#paragraphs*

[writingwithfolklore]

Writing Foundations: Creating Paragraphs

                You can have the best story in the world, but if it’s all in one chunk on the page, you may struggle to find people willing to read it. To break it up, you need to know where and when to create new paragraphs.

Every new paragraph starts with an indent. So, to create a new paragraph, hit the enter key, and then the tab key, which is typically on the left side of the Q and either says TAB or looks like two stacked arrows pointing in separate directions.

So when do you start a new paragraph?

1. Anytime a new character speaks

The most obvious place to break up your paragraph is when a new character is speaking. Take this example.

“Hi John,” said Mary as she walked into the room. John was reading a book, and tucked a bookmark between the pages as she sat next to him. “how was work?” “It was good,” she replied, “but my boss really didn’t like the draft I sent her.” “That’s too bad, I thought it was some of your better work.”

Vs.

                “Hi John,” said Mary as she walked into the room. John was reading a book, and tucked a bookmark between the pages as she sat next to him.                 “How was work?” He asked.                 “It was good,” she replied, “but my boss really didn’t like the draft I sent her.”                 “That’s too bad, I thought it was some of your better work.”

See the difference? So you make a new line whenever a new character is speaking. In the case of Mary speaking twice, “It was good…” “but my boss…” we keep that in the same paragraph. Whereas when John speaks after Mary, it becomes its own paragraph.

The only time you may split the same character speaking is if they have a large chunk of dialogue. In that case, you can split their dialogue according to the next rule.

2. Any new idea

This isn’t necessarily a hard rule like the last one is. We have a lot of room to make interesting creative decisions when breaking up description or action. For the most part, though, you’ll want to break up your paragraph whenever there’s a new thought or idea. So:

                A thin plastic film coated the room, making the furniture gleam in the sunlight streaming through the windows. On her right sat a couch upholstered in ivy coloured fabric, untouched by time.                 Anna swept her fingers through her hair, chewing on her lip. She watched Rick out of the corner of her eye, “What are you thinking?”                 The detective’s expression was completely neutral, though he clutched his pen tightly in one fist. In his other hand was a notebook, three questions written across it in blocky text, 1. Why are all the clocks stopped at 5:32? 2. Where’s the murder weapon? 3. Why did my wife leave me? ��Same as the others,” he said, tapping his pen against the last question, “the plastic wrap killer.”

So in this example we go from describing the room, to describing an action Anna is doing, to describing the detective, and then his notes. These are all separate ideas, so we can split them into their own paragraphs.

                As well, as long as it’s about the same character or within the same ‘idea’, description can be paired with dialogue. You can see Anna’s dialogue comes after the description of her. You can totally do this, or you can split it into its own paragraph if you’d like. It looks natural where it is because Anna is the subject of the paragraph, and she’s also the one speaking.

                In the case of the detective speaking, his action comes between dialogue. Also allowed, since the detective is the subject of that paragraph.

3. Any new location or skip in time

Similar to the last, if the scene starts outside, when they move inside it’s a new paragraph. If they go into a new room, get into a car, etc. Any time they change location, it starts a new paragraph. Same for a skip in time. If you need to go from day to night, new paragraph.

Kayde looked anxiously up at the looming oak doors. The windows were dark, layered in years of dust and grime. It’s now or never, they thought. They pushed through the doors and into the foyer. Kayde seemed to wait there for hours, and by the time someone came to greet them, it was already dark outside.

4. For style/effect

                This is one of my favourite parts of writing. Once you nail when you should be splitting your paragraphs, you can start to play with splitting them for effect. I do this quite a lot. Take this example:

                She fixed an ugly stare at herself in the mirror, long locks of brown hair hanging in front of her eyes. A pair of sharp scissors gleamed at the edge of the glass, pinched between her fingers. Dania raised the scissors to her hair.                 Snip.                 A lock fell towards the sink, the edges rough and imperfect.                 Snip.                 Another.                 She chopped and hacked away at her hair until it was clumped in an unsightly pile over the drain of the sink, her head round and covered in patches where she didn’t quite get close enough to her skin.                 She was finally free.

