On paragraph spacing
I was recently asked for advice about knowing when to start a new paragraph, so I thought I would compile all my knowledge on the subject into a post.
You should always start a new paragraph when
A new speaker is introduced
A new idea is introduced
The “camera” or focus shifts
Your reader needs a break or you want a longer pause than a comma, semicolon, or an em dash will grant you.
A lot of times, English teachers will tell their students that they need to have four to five (or more!) sentences per paragraph, and that’s a good general rule to have when you’re writing scholarly essays. However in prose, there are no rules for paragraph length! Make them as long or as short as you want (although, it’s a good rule of thumb to not make them super long because they get hard to read).
Really, when you break it down to its most essential, good writing is about varying the length of your sentences and paragraphs. It adds to the cadence of your writing and switches things up for your readers. You wouldn’t want an entire story of five-word sentences. Likewise, you wouldn’t want an entire story of one-sentence paragraphs.
Paragraph breaks should feel natural. If the topic changes, the paragraph should probably break. Generally, you should try to transition from one topic to the next using the last sentence of the previous paragraph, but this isn’t always necessary. It just depends on the context of your writing and subjects and what kind of voice you want your writing to have.
One last thing (this is by no means a grammar rule; it’s personal preference, and what I was taught while getting my undergraduate degree, so I believe it’s what most publishers are looking for): I don’t like to have dialogue at the end of a long paragraph. So if I’ve written a long expository paragraph delving into the character’s thoughts and then I want that character to say something, I’ll start a new paragraph and use a dialogue tag to make it clear to the reader who is speaking.
Beta readers should always be on the lookout for paragraph spacing. If something feels off, mark it and have a discussion with your author. If something feels off to you as the author, mark it and have your beta look at it. That’s what the partnership is there for!
