What are your paragraph rules?

[LukasGrey]

So, I know there are a ton of conventions about using paragraphs. I've had a ton of education about them in my lifetime, but they also seem to be one of those things that get used with very little consistency.

As a high schooler (way too long ago), I was taught that there should be this stupid six sentence structure...

When I got to college, I actually got graded down for using it, with the instruction being that dynamic writing should not be formulaic.

In later writing courses I brought the question up and the answer I got was pretty much, "Definitely when you change subjects, but use them mostly where it looks good so your reader isn't staring at a block of text!"

In fiction, the rules get even more fluid, so I was curious what internal rules everyone uses?

 

[CarlusMagnus]

"Definitely when you change subjects, but use them mostly where it looks good so your reader isn't staring at a block of text!"

That.

Except for dialogue—for which there really are some rules.

 

[oggbashan]

I recommend shorter paragraphs when writing for Literotica instead of for publication in print.

Depending on the device a reader uses, any longer paragraphs can fill a whole screen (or several screens).

Don't write like my story Breathless Stargazing.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

When it looks right. Some of mine are longer than others, but then I have short ones all the way through. It depends on what's coming next. Can I squeeze onto the end of the paragraph or will it become its own.

For lit. you want to break up the text and not necessarily by subject matter. As said before, looking a wall of text will turn off reader faster than horseshit on their shoes.

 

[ElectricBlue]

"Definitely when you change subjects, but use them mostly where it looks good so your reader isn't staring at a block of text!"

In fiction, the rules get even more fluid, so I was curious what internal rules everyone uses?

Here on Lit it seems to be consistent advice to keep paragraphs reasonably short, for readability on small screens - give the eye some space and avoid the dreaded "wall of text."

I break mine on a shift of emphasis in the action, or with a subject change. Dialogue follows basic rules: new speaker, new para.

I've just looked at my typical paragraph length in my latest - two paragraphs, both around 110 words (twice as long as this paragraph). It almost becomes a visual thing for me; if a paragraph looks like it's too long, I'll break it, just to give it white space. That way, also, I can give a single key sentence emphasis, by giving the sentence its own paragraph.

 

[SecondCircle]

Well it's true that paragraphs shouldn't be too long because of reader fatigue. Nor should they be too short, I think, just because it strikes me as odd. But I suppose very short ones here and there are acceptable. I just judge by the way it looks to me in final format when reading.

Somewhere in some distant time ago, I was given the impression that a paragraph made up of "detail" sentences all supporting the main "idea" of the paragraph. Each sentence is more or less a cell in the overall organ, and the paragraph is the organ of the overall body of work, the organism. I guess.

I think this pertains to more formal type writing, but it isn't a terrible thought for fiction either. For me it makes sense that a paragraph include enough sentences to get the Idea of said paragraph across without being so unnecessarily long that it is hard on a reader's eyes. If I notice one going to long, I'll do a 2 Second scan of the sentences to find a break, in where the sentences I break up seem to fit together.

But really, as long as you avoid wall-of-text, I don't think it matters a whole lot.

 

[BuckyDuckman]

I just assume that paragraphs have a main sentence and everything else in that paragraph supports that main sentence. New ideas/thoughts deserve a new paragraph. Overly simplistic, I know, but it still works for me. My paragraphs vary in length and I'm not going to worry about trying to fit a formula.

 

[SimonDoom]

Interestingly, the most "favorited" author by far on this site -- silkstockingslover -- as a rule seems to use unusually short paragraphs. Most are only two or three sentences and some are no more than one sentence.

My perception is that, in general, readers here like a style with short paragraphs.

 

[Green_Knight]

The problem I have is that because Lit uses a font that's not ideal for reading a lot of text, it insists on the space between paragraphs so a succession of short paragraphs means that the text is scattered down the page like a spray of machine gun bullets. It does mean, though, that you can get away with slightly longer paragraphs.

I invariably stick to one theme per paragraph; the break helps the reader to understand that you're moving on.

 

[TxRad]

When I first came to the AH, the answer to this was 6 to 8 lines at most. No wall of text that way. Otherwise have at it.

 

[lustatopia]

Short, concise paragraphs that define tightly managed thoughts are the rule when posting online. Easy to read.

Edit out all superfluous digressions if your goal is to merely communicate.

If you want to make art. Fucking do whatever you want. No Rulz.

If you are publishing a paper-bound book the decaying old school still applies loosely. Sort of. Maybe.

Reading digital text is more and more defined by 140 characters rule of twit-fuck and iPhone sexting. We are all becoming dumb and dumber because of the intertubes. But what can you do?

Adapt any way you please. Invent. Follow your instincts. There are no rules in this Brave New World. Evolution based upon the rules of natural selection apply to ideas as well as genomes.

Here's to wishing you the best of reproductive luck, my friend! Cheers.

