The Return of the Return!

QUIZ TIME~!

When do you hit the return button?












…for dramatic suspense?  *eyebrow wiggle*  For practical purposes?  When you get inspired by the Muse of the return-button?

Here are six reasons for "returning":

1.) CHANGING TOPICS
Right now, I'm talking about returns and when to use them under the bullet point of changing topics.  Hopefully, I'll cover all of the bases and speak in a clear manner so that all of my dear readers can understand.  In this paragraph on returns, I'll try to use varied sentence structure and a myriad of living words, and, when I'm done saying what needs to be said, I'll wrap up with a small conclusions that references the fact that I've been talking about returns when changing topics.
*return*  Now, let's talk about commas.



…
…get it?
…



Of course, subject changes are easier to spot when you're writing papers that include specific topics.  Stories are a little different, and you, as the author, get to decide when and where you'd like to break things up.  I'll just say really quickly, however…no one likes to look at massive blocks of document text, in which description and action are all blending into one congealed mass of wooords.  Give your readers some structure.

2.) THE JUMP-SCARE
I've read and have written certain books with a distinct, cocky voice that permits copious pinky attacks at the return key, mostly for the sake of keeping flow, but also for the sake of…



…dramatic suspense!



You get the picture…or…if you don't, check out the spacing in this story or in this story.

3.) TIME LAPSE
e.g. "Eyes swollen from crying, she fell asleep, still in her day clothes."  *return, return, return*  "When she awoke, Clove was struck with a strange sense of penetrating loneliness, and she curled deeper into her covers, numb and mute as a tear slithered down her cheek."
e.g. "Still struggling fiercely, she felt a jarring blow to her head, and the world was instantly swamped in darkness."  *return, return, return*  "Feeling as if her veins had been filled with latex, Clove regained consciousness on the bottom of a prison floor."

(Generally, I only use paragraph returns for time lapses when I have to.  Most of the time, I'll do time lapses with chapter breaks for the anticipation-factor…gotta keep 'em flipping pages, you know?  However, occasionally, I'll write about five-hundred words, and then the protagonist will fall asleep/get knocked unconscious.  Well, at that point, I can't make a new chapter after only five hundred words…thus…enter the time lapse paragraph returns.)

4.) PASSING THE MIC OVER
"If one character is talking--"
"And," Jace interrupted, waving his fingers dismissively in the air, "another character begins to speak, a paragraph break is required.  Yeah.  We know."
"The only exception to this rule is when two characters are forcibly tied together in a sentence," Clove continued cheerfully as Jace muttered under her breath, "Bla, bla, bla.  My foot, girl, does anyone really care?"
A sudden grimacing smile twisted on Clove's face as she rubbed her palms together.  "They would if they had the slightest awareness of concentration English camps and Grammar Nazis.  I'm just trying to save lives, Jace."

5.) POETRY
There was a little girl,
who had a little curl,
right in the middle of her forehead.
When she was good,
she was very good indeed,
but, when she was bad, she was horrid.
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Paragraph returns are mandatory after a line of poetry is over.  If you want more information on punctuation in poetry, please consult your nearest Wikipedia.  ;)

6.) PAPER "STRATEGIZING"
Yeah, I know we've all done it.  The teacher says, "Write a three-page paper," and you come up with two pages but can't, for the life (or sacrifice of laziness) of you, come up with another page.  The solution is simple: double-space, add returns, and make your font a little bigger.
Voila.  x)

Write on!
Clove
P.S. You know that moment when you're going to blog about something, and you've even made a draft for the post, but another fellow blogger beats you to it?  Yep.  Go look at this and learn from it because I totally would've posted that list on my blog if I hadn't been beaten to it.  x)