                While the cutting of her hair could be in the same paragraph, it gives it more drama and effect when it’s split. Any time a character is going through something shocking or emotional, maybe try playing around with the paragraph to see if you can add some additional drama to it.

                Paragraphs can be as long or short as you’d like them to be, as long as you have intention behind it!

[bhnsby]

Something so great about scotts character is he’s perfect for two different niches. All Stars scott is for the people who like a rat boy malewife dumbass who eats dirt and is a bit mischievous and devious that is also a source of comic relief, and revenge scott is for people who want him to call people slurs and spit on them!

[courtingwonder]

How Sentence Length Affects The Readability, Rhythm, And Aesthetic of Writing

[tender-somethings]

the last chapter

[stoicmike]

Did I write something? Sorry, I was just inking out loud… -- Michael Lipsey

[machetelanding]

[sweetperversiongirl]

If anyone here hasn't read it yet - I recommend it to everyone. https://archiveofourown.org/works/33841843/chapters/84136867

[troybarnesbabygirlconfirmed]

said i hc annie edison as a lesbian 3692 killed 590 injured. i have been doxxed 801 times all with different addresses and 5372 bot accounts are in my dms sending me the same exact paragraph. woke up this morning to find security camera footage of me changing posted on reddit and i’ve been expelled from my school. also got an email i will sentenced to death by hanging.

[notyourflowerywriter]

I like dancing in the rain because it soothes my soul that has become dry. I would rather get soaked completely than not at all or even worse, partially. Life has so much to offer in so less time that sometimes I'm like 'nevermind'. Everything around us has made us into who we are now and if we hadn't allowed it to shape us, we would have turned out to be clueless and formless creatures. It was the act of surrendering our very being into the hands of what we call faith and love. Without it, I believe, hope would have developed a different meaning altogether. Hope would have remained just hope and not you walking to your home tired and exhausted, hoping to see the faces in the family or meeting your pet, whom you love so much that you missed them the entire day and having them around you relieved your tired frantic soul. Also, love is a gem that glistens the more you take care of it and embrace it even if it is slightly fractured on the edge because it's always the cut that makes a gem shine more than ever.

[bhnsby]

I know we as a community here all love deep characters and pondering what every characters actions means but can us weird people please have some two dimensional characters. I love Justin he might maybe maybe be my favourite character but I for the life of me can only justify liking him because he’s funny. Like there’s nothing else there what else does he have going for him. He’s just a little shit and i love him for that. I say we have more Justins in total drama

[eeeethesilly]

