Soooooooo, I mentioned in another post how I kinda wanted to start posting some writing advice, mainly 'cause writing is a special interest of mine and I rarely get to talk in-depth about its technical aspects, so here I am!!
To start off, let's go with something that's a bit of a pet peeve of mine: paragraphs breaks. When to do it, when not to do it, and how it can greatly affect the pacing and feel of a story. So lez go!!
How to Paragraph
The main purpose of paragraphs within a narrative is pacing and organization. Generalizing it very broadly: long paragraphs give the impression of a slower and calm moment, while short paragraphs one after the other will make for a more dynamic and fast-paced moment; a moment of introspection from a single character vs a back-and-forth between multiple characters, for example.
When I just started writing, I'd honestly just feel out when to break paragraphs. And that's not a bad way to go about it, to be honest. Paragraph breaks is as much about aesthetic as it is about technicality. Sometimes, just going for what looks right can be the right way to go about it.
But as time went on, I did develop some strategies and got to learn why certain paragraph structures feel 'right' while others don't. And that's what I'll be going into here.
When a subject ends, the paragraph ends
This is a common advice writers will spout on this, but what do they mean by this?
From my experience, a 'subject' in narrative writing, can be separated in these categories:
Thoughts (internal)
Actions (external)
I'm going with the assumption that you're writing in some sorta limited POV, as that's my main form of writing, tho these could be worked into other structures too. And so, in this form of writing, you can generally pretty easily separate characters thoughts by subject.
Separating thoughts from action is easy enough. Simply, when the narration goes from describing an internal monologue to describing an action being done, the paragraphs should be separated.
As heart-wrenching as Blue Belleâs expression had been, Sebastian needed the break to deal just with the usual adult-life headaches. And while he fully intended on giving her some tidbits if she wanted, he wasnât about to throw everything out for the kid.
Something buzzed again, and an irked groan came before he could catch himself, but it was his normal cellphone that was buzzing.
[note how the phone buzzing is being described in a different paragraph from Sebastian's internal monologue. Not only does this give the scene some flow, but it also showcases the 'action' interrupting the 'thought']
A chapter of pure monologue though shouldn't be a single block of paragraph, of course. 'Thoughts' can also be separated into subjects within themselves (same for action, but we'll get there). For 'thoughts' this can be a bit more difficult, as if a character is musing on a single thing throughout several paragraphs, it can be hard to spot when the focus changes.
It's also hard to properly explain, so let's try to illustrate how this can look like instead, using an excerpt from one of my NITW AU fic:
This was probably the most Pamela had ever visited Hero and Carterâs apartment ever since those two moved in together. Not because of a lack of care for her bandmates, no, no. She justâ didnât feel all too comfortable invading those twoâs privacy. The band practices and occasional hang out were more than enough for her. Ever since Cole came back from the woodworks, thoughâaka, collegeâit felt like she spent more time around these three than not. That was most likely inaccurate, but it was what it felt like. The atmosphere in these hangouts could go from relatively light, to ice cold in an instant depending on the subjects brought up. And Pamela almost felt bad for consistently being the one to bring up said subjects and bringing the mood down, but they werenât kids anymore! They couldnât just go around pretending everything was fine, they had jobs to do, and problems to address. That was how adults carried themselves.
This entire block is just Pamela (this AU's Paranoid) monologuing about Cole's (Cold) return to the town and how it affected the dynamics of her friend group. Leaving it all in a single paragraph isn't technically incorrect, but it can make things seem overwhelming for readers, and personally, it's just kinda ugly. So let's separate this paragraph every time Pamela changes her focusâ
This was probably the most Pamela had ever visited Hero and Carterâs apartment ever since those two moved in together. Not because of a lack of care for her bandmates, no, no. She justâ didnât feel all too comfortable invading those twoâs privacy. The band practices and occasional hang out were more than enough for her.
Focus here: Brief summary of how it was before Cole came back
Ever since Cole came back from the woodworks, thoughâaka, collegeâit felt like she spent more time around these three than not. That was most likely inaccurate, but it was what it felt like.
