“Two to five sentences per paragraph” is advice you can find a lot on the internet. That’s what we were taught in school, after all. However, this isn’t an instant fix. It seems like such a simple thing to apply, but it still takes practice to get down.
You want paragraphs broken up in the right places. Sometimes this is rough because what was once a single contained inner monologue or description now becomes three paragraphs worth. That’s a good thing, however. It helps to better show you how long you’ve stayed in the MC’s head or focused on details rather than keeping up the pace of the story.
I’m not saying that slowing down isn’t helpful; it can be in the right places. Just stay aware of the scene and the pacing necessary to it and your reader’s attention span.
Shorter paragraphs can also aid in pacing during action scenes, tricking the reader into thinking that a scene of 5k+ words just flew by. You want action scenes to be paced well, so use every tool at your disposal.
Most importantly, in this age of ebooks and tiny screens, paragraphs can become a wall of text easily. I read a book recently on my Kindle and it happened multiple times throughout the book.
This isn’t the visual you want to leave with your readers. We don’t realize how important white space is until it isn’t there.
So don’t think of paragraph lengths as limiting, but rather think of them as a form of art. Use them to help set the mood of the scene. Use them to slow down or speed up the pace. Use them for drama.
And as always: practice, practice, practice.
Rachel J. Blogs About Cats, Writing, and Books 