Personal preference? A solid mix.
Give me too many short ones and I feel I’m reading choppy waters. The page is too visually broken up.
Long paragraphs and I’m dying for a break, a pause – a comma paragraph. Comma paragraph? Now that’s a concept.
It’s true each paragraph should be its own complete item. And new ones for new dialogue, even paragraphs between long speeches by same character.
But, and maybe I’m alone, I like the visual break they give me as a reader. It’s the flow of how information transmits to me. A speech can sound long-winded even if the written piece is filled with constructed paragraphs. A lecture can drag us to sleep even though it has breaks.
Visually, as I’m reading, I feel my mind wander if I can’t see a break coming up.
What about one sentence paragraphs or how to tell in an eBook?
A brilliant sentence can be its own paragraph. To force connecting it to more just to make a fuller one can lose the meaning – the impact.
EBooks allow for paragraphs and scene change marks. What we see depends on the screen size and how large we need the font. But, here’s where I think eBooks out shine print, based on the screen and font there can be little to no visually break; however, the page is still broken up because of the screen and font.
Confused?
Paragraphs are the rules of conveying information via the written word. They are structured with beginnings, middle, and endings. They are built based on other grammar rules such as dialogue.
Why? For logic or as the very breaks our mind and eyes require in order to understand…absorb…what we are reading?
Curious now…who invented paragraphs?