where do i end paragraphs

[twonoki]

hi new writer here and im working on this project i had in my head since i was 10 years old i advanced the characters over the years its a ninja story with alot of drama i think its a great story but im not that good people have a hard time reading my work not that i dont know english i do but im not sure where to end paragraphs i need to become a better writer ill start with knowing when to start new paragraphs any advice

[Forlorn Serpent]

I found these two answers on a writing forum. Maybe they will help you.

Spoiler

What paragraphs accomplish

Text that isn't split up into paragraphs is often referred to as a "wall of text" and can be very difficult to read. Paragraphs are used for a few reasons: Organization, pacing, and to give the reader a chance to pause, similarly to what the end of a sentence does.

Paragraphs exist to group sentences on the same topic together. For example, sentences that all explain why a tree was planted might be grouped into a single paragraph, then sentences describing the tree might be a second paragraph.

However, when paragraphs get too long, it's usually a good idea to break those up, too.

Some writers have a habit of writing paragraphs of roughly equal length. This generally will put the reader to sleep, so it's a good idea to vary paragraph length occasionally. You can think of a paragraph as analogous to a sentence, but instead of being made up of words, a paragraph's components are sentences. And just as sentences have their own rhythm, so do paragraphs.

Dialog

"Dialog is a special case," said Mary. "The convention in English is that, within a single paragraph, there's only one character speaking."

Joe thought for a minute, then asked, "does that mean that when a new character is speaking, there should be a new paragraph?"

"Yes," said Mary.

Formatting

Paragraph breaks should be visually clear. There should either be white space in between paragraphs, or each paragraph's first line should be indented on the left.

On the web, it's generally easiest to type an extra return between each paragraph to create white space. There are solutions within HTML and CSS that will accomplish the same thing, however.

Spoiler

Camera Shot. In Zen in the Art of Writing, Ray Bradbury offers this simple and useful idea: Think of each paragraph as a single camera shot in a movie. Every time the shot changes (e.g. change in camera angle), start a new paragraph.

Character tempo. This is a more complex idea. At what "tempo" is the character experiencing the events in the text? If the character is experiencing events very rapidly, use shorter paragraphs. If the character is experiencing events more slowly, use longer paragraphs.

Study any of James Patterson's Alex Cross novels. In most scenes, things are happening rapidly. The paragraphs are short. But in the scenes at home, the paragraphs are generally longer.

In a way, these two guidelines are more or less equivalent. They each have a similar effect on the pace that the reader experiences.

But they feel different to me when I apply them. When I use "camera shot" trick, I'm watching the scene as a writer or director. So it can feel (to me, at least) kinda writerly. There's a little danger there.

When I use the "character tempo" trick, I'm experiencing the scene as the character. It feels more organic.

[Crystal (BobbyjoeX)]

minimum 5 sentences... you learn this in grade 1 english

would asked an ACTUAL writer on the sites about novel format cause there are rules about the character's speech but for now... 5 sentences

[twonoki]

ok thx both of you helped

[shishi02]

Hi, you can google these keywords: "when to make a new paragraph saidsimple" that topic is about making paragraphs in a story.

When I was young my mom told me these tips on how to make a paragraph. She said is to start forming ideas first and put it in a 'bullet point'. I will show you what it looks like.

Spoiler

Apple
- it's a common fruit
- it's generally sweet
- Apples are said to be symbol of evil by superstitious people in the old times
- it is regardless an intriguing fruit

When you get rid of the bullet points that are the "-" they look like paragraphs right? Almost, you need to fill up more information supporting the bullet point information. In one of the sites, this structure is called:

Spoiler

topic
-subtopic 1
-subtopic 2
-subtopic 3
-subtopic 4

Focusing on subtopic 1, how to fill it with supporting sentences regarding the "the common fruit". Before you write it, think of the ideas about it in more bullet points like this.

Spoiler

It is a common fruit
--they're one of the fruits that stands in the midst of eras
--the apples nowadays are now can be distributed in the world to make them common.
--the world trade made it possible for the survivability of the apples

Almost there, now that you put your information, you need to put them into sync or linking sentences from --sub subtopic1 and --sub subtopic2 to make them flow.

