Paragraphing Question from newbie

[afmwmichelle]

Hello, I write nonfiction (women's devotions particularly) and I do have a copy editor who is great at punctuation, spelling, tense and grammar checking. Some have given me feedback but were not sure of this ?

As I tell a story, when I speak and then I mention the reply (from one of my children for example) do I do each of those in their own paragraph? Most that has posed this to me are fiction writers and they say that is a rule for them but they are not sure about non fiction.

Here is a short section of one particular piece:

I am sure parents all over the world have had this discussion with some child at some point in their life. “You have to change it so you are clean and so you don’t smell,” I said. He reasoned, “it doesn’t smell (thanks for that) so I will change it when it does.” “No,” I said, “you will change it now, end of story.” So he finally did.


Thank you for your advice.

[Danthia]

I'd used traditional paragraph format for that, since it would make it easier to read.

[Torgo]

You don't have to put everything in paragraphs, IMHO. It's a matter of style, I think, but I wouldn't report long conversations, or ones with long speeches, without breaking into paras. In the example you cited, there are three short speeches, which strikes me as being about the limit; it reads fine, but another reply might unbalance things.

[afmwmichelle]

Thank you both!! Michelle