Writing Guidelines

Writing fiction is a creative process, and as such, there is no one "right" way to do it.
Writing is a craft, like any other creative field, so the more you experiment, the better
you'll get at it. You might already know some of the basics, but I'll cover them just in
case.

What is the standard for writing? well, I don't know. One of the unique features of
fiction writing is the lack of a rigid structure. While there are certain guidelines and
conventions that writers may choose to follow, fiction writing allows for a great deal of
creative freedom and experimentation. So unless you are aiming for traditional
publishing, it's not something one has to absolutely worry about. That said, there are
certain things you have to keep in mind.

When should I break a paragraph?

"Paragraph breaks" or "scene breaks" is the act of creating a visual break in the text by
starting a new paragraph, which is a very important element of storytelling to help set
the tone, pace, and overall effectiveness.

A paragraph break could serve to indicate:

- Change of Scene

Example: "She left the party and walked out into the street. The cool night air was a
welcome relief after the stuffy room.
She took a deep breath and looked up at the stars."

- Change of Time

Example: "The days passed slowly, each one blending into the next. She spent most of
her time alone, reading and thinking.
By the end of the week, she was ready to leave."

- Change of Speaker

Example: "I don't know," Remi said. "I just don't think it's a good idea."
Flan sighed. "You always say that. You never want to take a risk."

- Change of Focus
Example: "She thought about her childhood, about the games she used to play with her
siblings. They would spend hours running around the backyard, pretending to be pirates
or explorers.
But those days were long gone now."

- Emphasis

Example: "She looked at him and realized, with a sudden jolt, that she loved him. Truly,
deeply, irrevocably.
And she knew that she would never be the same again."

Breaking up text into shorter paragraphs can make a story easier to follow, more visually
appealing, and more organized. It also makes the story look less formidable and more
approachable (nobody likes to read large chunks of text, yikes). Have you read older
classics? Don't they look so intimidating? Well, it's one of the reasons.

1. New Speaker = New Paragraph

Perhaps one of fiction’s most important rules for paragraphs is that of a “new line for
every speaker.”
In a dialogue exchange between two or more characters, the different speakers should
be separated by paragraph breaks. Many writers learn this early on, often through
feedback from their readers.

So instead of:

“Hey, Maya,” Rachel called out, beckoning her over with a wave. “I had no idea you were
enrolled in this class as well.” The girl’s face lit up with a grin as she made her way over
to Rachel’s desk. “Yeah, I thought it would be an interesting way to fulfill my history
requirement,” she explained, and to which Rachel nodded in agreement. She motioned
toward the vacant desk beside her own. “Would you like to sit here?” she offered. “Sure,”
the girl replied, settling into the seat and pulling out her notebook. “Do you know
anything about the professor teaching this course?” Rachel shook her head. “No, this is
my first time having him as an instructor.”

Do this:

"Hey," Rachel beckoned Maya over with a wave. “I had no idea you were enrolled in this
class as well.”
The girl’s face lit up with a grin as she approached the desk. “Yeah, I thought it would be
an interesting way to fulfill my history requirement.”
Rachel nodded sagely. She then motioned toward the vacant desk beside her own.
“Want to sit here?”
“Sure. But–” Settling into her seat as Maya pulled out her notebooks–“Have you heard
anything about the professor teaching this course?”
Rachel shook her head. “No, this is my first time having him as an instructor.”

As a result, readers are able to keep up with the back and forth of the dialogue almost
instinctively, especially if the author also skillfully includes dialog tags (she said) and
action beats (Rachel shook her head) to clarify who is saying what.

While I'm not going to ask you to stop using dialogue tags (she said), as many published
authors do, I still recommend using them sparingly. They are often unnecessary if it is
already established who is speaking. 
If you have to, try using action tags instead (overusing them, especially in long
conversions, could distract the reader from the dialogue itself; it's something to keep in
mind).

2. New Actor = New Paragraph

The reason is that actors within a narrative are treated the same as speakers. Usually,
when characters exchange actions, the rules are the same as when they exchange
dialogue–even if they do not speak.
This means that you should create a new paragraph based on a change in Actor, not just
because they speak, but also because they act. Therefore, you should not put the
dialogue of two different Actors in the same paragraph, the actions of two Actors, or the
mix.

Before one might ask, dividing a story’s paragraphs by individual actors rather than by
individual lines of dialogue or actions does not result in a fragmented story. This is
because Actor A’s dialogue should be included in their paragraph of actions, and Actor B
should have its own paragraph for both dialogue and actions.
What you don’t do is cut all the dialogue away from everything and combine all the
different characters’ actions into one messy paragraph where it is difficult to determine
who did what, similar to the previous example I shared.
To give another example:

“Can I help you with something?” asked the librarian as she approached, and Samantha
jumped, letting out a squeak in the process. => Two actors acting in the same paragraph.