Spoiler

they's one of the fruits that stand in the midst of eras. They might have extinct during BC era, or a medieval era. But they didn't, they survive by the human farmers, animals and insects that made their fruiting cycle continue. The apples nowadays are now can be distributed in the world to make them common...

I added two supporting sentences for the sub subtopic1 and they are connected to each other. It can be more than one but it might be too hard for you. A few supporting sentences is good enough.

So applying it in a story, usually paragraphs are use to tell when it is a dialogue (characters talking), setting a new place and skipping time. For example I am making a story up with these ideas I explained about:

Spoiler

Sally is excited today. It is the day where the setup of her Wifi that will be done in the afternoon. She woke up early and get herself dressed up. That was unlike her, but she is too happy not to notice her little changes.

It is 10 in the morning, she finally manage to start another manga panel for her comic project that was partnered with someone in the Internet. She knows that she will be very busy later in the afternoon. She got to make a storyboard draft finish before 4 pm.

Suddenly there is a ring on her phone. She pick it up and answered it.

"Hello?" She said. "Sally speaking"

"Hey Sally, Amanda here!" Amanda answered. "How are you today?"

"I am fine thank you." Sally smiled. "Is there an appointment today?"

"Yes, can I come over to your place around 2 to 2:30 pm today?" Amanda asked.

"Yes, I am available on that time." Sally wrote the time down on her paper. "I will wait for you here."

"Alright Sally, see you later." Amanda said. "Good bye"

"Goodbye Amanda" Sally said. And the phone tone went flat.

Looks like her day is going to be this busy today.

I know you can make a story up. I hope the example can give you ideas. I'm not that good either. If anything, google helps me made the story. Go try it yourself. The most important is make use of your imagination!

[twonoki]

Hi, you can google these keywords: "when to make a new paragraph saidsimple" that topic is about making paragraphs in a story.

When I was young my mom told me these tips on how to make a paragraph. She said is to start forming ideas first and put it in a 'bullet point'. I will show you what it looks like.

Spoiler

Apple
- it's a common fruit
- it's generally sweet
- Apples are said to be symbol of evil by superstitious people in the old times
- it is regardless an intriguing fruit

When you get rid of the bullet points that are the "-" they look like paragraphs right? Almost, you need to fill up more information supporting the bullet point information. In one of the sites, this structure is called:

Spoiler

topic
-subtopic 1
-subtopic 2
-subtopic 3
-subtopic 4

Focusing on subtopic 1, how to fill it with supporting sentences regarding the "the common fruit". Before you write it, think of the ideas about it in more bullet points like this.

Spoiler

It is a common fruit
--they're one of the fruits that stands in the midst of eras
--the apples nowadays are now can be distributed in the world to make them common.
--the world trade made it possible for the survivability of the apples

Almost there, now that you put your information, you need to put them into sync or linking sentences from --sub subtopic1 and --sub subtopic2 to make them flow.

Spoiler

they's one of the fruits that stand in the midst of eras. They might have extinct during BC era, or a medieval era. But they didn't, they survive by the human farmers, animals and insects that made their fruiting cycle continue. The apples nowadays are now can be distributed in the world to make them common...

I added two supporting sentences for the sub subtopic1 and they are connected to each other. It can be more than one but it might be too hard for you. A few supporting sentences is good enough.

So applying it in a story, usually paragraphs are use to tell when it is a dialogue (characters talking), setting a new place and skipping time. For example I am making a story up with these ideas I explained about:

Spoiler

Sally is excited today. It is the day where the setup of her Wifi that will be done in the afternoon. She woke up early and get herself dressed up. That was unlike her, but she is too happy not to notice her little changes.

It is 10 in the morning, she finally manage to start another manga panel for her comic project that was partnered with someone in the Internet. She knows that she will be very busy later in the afternoon. She got to make a storyboard draft finish before 4 pm.

