There's another thread about typesetting and scene breaks, but this is a discussion that probably needs its own thread in another sub-forum.
First off, the terms "scene" and "scene break" in reference to novels, seem to be made up fairly recently by authors, not typesetters or book designers (although they have to deal with them). I never heard the terms (in relation to novels) before I started haunting indie author forums in 2012. If anyone can cite a reference from earlier I'd love to see it. I suspect that the terms migrated from film or plays. Some of the online dictionaries use it in reference to books, but Merriam-Webster doesn't.
My first novel, 40 years ago, had no scene breaks at all. At the time it seemed a foreign concept to me. My next novel, in 2012, was based on my own screenplay and the first draft had lots of scene breaks. I made an effort to eliminate some of them, but too many for my taste remain. The next three novels were a continuation of that series and had fewer scene breaks, but still more than I would like.
My latest, also based on a screenplay, had far fewer scene breaks, this time because of a conscious effort on my part, as well as an extensive expansion of the story, in which previous "scenes" became entire chapters.
As a screenwriter, I'm a big fan of parallel action, which is incredibly easy to do in a screenplay (although it gives the production manager fits), and works (or can work) extremely well on the screen. As a result I end up trying to do the same thing in a novel, and it just doesn't work nearly as well as in a movie.
In paging through a few of the classics <150 years ago, I'm hard pressed to find even a single scene break. Many authors today don't use them, especially those who write lots of short chapters. Even books 50-100 years ago didn't seem to have nearly as many scene breaks as books today.
A few years ago I wrote a novel in first person from the POV of an eighteen-year-old girl. There were no scene breaks. I didn't plan it that way. It just seemed that with first person, in almost real time, they weren't needed. It was an interesting exercise, but I abandoned the series, in no small part because of the inability to jump through time and space and heads.
Which brings me to the purpose of this thread. When did writers start using scene breaks and why? When did we start calling them scene breaks? Do you use them? A lot? A little? Do you wish you didn't have to use them?