 

[tomlitilia]

Ideally, I like a paragraph to have an introduction, an explanatory midldle, and a concluding end. That can sometimes be achieved with two sentenses. And sometimes it gets really long, so I split it up to two just for that reason. So far from all my paragraphs follow this pattern. But I think it's at least worth thinking about each paragraph as a mini-story that moves the greater story forward.

 

[LukasGrey]

So most people are pretty fluid on this, which is nice to see. I end up using the gut feeling rule. One thing that is interesting to me to see is the difference between how stuff comes up in my Word document versus how they end up ultimately printing.

On Lit the paragraphs lose indentation and a forced line break is added. In the Reader the information is condensed.

I started to worry about this as I was looking in the Word document and found myself doing a lot of one, maybe two line paragraphs and being from an academic background started to worry that my paragraphs were getting too machine gun like.

Once you see it printed though, things start to look more compressed.

Also, a point that many brought up is that dialogue splits things up fast, and the way I write tends to be dialogue heavy.

One point that came out many times, is how the internet is changing out writing rules when it comes to paragraphs. What other writing conventions do you all see that seem to be changing with the times?

 

[oggbashan]

...
One point that came out many times, is how the internet is changing out writing rules when it comes to paragraphs. What other writing conventions do you all see that seem to be changing with the times?

Academic monographs are becoming jargon heavy with many more references.

Pre-1939 most academic monographs could be read by anyone with a degree in any subject. They were written to inform the academic world of whatever discipline.

By the late 1960s the monographs became more specific to the particular discipline. If you didn't know the subject in depth the monograph was probably meaningless.

By the 1990s each discipline expected the writer to use words that had meanings only for the initiated in that field, and buzz-phrases/sentences that were almost required elements.

Now it seems that the more obscure you can make the writing the better i.e. more 'scientific' the monograph is. Writing for a general audience is seen as too simplistic.

They seem to have lost the ability to express ideas and concepts in easily understood language, or if they do, they are condemned as 'populist'.

 

[LukasGrey]

Academic monographs are becoming jargon heavy with many more references.

Pre-1939 most academic monographs could be read by anyone with a degree in any subject. They were written to inform the academic world of whatever discipline.

By the late 1960s the monographs became more specific to the particular discipline. If you didn't know the subject in depth the monograph was probably meaningless.

By the 1990s each discipline expected the writer to use words that had meanings only for the initiated in that field, and buzz-phrases/sentences that were almost required elements.

Now it seems that the more obscure you can make the writing the better i.e. more 'scientific' the monograph is. Writing for a general audience is seen as too simplistic.

They seem to have lost the ability to express ideas and concepts in easily understood language, or if they do, they are condemned as 'populist'.

This is actually a really good example. I remember when Wikipedia (I know...) first started getting really popular. I really enjoyed going there and reading about stuff, just spending hours reading about stuff I was interested in.

Now, and this might be because I'm getting old and stupid, I go and read something and more and more find myself going, I know how to access an academic journal...

Gone is the easy to read and understand article that boils things down to the non-expert!

 

[sr71plt]

What is taught in school is (was) for nonfiction essays, not fiction.

In fiction, the primary concern is to keep dialogue by separate speakers in separate paragraphs, and if dialogue by the same speaker has to go to another paragraph, make clear that it's still that speaker.

Beyond that, you don't need a topic sentence or a summary sentence in fiction or even to keep the complete discussion on one issue in one paragraph. Vary the length of paragraphs, don't go over twenty lines often in print or ten lines often in e-copy.

And by all means, don't follow my example, because my paragraphs invariably are two long. I'm used to writing for print.

 

[Hypoxia]

Desert Rat Harry Oliver sez:

I never did learn how to spell, – but I did learn the typesetter's rule, – "Set up type as long as you can hold your breath without turning blue in the face, then put in a comma. When you gape, put in a semicolon, and when you want to sneeze, that's the time to make a paragraph."

 

[Bramblethorn]

Now it seems that the more obscure you can make the writing the better i.e. more 'scientific' the monograph is. Writing for a general audience is seen as too simplistic.

They seem to have lost the ability to express ideas and concepts in easily understood language, or if they do, they are condemned as 'populist'.

Too true. When I was doing my doctorate back around the turn of the millennium, I wrote an appendix to explain some key concepts for people outside the field who might be interested (especially important since it was about using methods from one field to assist in a different area).

My advisor thought it was a bad idea and wanted me to remove it. I stood my ground and left it in.

One of the referees said "thanks for the appendix, I would not have understood it otherwise". I was SORELY tempted to underline that part and copy it back to my supervisor...

It's not just in formal writing, too. I see a lot of young scientists putting effort into science communication - using social media and public speaking to share and explain their work for general audiences. But the Old Guard is quite dismissive of that sort of work.

 

[oggbashan]

Too true. When I was doing my doctorate back around the turn of the millennium, I wrote an appendix to explain some key concepts for people outside the field who might be interested (especially important since it was about using methods from one field to assist in a different area).
...

During the major part of my working life, if I wrote reports I was expected to start with a one page double spaced Executive Summary which included the full recommendations or a short version of them.