Focus here: How Cole's arrival changed things up
The atmosphere in these hangouts could go from relatively light, to ice cold in an instant depending on the subjects brought up. And Pamela almost felt bad for consistently being the one to bring up said subjects and bringing the mood down, but they werenât kids anymore! They couldnât just go around pretending everything was fine, they had jobs to do, and problems to address. That was how adults carried themselves.
Focus here: The atmosphere around these hangouts, what affects it, and why that is
This isn't a cut-and-dry thing tho. Even in this excerpt, there are other ways I could've cut things up. Just that last paragraph, I went back and forth a lot on whether to make the 'we're adults' section its own paragraph too, or not. In the end, I'd say trust your intuition. And I'd also suggest trying out different ways to cut your paragraphs so that you can see how it looks, and decide then what looks better.
As for how to separate action, this one is honestly pretty easy once you get the hang of it. A mistake I see a lot of writers make is having several different actions done by different characters in a single paragraph, and that's something I'd really advise to completely avoid. Differently from thoughts, which can still be forgiven for being in a long-ass paragraph, action will easily get confusing if it isn't separated properly, especially between multiple characters.
As a rule of thumb: if it's between different characters, it should be in different paragraphs (exception being: interactions between characters; hugging, high-fiving, etc)
This goes double-fold for dialogue. Do not put dialogue from different characters in the same paragraph, that'll easily get your reader confused on who's talking.
Here's an example from my fic '(Explore) This New Old World'
âAnd how would we pay for a ride?â Hero frowned, turning to Skeptic. âWe donât have any money, we donât even know whatâs the money in here.â Cheated threw an arm around Hero. âThatâsââ And turned him so he was looking at the counter where Opportunist was still talking it up to a small group around him. ââwhat silver-tongue right there is going to figure out for us.â Heroâs brows furrowed even further, and he opened his mouth to voice his confusion, before realization hit him like a slap on the face. âNoooooooo,â Hero drew out the word, horrified, as he slowly turned his head to face the other two who seemed to be in agreement with this. âYeeesss,â Cheated drew back, grip tightening on Heroâs arms as if to stop him from jumping onto Opportunistâs throat.
It just looks clunky and needlessly confusing. Which is why in the actual fic it's separated as suchâ
âAnd how would we pay for a ride?â Hero frowned, turning to Skeptic. âWe donât have any money, we donât even know whatâs the money in here.â
âThatâsââ Cheated threw an arm around Hero, turning him so he was looking at the counter where Opportunist was still talking it up to a small group around him. ââwhat silver-tongue right there is going to figure out for us.â
Heroâs brows furrowed even further, and he opened his mouth to voice his confusion, before realization hit him like a slap on the face.
âNoooooooo,â Hero drew out the word, horrified, as he slowly turned his head to face the other two who seemed to be in agreement with this.
âYeeesss,â Cheated drew back, grip tightening on Heroâs arms as if to stop him from jumping onto Opportunistâs throat.
Much easier to read, feels better paced, and most importantly: makes the punchline all the much stronger.
I could go more in-depth about dialogue structure and how descriptions around it helps with the sense of time and pacing, but that's getting into another whole other topic altogether. For now, this is all I had to say about paragraphs. Hope it was helpful in any way, or at least entertaining, and good luck on all writing endeavors :D
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I was writing this cheat sheet out for a friend recently, and figured - hey if it's useful to them, it may be useful other people too. Basically, this goes into places where you probably should add a paragraph break in order to help keep readers grounded in what's actually happening, creating emphasis where you needed, and help break up larger/harder to read walls of text.
Note that this list is more about base readability/understanding. There are always going to be exceptions, especially when taking into account writing style - like any advice, these are more of guidelines than actual rules. (cue pirates of the carribean)
Always add a paragraph break for:
State of motion is changing
Ex: character is switching from observing surroundings to running for their lives
Basically, if youâre switching from being still to moving, or moving to still, break paragraphs
Why: mostly, it helps keep the reader grounded. A paragraph break is almost like a signal of "okay we're doing something different here" which can be useful when your protagonist is doing an array of smaller actions in a scene.
