Splitting a scene

Break a long scene into two by typing *** on a line of its own, or with the New Scene slash command.

If a scene runs long, or you realize partway through that what you’re writing is really two scenes, you don’t have to cut and paste content into a new document by hand.

How to split a scene

1. Put your cursor on an empty line where the new scene should begin.
2. Type *** and press Enter, or type / and select New Scene.
3. Everything below that line moves into a new scene, created as a sibling right after the current one in your manuscript tree.

The *** line itself isn’t kept. The original scene keeps everything above it, with formatting preserved in both. The new scene opens with your cursor at its start. In Whole Chapter View, where a chapter’s scenes are open together, it appears right below the one you split.

*** and New Scene only split a scene on a line of their own, outside a list, quote, or table. Typed in the middle of a sentence, *** stays as text, and New Scene adds an empty scene after this one without moving anything.

Undo a split

A note at the bottom of the screen confirms the split, with an Undo button. You can also press ⌘Z (Ctrl+Z on Windows) in the new scene. Anything you’ve typed there is undone first, and the next press joins the two scenes back into one, with your cursor where they meet.

Undo is available until you open something else. The second scene moves to the project’s Archive. In Whole Chapter View, the two scenes join back together right where they are.

The scene you split from starts a fresh undo history, so ⌘Z there won’t reach back past the split.

When to split a scene

Splitting works well any time you notice a scene has drifted into covering two beats, or when a chapter draft needs a clean break for pacing.