Modern fictional books - what is the purpose of the 3 stars which appear regularly after certain paragraphs?

Answer 1

They indicate a change of some nature in the flow of the narrative. It is becoming an overused cliché, however, with some writers (IMHO) using it as an excuse got not being able to maintain a coherent narrative over any reasonable length.

Answer 2

It indicates a small change in time or physical setting. The best way to do this, and most do it this way, is to just put an extra space, without the stars. However, if the conclusion of one time/setting appears at the end of a page, the stars are needed to inform the reader of the switch. If it appears regularly, the author is on drugs--they don't need to be used at any point except when the end of a page interferes.

Answer 3

If you put three periods it means that something continues but I agree that 3 stars is pretty silly. Why not use the old-fashioned device called a transition?

However, sometimes I like to make leaps between parts of a story or poem but that is really using the device called juxtaposition which is putting two different, possibly contrasting elements side by side to see what effect the combination will cause in the reader.

If you are interested in literary devices, you would enjoy the books and/or artilces of Walter Ong who passed on lately and was a great English prof and great expert on literature and literary devices

Answer 4

Three stars after a paragraph signals to the reader that there is either a new location for the next scene, a change of point-of-view character or that a period of time has passed.

Answer 5

To introduce a new event, or describe another scene, which is related to the chapter but not to previous paragraphs. If it is a new part of the story, or a detailed and long event it is begun as a new chapter...