When I’m coaching writers one-to-one, I sometimes meet people with superb ideas and strong characters, but their prose is too confusing to follow. Many writers self-edit and pay careful attention to spelling errors and typing mistakes, but that’s not the only thing that can turn readers off your work. Endless paragraphs that weave in and out of different subjects can make even the most exciting story a pain in the neck to read, so in this article, we’re examining topic through an analytical questioning model. It sounds complex, but all you have to do is ask yourself some questions about what you’re trying to get across, and then fix your structure to meet that. I’ve broken it down into a really easy process for you to practice:

The Topic Test – 3 Easy Questions:

1 - Who or what is this paragraph about?

If you’re describing the actions of one character, then suddenly start talking about another within the same paragraph, there’s a good chance you’ll confuse readers. This can happen with the description too, for example when you’re describing a general scene or place, but then you focus on one area of it without being clear about the shift.

The fix:

Decide on the main focus of the paragraph you’re in, and look for signs that you might be leading readers somewhere else. If that’s not your intention, delete those lines or move them to another paragraph where they make more sense. If you need to combine two major elements in a paragraph (e.g. two characters doing an activity together, or perhaps a character moving through the scenery), watch out for who is in control of the point of view. Stick with one of those characters through that paragraph, and tell it from their side to add clarity.

2 – Does your paragraph length match the mood of the moment?

People often ask what an ideal paragraph length is. The truth is, that changes depending on the atmosphere you’re trying to create in the scene. Slow action, thoughtful, and tragic moods require longer paragraphs, often with more detailed, flowing sentences. Action scenes and high drama usually contain shorter, sharper sentences with less detail to derail the action, and sometimes those paragraphs are only a line or two long so that they move along with the character into a new physical position.

The fix:

When you spot a mismatch, the quickest fix is to edit down or up a little to match the length that you need. Add more details if you need your character to linger a moment over an important place you want your audience to remember, or chop up your sentences into smaller, dynamic actions if things aren’t moving quick enough. I like to imagine I’m a cinematographer in the editing room, and I treat my paragraphs like the length of each ‘shot’ in my story.

3 – Does your work 'flow'?

Flow is best described as the feeling of how one idea leads into the next, and ideally, in prose writing, you want it to be smooth at all times. Whilst a lot of editing is about looking in detail at every paragraph, it’s also important to read between the lines and be sure that your structure doesn’t cause confusion when readers move from one thought to the next. If you’ve ever had your writing labeled as ‘disjointed’, this could be the primary reason why.

The fix:

Study the last line of one paragraph and the first of the next. What’s changing? If you’re moving to a new location, make that smooth and clear with a strong first sentence that introduces the new focus. If the character in the spotlight is changing, make sure their name is there somewhere early on. Subtle but clear signs help point your readers to the place in the story where you want them to look next. Again, it's all about taking charge of that 'camera' in your mind and directing us where you want it to point.