This is KAM Wylen and you are listening to the 457th episode of the Helping Writers Become Authors

Podcast. I have to admit writing has been a bit of a challenge for me this month.

Some unexpected life events and the need to be available for other people lately

has thrown my writing routine for the biggest loop I have ever experienced.

For the first time in my life, I feel like I finally understand what people are really talking about when they mention writers block in awkward hushed tones.

So, on the one hand, these last few weeks have been a horrifying experience from a creative perspective.

And on the other, they've been rather fascinating.

I'm sure they'll spawn some experience inspired posts down the line. In the meantime I'm hoping and

praying I'm able to get myself back into a suitable writing frame within the

coming week or two at the most. So wish me luck with that and in the meantime I

hope you enjoyed this week's podcast how to use paragraph breaks to guide the

readers experience. Paragraph breaks are something akin to a writer's turn signals.

They silently, sometimes almost subliminally,

tell readers what's about to happen and how they should react.

As you may remember or not from school, a paragraph break in technical writing is meant to indicate a new thought. I have clear memories of being required

to find and underline the topic sentence that was the organizing thought of each new paragraph.

It was a boring exercise, but looking back I realized

how well it served me over the years. In fiction, we use the paragraph break a little differently.

Not only do our paragraph breaks signal a new thought,

they can also be used to orient readers

within the overall action.

Who is acting?

...