anyone else find making a paragraph harder than the guides suggest?

read it out loud. wherever you run out of breath or lose your place, that's where it needs cutting or splitting. also the first sentence you wrote is often just warming up - try deleting it and see if the paragraph reads better without it. surprisingly often it does.

Write the point of the paragraph as one plain sentence first. Then only add sentences that explain or prove that one point. The moment you're on a second idea, start a new paragraph. Guides make it sound like a formula; it's really just one idea per block.