Searching for "scene break" in a style guide. The term there is space break or section break.
- Using a blank line and nothing else. It vanishes at page boundaries and can be lost in editing.
- Inserting a word processor section break. That changes page layout, not your text.
- Designing the published appearance in your manuscript. Asterisks in the manuscript; the designer decides the book.
- Adding a heading to it. That makes it a subhead, with different rules.
- Assuming "dinkus" is a style term. It does not appear in the Chicago editors' blog at all.
FAQ
Q: Is a scene break the same as a section break? A: Yes. Writers say scene break; style authorities say space break or section break.
Q: What should I type in my manuscript? A: Three spaced asterisks on their own line. Both Chicago's editors and Yale University Press say so explicitly.
Q: Can I just leave a blank line? A: Not in a manuscript. It gets overlooked in editing and disappears at page breaks.
Q: What appears in the printed book? A: Whatever the designer chooses: blank space, dots, an ornament, or small caps on the next paragraph.
Q: Should print and ebook match? A: Yes. Chicago recommends treating them identically.