The one-line-per-paragraph reflex

The one-line-per-paragraph reflex

Everyone says: "Break every sentence onto its own line. White space = readability = reach."

The claim: broetry formatting keeps eyeballs scrolling and boosts dwell.

What's actually true: white space helped in 2019 when nobody did it. Now everyone does it, so it signals "this is a Performance," and readers brace for a fake epiphany. The mistake is using format as a substitute for having a point. Tested fix: write the post as a normal paragraph first. If it survives as prose, it has a spine. Then break ONLY the 2-3 lines that carry the turn — the tension, the number, the reversal. Selective breaks read as emphasis. Wall-to-wall breaks read as a man trying too hard.

It's not the line breaks. It's that the story underneath is hollow.