Many senior managers didn't read beyond that first page. It was enough for them to make the decision.

When I changed career, I continued to write reports like that. My Director sent me in her place to attend a two day conference. My report was twenty pages long but the one page summary was enough to tell her that her decision to send me was right. She would have wasted two days if she had gone herself. She circulated my one page around the other senior managers as an example of how to write reports.

They didn't change. They still wrote jargon-filled monumental documents in impenetrable language.

The downside? She sent them all to me to produce a one page summary.

 

[Bramblethorn]

They didn't change. They still wrote jargon-filled monumental documents in impenetrable language.

The downside? She sent them all to me to produce a one page summary.

No good deed goes unpunished.

It's easy to forget the distinction between "things I care about" and "things my reader cares about", and even easier to forget "things that are obvious to me" vs "things that are understandable by somebody who hasn't been immersed in this for months". But I do try.

My latest report summary was simply "this project is slightly behind schedule due to software issues (now resolved), otherwise all good".

 

[49greg]

My first attempt at a story here was rejected for several reasons, there was also a suggestion that my paragraphs were too long.

Ever since then I keep to small ones. Definitely when the subject changes, but also to keep the text from being in a block. With the narrow width in Lit, it doesn't take much to have a huge block of text.

I try to keep to a two to four sentence paragraph, depending on sentence length. If I go over it's because the subject matter would be disrupted by a break.

 

[SolarRay]

I know the page count question has been beaten to death, but I searched for a bit and couldn't find anyone's thoughts on this specific question.

The story I'm writing at the moment is more dialogue heavy than my usual stuff. (In a good way. Lots of justified, sexy flirting.) However, I am conscious of the fact that speaker changes cause a lot of extra line breaks. I have my fair share of longer stories, but I'm concerned that the addition of this dialogue will artificially inflate my page count in a way that will turn away some readers. Should I be? Does anyone have any evidence that literotica accounts for the influence of dialogue when it determines page count, rather than going strictly by a words-per-page rule as many of us use to calculate an estimate?

 

[ElectricBlue]

I know the page count question has been beaten to death, but I searched for a bit and couldn't find anyone's thoughts on this specific question.

The story I'm writing at the moment is more dialogue heavy than my usual stuff. (In a good way. Lots of justified, sexy flirting.) However, I am conscious of the fact that speaker changes cause a lot of extra line breaks. I have my fair share of longer stories, but I'm concerned that the addition of this dialogue will artificially inflate my page count in a way that will turn away some readers. Should I be? Does anyone have any evidence that literotica accounts for the influence of dialogue when it determines page count, rather than going strictly by a words-per-page rule as many of us use to calculate an estimate?

Don't pander to perceptions of what readers like and don't like. Some won't read more than a page, some won't read less than ten pages.

If you write dialogue rich stories, just write dialogue rich stories. As soon as any writer panders to this or that you're on a fool's errand, I reckon. Write YOUR style, not to some "ideal reader". There is no such beast.

The page length is always around 3,750 words. So if you have lots of line breaks with dialogue, your page will physically display longer, but the word count will still be the same, so the page count will still be the same.

 

[SimonDoom]

I know the page count question has been beaten to death, but I searched for a bit and couldn't find anyone's thoughts on this specific question.

The story I'm writing at the moment is more dialogue heavy than my usual stuff. (In a good way. Lots of justified, sexy flirting.) However, I am conscious of the fact that speaker changes cause a lot of extra line breaks. I have my fair share of longer stories, but I'm concerned that the addition of this dialogue will artificially inflate my page count in a way that will turn away some readers. Should I be? Does anyone have any evidence that literotica accounts for the influence of dialogue when it determines page count, rather than going strictly by a words-per-page rule as many of us use to calculate an estimate?

Each speaker should be given his/her own paragraph. Don't worry about whether that will make your story spill out onto another page. The cost of bunching up different speakers' words into a single paragraph rather than giving them their own will outweigh any benefit you might get.

 

[Weird Harold]

I know the page count question has been beaten to death, but I searched for a bit and couldn't find anyone's thoughts on this specific question.

The story I'm writing at the moment is more dialogue heavy than my usual stuff. (In a good way. Lots of justified, sexy flirting.) However, I am conscious of the fact that speaker changes cause a lot of extra line breaks. I have my fair share of longer stories, but I'm concerned that the addition of this dialogue will artificially inflate my page count in a way that will turn away some readers. Should I be? Does anyone have any evidence that literotica accounts for the influence of dialogue when it determines page count, rather than going strictly by a words-per-page rule as many of us use to calculate an estimate?

Lit computes page breaks on a character count. Somewhere around 14K or 15K. That works out to around 3,767 words +/-~400. The added invisible characters (paragraph breaks) inherent in properly formatted dialogue will have some effect on page breaks, but generally not enough to move a page break outside of the +/- ~400 words tolerance. Stylistic choices like using longer words and verbose descriptions will usually have more effect than properly formatted dialogue.