Elements of Wild Style: How to Start a Paragraph (I Can't Believe I'm Really Writing This.)

I'm reading a lot of submissions with paragraphs starting with "And" or "But." I am not amused. Is there some best seller doing this? Is that why people are hopping on this bandwagon?

Back in my hippie days. Now I eat them.

When dinosaurs roamed the earth and I was in elementary school, starting a sentence with a conjunction was taboo. Why? Because a sentence is a new idea. It took reading a lot of Anne Rice to get over it. Sentences starting with conjunctions are okay, but maybe a comma is what you need.

What is a paragraph? A Paragraph is a collection of sentences focused on an idea. Since interesting fiction is a list of actions, each paragraph's sentences describe a unique action. 

A paragraph's first sentence kicks off a new set of ideas. If the ideas of a new paragraph are connected to the previous paragraph make them one paragraph. A new set of ideas will never start joined to old ideas.

When starting a new collection of ideas, you'll want to separate it from prior concepts. You'll want to avoid conjunctions.

It's cool if you think I'm wrong. I'm letting you know how to make this editor happy. I don't care what you do with your writing. This is one of those things that annoys me. I might stop reading. You want to be published? Keep me reading.