Indenting Paragraphs

When one starts to publish books, and wants them to look ‘professional’, there are many things one must think about that you probably haven’t stopped to think about before. I think the first thing I ran across that surprised me was the rule, “Thou shalt not indent the first line of the first paragraph of each chapter.”

Huh? Why not? I thought it was a rule that all paragraphs should be indented, unless you are going for a block format, in which case no paragraphs get indented, but you do put a line between the paragraphs, so they don’t become a run-on mess (like this sentence).

But the only explanation was that it was to ‘look professional’. They even went further than that and said that it would be even better to make the first letter of the first paragraph of each chapter oversized and ornate.

For some reason, I found that suggestion silly and downright medieval. What are we, monks calligraphing our way through these books?

I’ve read a lot of books during my lifetime. I tried to think back, remember if any of those books had indented or not indented the first paragraph of each chapter. I didn’t know. I apparently never noticed.

Oh, I did remember occasionally reading a book that had oversized and ornate first letters for each chapter, and I vaguely remembered that those paragraphs were not usually indented. But it didn’t seem to be the norm in the books I read. Sometimes, I struggled to figure out what letter it was, it was so ornate and seemed to have nothing to do with the word it started. I probably thought, “How weird,” and then promptly forgot it as I plowed my way through the rest of the story.

Now I am faced with the question of whether or not I will indent the first paragraph of each chapter in the books that I publish. To be truthful, I want to. It is much simpler to indent all the paragraphs and be done with it. To indent all the paragraphs and then go back and un-indent the first paragraphs, all while trying not to make it a global command, making ALL your paragraphs un-indented… It seems like a tedious and unnecessary endeavor. Too easy to make a mistake. And I have made mistakes during formatting. It’s no fun having to rip out ALL the formatting and then go back and put all the formatting back in again.

But I’m taking a very unscientific survey. What is your opinion of not indenting first paragraphs of each chapter? Do you expect it? Have you ever noticed it being done in the books you have read? Drop me a comment and let me know your opinion.

Ebook Coupon

Have you ever wondered what MoonPhaze books are like? I’ve got a coupon for you. Let’s try a little short fantasy. The title is “Woman on the Dock”, which can be found at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/108681. The coupon is to get it for free, and the coupon code is BH45S, which is good through Dec 31, 2024. Check it out, and I hope you enjoy it!

Woman on the Dock

“Woman on the Dock” takes place in my Atlan Universe, where tribes of women have certain powers that others don’t have, and are thus called Witches. When their island home was destroyed by a volcanic eruption, their evacuation boats got separated, and pockets (usually just 4 or 5 survivors, from old crones to infants) of these women set up new homes wherever they could hide. Those women who are called Blackbirds—one of the Atlans’ best warriors—are sent out periodically by their village disguised as traders, to search for rumors of other Atlan villages. But as generations go by, it is hard to believe that other Atlan settlements exist.

Inna, coming to a fishing village disguised as a merchant, was shocked to find a woman tied to the dock, battered and near death. She didn’t know the beaten woman, but she was clearly Atlan! And Inna wasn’t going to let one of her kind be treated like that!