the longest thing i've ever written

Pip is so cute. Pip is so silly. I don't understand how cold and pathetic you fucking could be to hate pip. He already gets enough torture from the other kids, and he can't even rest in peace. He's such a cutie. He's a silly british guy who was left behind and forgotten in another timeline. If you hate pip, you basically hate cats and dogs. Pip is one of the silliest. If you hate pip, you should end your life. Your stages in life have clearly went to the very last point and your blood might as well be cold. If you hate pip, you're a fucking maggot. You're as annoying and useless as a mosquito flying around and biting me. You're a fucking burden. You deserve nothing if you hate pip. He gets tormented and you can't even show remorse for him? What the fuck is wrong with you? Are you like, okay? Did something hit your head? Did you not get treatment? I don't understand people who could ever hate pip, he does nothing wrong and is overall a punching bag. Pip is my son and I love him. He doesn't deserve anything wrong or negative. Pip is a sweetheart who is nothing but nice to people and you wanna go and say you hate him? You'd burn him? You're happy he's dead? I can't understand you. Are you on another planet? Did we watch the same show? Do you even watch south park or do you just take other peoples words? If you hate pip, you should fucking rot. You should burn. You're a disgusting person. I feel like you'd be the kind of person to pick on him if he was in school. He's nothing but a kind gentleman who wants nothing more than to treat others properly. He's a silly little guy. He deserves the world. I can't believe YOUR ass would go and say "I hate pip Im so happy he's dead" like wow, wow, you might as well be as fat as a discord mod or that guy who played world of warcraft so much he was able to practically glitch the game in that one episode. You're a terrible person with terrible thoughts, feelings, and have no purpose of living on this planet. You should mature. You're disgusting honestly. I can't believe how you'd decide that you'd go and comment that. I will spread yo cheeks little bro if i see you in these comments again. I feel like you'd be the type of person to sit at your computer all day on reddit eating chips. You're a disgusting person with absolutely no life. And I hope one day I hear news that you got hurt really badly. I hope one day you get one of your limbs cut off. I hope you get aids. I hope you get cancer. I wish every bad thing onto you. I wish the worst upon you. I hate every aspect of you and I hope your IP address gets leaked and your house gets nuked. I hope one day you get crushed to death just like my son did. I hope someone pisses on your grave. I hope nobody comes to your funeral. You know what? I hope you don't even get a funeral. I hope you just get left to rot and decompose wherever you died. I hope nobody ever misses you, and nobody will remember you. I hope someone says one day "God, I hated that guy so much. I'm so happy he's dead." Oh wait, that'll be me. I fucking HATE. YOU. And i wish the worst upon you. "Let people have opinions" not when they're negative about my son, my child. I hate every aspect of you. And I hope you perish and are tormented the worst way imaginable in hell. I hope one day you fucking rot. I hope you burn and survive. I hope you end up like the preschool teacher in South Park and can only beep on your machine for yes and no. I hope you'll be forgotten, and i hope nobody marries you. I hope you never get far enough in life and I hope you die early. I hope you die young. I hope you never get a spouse. i hate every section, every aspect, every part, I hate the blood that pumps in your veins, i hate everyone related to you, i hate your mom, i hate your dad, I hope one day, your bloodline disappears just like pip's did. I can't believe you'd really go on and hate on my son who did nothing wrong to you. And this is the longest thing i've EVER written without copy-paste.

[thepedanticbohemian]

From the blog of @ironinkpen

[x-hyuga-hinata-x]

Hi, I’m looking for a Rp-Partner that would like to play Sasuke / Itachi / Kakashi or Gaara.

I’d like to do something drama, fluff, romance, smut, action like, even though I’ve never tried action in an RP, as I used to only play band related rp’s before.

So if you’d enjoy playing any of them, please HMU. GMT timezone would be best. The rest we could talk about in a pm.

💜

[thethirdperspective]

I've felt helpless when I needed help but somehow when someone needed help,I was always there, there around the corner. I was always there to offer solutions,be a helping hand,share their sorrow. It's heartbreaking to witness this. It's heartbreaking to know that nobody could do nothing.

[tugmataludtodtalata]

ang lungkot. bakit kayo aalis?

ayokong marinig 'yong tunog ng packing tape habang inililigpit at ibinabalot niyo lahat ng inyong mga gamit. nagagalit ako kasi bakit kailangan pa itong mangyari. akala ko matagal na matagal na panahon tayong magkakasama. magkakatabi ang mga bahay. pero wala pa yatang tatlong taon, tuluyan na tayong maghihiwa-hiwalay. hindi na yata talaga kayo mapipigilan, wala na rin siguro akong magagawa kung gusto niyo nang lumisan. pinaka ayoko talaga 'yong problema sa pamilya. masakit masyado...

ang lungkot. ang lungkot-lungkot! alam kong sa paglayo niyong 'to, hindi lang pangungulila ang mamamayani kundi maging takot. takot sa kung ano pa ang mga mangyayari, kung ano-ano pa ba'ng mga sorpresang inihanda ng tadhana na gugulat sa akin.

oh, pa'no? mag-iingat kayo ah? hanggang sa susunod nating pagkikita!