# 39 — Scene-break navigation
Two chords for jumping the cursor between scene-break
lines in the open paragraph:
```
Ctrl+B < jump to previous scene break
Ctrl+B > jump to next scene break
```
Both are editor-scoped — they only fire while the
editor pane has focus.
## What counts as a scene break
The detector recognises the typographic dividers
writers actually use:
```
* * * ***
- - - ---
_ _ _ ___
~ ~ ~ ~~~
# # # ###
§ (lone section sign)
```
Rule: any line consisting of 3 or more copies of one
of `*` `-` `_` `~` `#` (optionally separated by
single spaces), or a single `§`, counts as a scene
break. Anything else doesn't.
Notably the detector **does NOT** match:
- `**` (below threshold — easily mistaken for stray
bold markers).
- `***bold***` (mixed content — that's prose, not a
divider).
- `= Heading` or `== Subheading` (those are typst
structural section markers, not scene breaks —
navigating between them is what `Ctrl+V N` and the
diagnostics list do).
## Cursor behaviour
Both chords land the cursor at column 0 of the
matching line and let the textarea's existing
scroll-tracking pan the viewport. When there's no
scene break in the requested direction the status
line says *"scene break: no break below"* (or
*above*) and the cursor stays put.
## Chord rationale
The chords are `Ctrl+B <` and `Ctrl+B >` — vim's
forward/backward conventions.
Originally requested as `Ctrl+B Shift+{` and
`Ctrl+B Shift+}`, but `Shift+}` was already bound to
TagSearch (since 1.2.5). The vim-style `<` / `>`
were free and the muscle memory transfers if you
already use vim's `[[` / `]]` patterns.
## Use cases
- **Long paragraphs with multiple scenes inside one
node**. Some authors keep an entire chapter in
one Paragraph node, separated internally by `* *
*`. `Ctrl+B >` jumps from scene to scene without
scrolling.
- **Audit pass before assembly**. Walk through every
scene break in a chapter checking that the
transitions read cleanly — `Ctrl+B >` repeatedly
is faster than PgDn.
- **Counting scenes**. Press `Ctrl+B >` until you
hit the "no break below" status — the number of
presses + 1 is your scene count for that
paragraph.
## See also
- [`03-the-editor.md`](03-the-editor.md) — full
catalogue of editor chords + features.
- [`13-ai-full-screen-mode.md`](13-ai-full-screen-mode.md)
— focus mode for a distraction-free pass through
the scenes you just navigated.