Thought shifts
Ex: character is thinking about their dead mother, to thinking about what caused the explosion that killed her
Each topic gets its own paragraph. When in doubt, add a new paragraph
Why: if a character is lost in their own thoughts for a while and you don't break, it will result in an impenetrable wall that most readers will skip because.... no. Transitions between ideas are just natural places to break, and again, they help with grounding readers.
(several more list items below the cut, and when to do a double paragraph break)
New character is talking
Yes, every time.
Only exception: two characters say something at the same time, and you indicate as such
But other than that. ALWAYS break for a new character's speech
Why: firstly, it's standard, meaning most readers are going to expect it, and will likely get confused if you aren't paragraph breaking. But other than that, it helps to break up giant walls of text that might happen in a conversation, for example, and it makes conversation followable, so that you don't have to put dialogue/action tags next to each new line of dialogue for it to be clear who's talking
New setting
Ex: character exits a building.
Any time you enter a new setting, spend some time establishing it. If itâs a setting the characters already know, you donât have to do as much - just let readers know where the character is in relation to it at the very least. If itâs somewhere new, describe things as your characters notice them.
Why: a break helps establish a transition. Without it, it can grow confusing where the characters are, and if you're confused about where they are, you're almost certainly going to get at least a little bit lost about what's going on overall.
New time
Ex: switching from summarizing the characters day to showing whatâs happening now
Ex: switching from whatâs happening now an hour ago, to whatâs happening now, now.
Why: same as above, but for time. Rather than getting confused about where characters are, it's just as easy to get confused about when they are.
Emphasis
Donât do this too much or else it loses its impact - paragraph break for emphasis is a very strong beat. More so than making something itâs own sentence.
Why: the more spacing on the page you have surrounding something important, the more power it has. That's why important bits of dialogue will be split off from the rest of what the character is saying via a dialogue/action tag [ex: "yes, yes, you're right." She stared at him with those void-black eyes. "But you'll be too dead for any of that to matter."] - by splitting that last line from the rest of the dialogue, it indicates that it's important. Splitting a line from the previous paragraph has a similar intensifying effect.
Double paragraph break for:
Rather than just going to the next line, press enter twice, so you end up with a white space between paragraphs.
Emphasis
Same as above, but use extremely sparingly. Otherwise you run the risk of it coming off as super cliche. Again, by adding the extra distance between whatever the important idea is and everything else, you emphasize its importance. If you emphasize too much, you're actually emphasizing nothing.
New POV
If youâre doing one of those things where you can have multiple POVs in a single chapter, make sure you add two paragraph breaks and also use the new characterâs name in the first sentence to ground readers. Otherwise itâs hella confusing
Larger time skips
If itâs more than a few hours, add two lines because otherwise it reads at first like itâs one event flowing into the next directly
Exception: Youâre summarizing time, and youâre like âthis thing happened 12 hours ago. This other thing was 8 hours agoâ
Something I have noticed as I write and read is the timing on paragraph breaks. With creative writing, your stories are going to break more often, as opposed to the traditional style of five sentences a paragraph learned in elementary school. So, some times that a new paragraph should or might appear are during the following:
The scene/place changes. If your character moves into a new place or out of a room. Make a new paragraph.
The time changes. If I skip from, my character has spent an hour in the library to getting in their car and beginning to blast music, hit the enter button and indent because now the time has changed and it makes it easier to see that time has passed.
If the perspective changes. If Character A is describing something and now it's a bit more important to hear from Chracter B, make a new paragraph. It'll make it easier to see the change in view and keep track of who is looking at what.
During dialogue. If someone else speaks, make a new paragraph because it's easier to track who is speaking and doing what as characters interact with each other and talk.
These are things that I have noticed while writing and they're pretty important because no one wants to read a giant block of text in a story. Plus paragraph breaks can help the story flow and makes it easier for both writer and reader to see who is talking or what might be going on since a paragraph indicates a change in something during the story.
So main point overall is if you have something change: perspective, speaker, character, time, place, scene, etc. Make it a new paragraph.
