Write Better: Tips and tricks

Making Paragraphs

IE: paragraphs aid in creating tone and pace.

In the above example, the egg's fall was a bang-bang play. The narrator (and by extension, the reader) has hardly any time to react. Everything is happening at once, and quickly.

Periods, commas, semi-colons, and line-breaks all serve to give the reader a pause (the same way a Chapter often acts as a stopping point for a moment or a lunch break). The length of that pause varies depending on what you used. You can use that timing to your advantage, as I talked about in the chapter on basic pacing.

Group for cohesion.

It could be a theme or a set of actions. Maybe a description or an idea or a fleeting thought. We've all seen these paragraphs. Open your favorite story and you'll find them in droves. One paragraph details the monster, another the sunrise. Maybe one paragraph is dedicated to a summary of the MC's travels from the crime scene (current scene) to his hotel room (where the next relevant scene takes place).

For example:

Jackson Makebelieve was everything Mariah imagined in a man: tall, handsome, and currently holding in his possession a very thick wallet. Tapping the leather bi-fold with a touch of impatience, he sat wedged between his companions like a lone, sober wolf among cocks. Where his mouth remained pursed in dogged weariness, his friends hooted and clawed at the performers' heels.

"Dalia. Dalia!"

Mariah turned her head at the sound of her stage-name.

A good way to start grouping is to ask yourself what the point of the paragraph is. Here, the point is to introduce Jackson. We draw attention to him by setting him apart from his friends. This is just an example, so I'm not going to invent three or four more sentences to go with it, but you get the point.

Story within a story? Time flashing back or forward? Use a break to begin.

Again, this just cuts down on confusion for the reader, and the paragraph is an excellent way to help signal a time shift (but obviously, don't just rely on a paragraph to transition from the modern day to the past; you'll need other cues).

Break when you've gone on too long. [also a sign you may need to edit]

It is very hard to stay focused on massive walls of text with no breaks. If you find yourself needing a break when you're writing or reading it over, there's a chance your reader needed one five sentences ago. Maybe someone's more invested in your story than you are, but there's many more people reading than that one shining star. So give your average readers a break. You'll likely instinctively know when you've gone on too long. A simple break can bring a lot of refreshment if that's the case!

For example:

I don't want to type a long example here, but think about when another character is telling a story about something, say, how the magical unicorn horn came into their possession. Their story is one cohesive unit, but if it's very long, you might need to break it up to relieve the reader's eyes. One or two paragraphs. Where you choose to break it depends on what you "point" is. Maybe the first paragraph is about what the unicorn horn is and what they were doing when they found it.

And the second paragraph talks about what the character is now doing because they have a unicorn horn stashed in their backpack. It's up to you! Sometimes it can be obvious; other times you may just need to find that spot where you read out loud and have to pause for a breath!

HOW LONG ARE PARAGRAPHS IN FICTION?

About 5-6 sentences if you're excluding those one-liners, zingers, stunners, etc, but really they can be any length. Let's say we're just talking about an average figure. Depending on the genre and age group you're writing for, you might find that 3-4 sentences or 7-9 is more appropriate. You might find that word count also plays a role.

7 sentences * avg. 11 words per sentence = 77 words

7 sentences*avg. 15 words per sentence=105 words

BUT THERE IS ONE IMPORTANT THING TO NOTE:

PARAGRAPHS (and their sentences) SHOULD BE VARIED.

This helps pacing. This helps catch and keep your reader. The varied, unpredictable shift from 3 sentences to one to seven and down to four is what keeps the page interesting to look at and read. It's harder for the eye (and reader) to get bored with all that movement. Your paragraphs should not all be 9 sentences long. Have one with 80 words, another with 130.

As the story progresses you will start to see what your average looks like, and can visually see the paragraphs that go very far above and below that number.