Many aspiring writers often struggle with breaking their new novel up into chapters – in knowing where and how to end a chapter and start the next, or how to split a body of text into chapters or sections. Many writers – myself included – also find writing confined to a regimen of chapters restrictive, so what to do? Relax folks – there is an alternative to writing in chapters, and it’s called the dinkus! No, not a dingus – a dinkus!
Let’s take a closer look at this dinkus and see what we can find out!
The Dinkus – An Alternative To Writing In Chapters
Many writers, in books I have read, avoid using chapters altogether. Instead, they insert a row of three asterisks, centered (* * *), (or another symbol) to separate blocks of text, usually to show the end of one scene and the start of another. This row of three asterisks is called a dinkus or an asterism. Whichever you prefer – or if you use three asterisks or other symbols, the effect is still the same – but I prefer “dinkus”.
According to the internet:
“Three (or more) asterisks in a row are often used to break up the text in books.” – From Quora, source: Quirky Qwerty: The Story of the Keyboard @ Your Fingertips By Torbjörn Lundmark.
“Dinkus: A small drawing or symbol used to decorate a page, break up a block of type or identify a regular feature in a newspaper.” – The News Manual.
This is a fancy dinkus:
“Three asterisks are properly called an “asterism”, whether typed manually (* * *) or assembled into a single glyph (⁂).” – Keith Houston, author of Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols, & Other Typographical Marks.
If you enjoyed this article, why not read “A Guide To Self-Publishing In South Africa” by the same author?
Having written and published over 30 books, with most of them in fiction, I have only ever separated about 6 of them into actual chapters with subsections. In all the rest I used dinkusses (or is that dinki? Authors want to know!) to separate different scenes.
I find this a freeing and unrestrictive way to write – relieving me of that pressure to have X or Y happen by the time I start chapter 10 in my new novel. I’m sure you will too!
Bow that you know, do you still write in actual chapters? For god’s sake – why?
Read more:
- A Brief Introduction To Self-Publishing: A 5 part series of articles introducing the reader to the concept of self-publishing.
- Forewords, Prologues, Prefaces & Introductions Explained: this explains the differences and similarities and when it is appropriate to use them and for what.
- The Interrobang – What Is It?!: What is the interrobang, where and when should it be used? Should it be used at all?
- Asterism Or Dinkus – What’s In A Name?: Do you still write in actual chapters? For god’s sake – why?
- Afterwords & Epilogs Explained: this explains what afterwords and epilogs are for and when it is appropriate to use them.
- Word Length – When Is A Novel, A Novel?: This explains the word lengths for different categories of book or story.
- Which Self-Publishing Platform – Or All Of Them?: An article about experimenting with which self-publishing distribution platforms to use concurrently. Also read the follow-up article: More Isn’t Always Better – My Self-publishing Platform Strategy Revisited.
- A Guide To Self-Publishing In South Africa – a guide to being an indie author in spite of being stuck in South Africa by Christina Engela.
- Some Great Resources For Writers: A collection of useful tools and articles giving advice to new writers trying to make their way in a minefield of obstacles.
Cheers!
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