Today is Dont Kill Your Readers Monday, and for thatâIâll be covering a more basic principal that many newer writers, or self-taught writers, may have not been exposed to.
âšparagraph breaksâš
To start out simple, we need to cover what paragraph breaks areâand what they do.
Open up your nearest book. Paragraph breaks are just breaks between paragraphsâwhere you hit enter on your keyboard, that kinda thing.
In their most basic form, theyâre there to keep the writing organized and to keep your reader from getting confused. For example:
âSarah ran her hand through her hair.
âI dunno, Samuel...â she said, hesitation clinging to her words, âThe place looks pretty abandonedââ
âHey,â Samuel snapped, eyebrows dipping, âdo you want the patch or not?â
âI do, butââ
âThen stop being such a crybaby and letâs go already!â â
Ignoring the not-so-good writing, the conversation between Sarah and Samuel is easy to follow. What action is specified is easily separated and identifiable, and the sudden paragraph breaks mid dialogue give the reader that sense of being cut offâwhich we want. This is in comparison to the same scene, without paragraph breaks:
âSarah ran her hand through wear hair. âI dunno, Samuel...â she said, hesitation clinging to her words, âthe place looks pretty abandonedââ âHey,â Samuel snapped, eyebrows dipping, âDo you want the patch or not?â âI do, butââ âThen stop being such a crybaby and letâs go already!â â
Yeah, much harder to get through.
A real quick acronym to help you remember where paragraphs are absolutely necessary:
Time
Place
Topic
Person
(TiPToP)
Whenever one of these things changesâis where a paragraph break is absolutely necessary. Think: whenever the camera âmovesâ. Whether from a person to another (such as in dialogue) or when you go from talk about guitars to ukuleles. That kinda thing.
But paragraph breaks arenât just for organization and easy reading, theyâre also really effective in conveying a mood. This is more common in poetry, and uses the blank space on a page in the same way an artist would.
âI am
falling.
I donât know how to stop.â
It conveys hesitation in this case. The readers drags their eyes across the white before finally reaching: â.......falling.â
In addition, the large break contrasted by the lack of break in the immediately following sentence conveys a faster pace, while also keeping the melo mood established above.
(This also gets into word choice, but thatâs a post for another day)
In more of a ânovelâ format:
âStop.
Please.
Godâ
Just stop.â
Youâre generally not going to want to utilize the open space the paragraph breaks give you when writing a story, but that doesnât mean they canât still be effective.
Assuming this is internal dialogue, the short one-word lines give a firm stop in between each word, and only add to the evident level of desperation.
âStop. Please. Godâjust stop.â
Still gets the point across, but especially in more climactic, emotional scenesâthe first one is probably a better bet.
Thereâs more, as there always isâbut thisâll give you a nice overview and introduction on utilizing paragraph breaks! Just donât forget to write paragraphs like you write scentancesâvary the length and the structure.
Keep long paragraphs for description, shorter ones for more action-heavy pieces.
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ALRIGHT FANFICTION WRITERS TIME FOR A LESSON ABOUTÂ PARAGRAPHS
I read a lot of fanfiction to escape real life. And while I know I shouldnât complain some thing that irks me is when writers donât apply by a few paragraph rules, that make your work a heck of a lot easier to read.Â
Firstly double space your paragraphâs because it makes them a ton easier to read. (Wattpad and Tumbler do this naturally unless you are on a phone, above is an example of double space)Â
Next please break your paragraphs at appropriate times. Nothing is more annoying than trying to read a fanfiction that is all one paragraph. Break paragraphs when:
-Someone else speaks (even the same two people are talking to each other, you should still break)
- When something new happens. (Walking to school, but if a car is going to zip past and itâs important to the story cause they break their leg or something, break)
- When a the scene changes (If you are going from one day to another or one place to another break the paragraphs)
- When someone new enters (If we care about them at all give them their own paragraph)Â
- For dramatic effect. (One sentence paragraphs are a lot of fun to add drama to a scene. Like a one sentence horror story)
Basically play around with your writing style but please, break your paragraphs.
