Orbis Writings

In all of my education, from elementary school to high school and finally college, I was never taught how to write a paragraph. Currently, I’m 5000+ words into my novel and it hit me, how do I write a paragraph. Is this paragraph you’re currently reading well written? So I decided to do some research and this is what I discovered.

Each idea should be described individually in its own paragraph.  A paragraph can be any length, but must only present that single idea.  This allows the writer to be clear when presenting their writing to the reader  And also provides the writer a method to stay focussed when writing.

Most paragraphs should contain something called a topic sentence. A topic sentence is used to encapsulate the general idea of the paragraph. Each sentence which follows within that same paragraph is used to support the topic sentence. Finally, you should end a paragraph with a concluding sentence to wrap-up your idea.

Within the context of a scene, the first paragraph should provide a summary of the scene so the reader knows the setting and what is more or less about to happen.  All paragraphs within that scene should be used to move the scene forward.  The final paragraph should tie up all the loose ends. Making sure that what was expected as described in the first paragraph has been taken care of by the last paragraph.