Ereri/Riren Boot Camp

Day 6: How to Write a Paragraph

par·a·graph

/ˈperəˌɡraf/

noun

1. a distinct section of a piece of writing, usually dealing with a single theme and indicated by a new line, indentation, or numbering.

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You may be wondering why I am here to teach all of you about paragraphs. Well, they're important. How you write them is important because if you don't write them correctly, it will deter some writers. Wattpad also has some specific quirks regarding paragraphs that I find it useful to share.

Rules for Paragraphing:

1. There must be actual paragraphs!

        I don't understand how there are books here on Wattpad that are just one wall of text per chapter. Is it a formatting error that happened while publishing? I have no idea, but it gives me a headache and I'm sure it does the same for others. I should see clear spacing between ideas, not just a great blob. When stories are just text and nothing else, I don't read them.

2. The longer the paragraph, the less I want to read it

        People are lazy. They see a long wall of text and they glance over it. Important pieces of information get missed because it's lost in all of those words. Also, keep in mind that not everyone on Wattpad speaks English as their first language, so when they see the Great Wall of Paragraphs, they could end up leaving. Plus, it just makes people's eyes hurt. The Watty's has even commented that smaller paragraphs are better and they help pacing as well. You can have some long paragraphs, but if all of them are massive, it'll typically be harder to get reads.

3. When writing dialogue, whenever someone new speaks, there must be a new paragraph!

        There will be a bootcamp day specifically for dialogue, do not fret. However, this needs to be said. If you have multiple people speaking in one paragraph, it causes confusion.  

        However, if that is what you're going for, go for it. If you are trying to convey that the character who the story is being told from is in a place and is highly disoriented, you could use this method to show that and have the readers feel that same sense of confusion. If you are going to do it the wrong way, there should be a clear reason as to why. For example, I have read a published book where paragraphs weren't written properly for dialogue. This story was Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. The point of view of the story in this case was that of a child, so it made sense to me that the paragraphs were written in such a manner, as when I was really young, I did the same. So as you can see, there are exceptions to this rule, but make sure you use this method of personifying a character in good taste.

4. Try changing paragraphs when the setting changes.

        One of my pet peeves is when a character starts speaking in their bedroom, goes to the store, takes part in a flash mob, and then at the end, they're in the living room drinking wine.

        Okay, I was exaggerating, but you get the point. Try to separate paragraphs like so:

Molly woke up, tired. She found herself hungover, if the splitting headache that greeted her was anything to go off of. The brunette wanted nothing more than to not exist.

Sighing, she got up from her bed and made her way to the bathroom.

Once in the bathroom, Molly began to wash the raccoon eyes off of her face, groaning at how the leftover makeup from the night before caused acne to surface.

"What a mess," she groaned.

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And that is your introduction to paragraphing! I hope this has been of use to you. I have some plans for other things to go over such as dialogue, verb tenses, other confused words, characterization, and so much more!

Are there any questions that you have about Ereri/Riren? Any questions about writing in general? Do you have any tips about paragraph writing, any personal pet peeves that you've noticed on the site?

Until the next time,

-Ari-gami aka Author-chan