Suddenly there is a ring on her phone. She pick it up and answered it.

"Hello?" She said. "Sally speaking"

"Hey Sally, Amanda here!" Amanda answered. "How are you today?"

"I am fine thank you." Sally smiled. "Is there an appointment today?"

"Yes, can I come over to your place around 2 to 2:30 pm today?" Amanda asked.

"Yes, I am available on that time." Sally wrote the time down on her paper. "I will wait for you here."

"Alright Sally, see you later." Amanda said. "Good bye"

"Goodbye Amanda" Sally said. And the phone tone went flat.

Looks like her day is going to be this busy today.

I know you can make a story up. I hope the example can give you ideas. I'm not that good either. If anything, google helps me made the story. Go try it yourself. The most important is make use of your imagination!
[

i understand now your examples are like a quick school this really helped thanks

[shishi02]

Post your works in here if you need someone to show your improvements. If you got lost on your paragraphs somehow, there's a trick for "skim reading" the paragraphs. Like the story I made up and I let's say I'm fairly lazy today, I will read it like this:

Spoiler

Sally is excited today.
It is 10 in the morning, ...
Suddenly, there is a ring on the phone
-dialogues-
-dialogues-
-dialogues-
Etc...

The first sentence in the paragraph will decipher what your subtopic is about. It is extremely important especially to your proof readers and editors. That is pretty much the reason why one of the reasons why the piece is somehow overlooked by anyone if they only want a quick glance. To make a novel work is straight up to the point information and catching attention isn't easy. So yeah, don't get work up if anyone didn't want to read your work. It's just means you can evolve more.

[Coryn]

*takes a hit*

Simple answer: It depends.


A paragraph is exactly a long as it needs to be. It can be five sentences, it could be five words, it could be one word.

It's purpose is to convey a thing. Once that thing is conveyed, start a new paragraph. So start a new paragraph when switching from the actions of one character to another, or when a different character begins to speak.

It'll be more beneficial to look up when a new paragraph should start, then to concentrate on some fixed length. Your second grade English teacher doesn't know what they're talking about. None of them do. They're just parroting what their second grade English teachers told them. English has very few rules. Just ask Shakespeare, who straight made up half the words you use today. Worry about the flow of the paragraphs, and you'll never need to ask this question again.

[S8N]

Adding onto Coryn, there is a clear cut difference between technical writing and creative writing.

The most important thing a writer must grasp is a solid understanding of grammar and sentence structure. From there, the bounds are honestly endless. As long as a writer knows how and why they structured something, words... length... nothing really is locked in place. Shorter paragraphs are there to add emphasis. It's better off to stick with longer paragraphs when explaining something, or if a series of actions are taking place.

Sometimes, it just uses a writer's intuition to know where the paragraph should be broken off.

[50 Words for Paipis]

Wherever you want.

But for your purposes you probably want to break it where someone new speaks, where the topic changes, where it shifts to a different time or place.

You might start with where sentences start and end, though.

[MahluaandMilk]

minimum 5 sentences... you learn this in grade 1 english

would asked an ACTUAL writer on the sites about novel format cause there are rules about the character's speech but for now... 5 sentences

You do realize that's actually terrible advice, right? It may be what they tell you in grade 1, but it's not very conducive to writing well. At that point they're just trying to force you to write so the teachers can determine your understanding of sentence structure.

Basically, I agree with what the others are saying. Every paragraph has a point. Find that point, and make it, and that's your paragraph.

Now for me to harp on a point I cannot stress enough all through this entire site: style comes naturally. Every style is different, so you will probably never know if there is a "right way" to do it because it probably doesn't exist. You determine your flow, you write what works for what you convey, and you learn from what you don't like about it. If people criticize something, try to see it through their eyes and see if you're reaching your audience. If not, shake it up and don't be afraid to play around with it.

In my case, I have a harder time with determining chapter length than paragraph length, but it's the same deal. It ends when you feel that it has accomplished its point.

[Crystal (BobbyjoeX)]

ok... sh!t advice, im not an english major, never giving advice again