Transition (fiction)


Transitions in fiction are words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, or punctuation that may be used to signal various changes in a story, including changes in time, location, point-of-view character, mood, tone, emotion, and pace. Transitions are sometimes listed as one of various fiction-writing modes.

Purpose

Transitions provide for a seamless narrative flow as a story shifts in time, location, or point-of view. They aid the internal logic of a story by moving readers from sentence to sentence, paragraph to paragraph, idea to idea, scene to scene, and chapter to chapter with grace and ease.

Types

Transitions in fiction may take any of several forms, including chapter breaks, section breaks, and :wikt:summarization|summarization.

Footnotes