“No, thank you, ma’am. I’m just doing some research,” she spoke softly.

This could be written as:

“Can I help you with something?” The librarian asked as she approached.

Samantha jumped, letting out a squeak in the process. “No, thank you, ma’am. I’m just
doing some research.”

If you have noticed, other than fixing the paragraph, I’ve changed two more things.

I’ve changed ‘Asked the librarian’ to ‘The librarian asked.’

This is because it follows the natural subject-verb-object order of English sentences. You
may have seen tags like ‘said he’ is widely used in many children’s story books, but while
this helps emphasize the dialogue, it lacked natural fluency.

Additionally, I’ve removed the dialogue tag.

'She spoke softly.' This is an unnecessary Dialogue tag. You no longer need the Dialogue
tags once you link an actor's Dialogue to their corresponding Actions.

However, if you really want to add that she spoke softly, you could describe it in action.
In short, show us.

Example:

Samantha jumped, letting out a squeak in the process. She turned her head while her
cheeks flushed with color, her voice timid yet soft. “No, thank you, ma’am. I’m just doing
some research.”

When a line of dialogue is accompanied by action, there’s no need to always add

dialogue tags such as “he said.” The Actor’s actions already indicate who is speaking.
However, if dialogue tags are the only way to know who is speaking, then the writer has
committed the mistake of creating “Dialogue in a Vacuum,” also known as “talking
heads syndrome.”
Talking heads syndrome refers to a situation in writing where dialogue takes place
without any accompanying action or description. This can result in a scene where
characters are speaking, but there’s no sense of what they’re doing or where they are.
The dialogue becomes disconnected from the story and can feel like it’s taking place in a
vacuum.

This is, however, way worse than when you have no idea who is speaking. This is a grave
mistake. It is very important for authors to strive for clarity and leave
nothing for misinterpretation. When Readers don't know who is speaking or they
imagine it wrong, they'll get confused and sometimes pissed off.
And unmarked dialogues are painfully easy to lost in.

But, what about scenes that don’t have many dialogues? Let’s take this as an example:

The cat crouched low in the grass, its eyes fixed on the bird perched on the fence. “Come
on,” he whispered to himself. The bird chirped and ruffled its feathers, oblivious to the
danger lurking below. He sprang forward, his paws outstretched to catch his prey. The
bird took flight just in time, soaring into the sky and leaving the cat empty-handed. He
landed with a thud and looked up at the sky, his tail twitching in frustration.

There are two actors here: The Cat and the Bird. The cat acts, then the bird acts, which
means each should get a new paragraph. The paragraph breaks should give readers
immediate signals about who is doing the acting. Now, let’s revise it:

The cat crouched low in the grass, its eyes fixed on the bird perched on the fence. “Come
on,” he whispered to himself.

The bird chirped and ruffled its feathers, oblivious to the danger lurking below.

He sprang forward, paws outstretched to catch his prey.

The bird took flight just in time, soaring into the sky and leaving the cat empty-handed.

He landed with a thud and looked up at the sky, his tail twitching in frustration.

This does look choppy on the page, does it not? Yes, it does. However, it is far more
important that there is absolutely no doubt in anyone's mind as to who is acting and
who is speaking. If you truly loathe all that white space, then fill it in with more actions,
descriptions, and internal narration observations.
The exceptions to this rule are all of which hark back to those grade-school adages about
topic sentences. Sometimes, in some paragraphs, the emphasis will need to remain on a
primary actor, rather than bouncing between the actions/reactions of multiple actors.
For example, you may need to briefly indicate a response from a second character, but
you’ll maintain a cohesive paragraph because the emphasis remains on a singular
character or on a cooperative action or movement. Here’s one:

John walked into the room, his eyes scanning the crowd for his friend. He spotted her in
the corner, laughing with a group of people. As he made his way over to her, someone
bumped into him causing him to stumble. John cursed loudly as he regained his balance
and continued towards his friend, with his focus still on her.

3. New Parts of Narrative = New Paragraph

Even in a scene that features or emphasizes one primary actor, paragraph breaks are
often helpful in guiding readers through the different types of action that the Actor
might be performing. These might include:

Physical action: He revved the car.

Physical reaction: His heart hammered.

Dialogue: “You crazy driver!” she yelled.

