Paragraphs

Officially: “A distinct section of a piece of writing, usually dealing with a single theme and indicated by a new line, indentation, or numbering.”

This doesn’t tell you much. Paragraph length varies widely by the writer, as anybody who reads widely already knows.

Nietzsche wrote in sentence-long paragraphs.

Sometimes using a one word paragraph helps you say what you want to say.

I saw a book that was all one paragraph, another one in which paragraphs ran a page or more. To paraphrase Einstein, a paragraph should be as long as it needs to be but no longer.

Paragraphs are important because they help the writer communicate. Most people I think use paragraphs of different lengths. I always tried to vary my paragraphs.

Short paragraphs speed the reader along faster. Long paragraphs slow the reader down. Using too many short paragraphs gives a choppy aspect to the work and may interfere with narrative drive. People remember the first part of a paragraph and the end of the paragraph. Therefore, important ideas should be first and last, less important in the middle. If you want to bury an idea, put it in the middle.  

There’s no rule. Just do what seems right to you. Try it and see how if feels if you’re not sure. You can change it later.

NEXT: CHAPTERS.