Indirect internal narrative: If these crazy people didn’t get out of the way, he was
just going to run them over.

Direct internal narrative: If these crazy people don’t get out of the way, I’m just
going to run them over.

Observation/description: Street lights blinked past.

Keep in mind these differentiated parts of the narrative will not always require their own
paragraph break. Shorter paragraphs can convey a sense of urgency or tension, while
longer paragraphs can slow the pace down and provide more opportunities for reflection
or introspection.
An intimate sense of your pacing will help you decide when a break is best and when it
isn’t. One good rule of thumb, however, is that if you spend more than two sentences on
any one narrative type, it’s probably best to think about breaking into a new paragraph.
We might assemble the above examples like this:

He revved the car.

“You crazy driver!” she yelled.

His heart hammered. If these crazy people didn’t get out of the way, he was just going to
run them over.

Street lights blinked past.

When set up like this, the man, the woman, and the street light each ground themselves
on new lines within their own topic sentences. The man’s indirect thought about
running people over is introduced and grouped with his own related physical reaction.

An understanding of motivation-reaction units (MRUs) will help you ground your

instincts for ordering the various parts of the narrative. A proper MRU starts with the
motivation or cause, then lines up the resulting effect as another string of causes and
effects: feeling > thought > action > speech. Once you can differentiate between the
roles of various sentences, you will have a better feel for when to break between them.
This is also where many newbie authors tend to make mistakes.

This is incorrect: "You two aren’t together anymore?" Eric raised his eyebrows,
surprised.

In general, the action comes before the reaction. Erick was surprised (action), so he
commented. He didn’t question, then became surprised.
However, this is also an example of MRU in action. The motivation (cause) is Eric
hearing that they don’t live together. His reaction (effect) is to raise his eyebrows in
surprise and ask the question “You two aren’t together anymore?” This follows the
logical order of presenting the motivation first, followed by the reaction.

Adjusted: Eric raised his eyebrows, surprised. “You two aren’t together anymore?”

Let’s take another example:

The doorbell rang.

She felt a flutter of excitement in her stomach and hurried to the door. “Coming!”

In this example, the motivation (cause) is the doorbell ringing. The character’s reaction
(effect) is to feel the excitement and hurry to the door. Her speech (“Coming!”) is also
part of her reaction.

Two more examples:

Example 1

"I'm sorry, Liam. I can't marry you."

Liam felt a jolt of shock and pain. His heart clenched like a fist, squeezing the air out of his
lungs. He staggered back and leaned on the wall for support. “How can you say that?” he rasped.

Lisbeth's face was pale and tense, avoiding his gaze as her hands clutched the hem of dress
nervously. She swallowed hard and tried to sound calm. "I'm sorry, Liam. But it's the truth. I
don't love you, Liam. I never did."

Explaining it via MRU:

"I'm sorry, Liam. I can't marry you." (Motivation for Liam) (Reaction for Lisbeth)

Liam felt a jolt of shock and pain. His heart clenched like a fist, squeezing the air out of his
lungs. He staggered back and leaned on the wall for support. “How can you say that?” he rasped.
(Reaction for Liam: feeling, reflex, rational action, speech) (Motivation for Lisbeth)

Lisbeth's face was pale and tense, avoiding his gaze as her hands clutched the hem of the dress
nervously. She swallowed hard and tried to sound calm. "I'm sorry, Liam. But it's the truth. I
don't love you, Liam. I never did." (Reaction for Lisbeth: feeling, reflex, rational action, speech)
(Motivation for Liam)

Example 2

As their eyes met, her heart raced, and a surge of emotions swept through her like a tidal wave.
Years of separation had taken their toll, but in this moment, as she enveloped her long-lost
daughter in her arms, she could no longer contain the overwhelming flood of relief and
happiness.
A stifled cry escaped her trembling lips, tears streaming freely down her face. Amidst the
uncontrolled sobs, she managed to choke out, "I missed you so much. It's truly a miracle to have
you back."

Explaining it via MRU:

(Motivation: She met her long lost daughter)

As their eyes met, her heart raced, and a surge of emotions swept through her like a tidal wave.
Years of separation had taken their toll, but in this moment, as she enveloped her long-lost
daughter in her arms (Reaction: feeling, rational action) (Motivation), she could no longer
contain the overwhelming flood of relief and happiness. (Reaction) (Motivation)

A stifled cry escaped her trembling lips, tears streaming freely down her face. Amidst the
uncontrolled sobs, she managed to choke out, "I missed you so much. It's truly a miracle to have
you back." (Reaction: reflex, reflex, speech) (Perhaps motivation for her daughter)