For a while I have been short of understanding exactly what a paragraph is supposed to do. From what I have read about composition, a paragraph has one topic sentence, either stated or implied, which is supported by other sentences in the paragraph. My confusion about this has to do with my failure to see how all paragraphs follow this pattern, (not speaking of narration). I see some paragraphs which, albeit dealing with a single idea, expressed thoughts beyond that idea. This makes it hard for me to understand how planning of a composition is possible. If you do not know how a thought is going to be developed in a paragraph, because you do not know what thoughts will be in the paragraph, how can you even begin outlining? Or is it really true that all paragraphs have to do only with a single topic sentence, which is supported by other sentences, in which case the whole composition can be reduced to topic sentences, without losing its basic meaning?
It sounds like you're describing paragraphs from a high-school essay. The general rule for paragraphs in the real world is that they express one idea (or image or action or chunk of dialogue or whatever). Look at the books you enjoy reading. See how they do it. Follow their examples.
At it's most basic, a paragraph is a sentence or group of sentences that supports a point or idea. Personally I don't outline at the paragraph level. As long as I know where I am starting a chapter and where I want to be when finishing it, the paragraphs fill themselves in. Try not to over think it.
Paragraphs are a ball-ache - they used to slow my writing down to a crawl because I obsessed over them as you seem to be doing. All I can advice is read lots and write even more. Eventually you'll develop an inner ear and insert them instinctively. That said I'll add to what @Homer Potvin hints at, and say you seem to have a fairly good grasp of them already.
What are you trying to write here? You are, of course, utterly ignoring the "just write" advice and finding yourself another roadblock to guarantee that you will never ever ever write. But let's just pretend that you're some other poster, one who might be willing to allow himself to write someday. I would tell that other poster that the topic sentence idea is usually associated with fairly early-grades academic writing. It doesn't really apply in the same way to most writing in the adult world. Also, even if you chose to follow this simultaneously strict and simplistic definition of a paragraph, that doesn't mean that you have to plan the structure ahead of time. For me, it always worked much better to write stuff and then organize it into the desired form.
So you are saying to write the thoughts down as they come to you, and then rearrange them? Would that work for very large compositions like books?
There are a million different ways to write. There's no one way that "works" for everyone. Experiment. Open your mind. Write stuff (more than a few paragraphs) and see if it works. If it doesn't work, either throw it out or change it. Stop trying to turn an art into a science.
I'm mainly saying: Just write. Stop finding new roadblocks. Stop trying to guarantee that you will never write. We're not talking about a book yet. We're talking about writing a few hundred words. Stop jumping ahead. If you're asking if a book requires that you outline every single paragraph? No, it certainly doesn't. I suppose it's theoretically possible that some writer somewhere outlines every single paragraph, but I've never heard of it.
Dude, please just read some prose and pay attention to how published writers structure their sentences. I grabbed a segment from the nearest book at hand (The Martian): It's %100 utilitarian and action. I realize that this kind of writing isn't your jam, but it illustrates the point that, no, paragraphs absolutely don't have to follow the structure you've laid out. Honestly, if they all did, reading would get pretty dull. Published writing doesn't follow the pattern you're talking about, so no, you also don't have to follow it. Go wild. Here's another bit from The Martian, which is also an entire and perfectly valid paragraph:
@waitingforzion , when was the last time that you read a book? Forget that business of not knowing the concrete nouns. Just read the book. When you encounter a word that you don't know, look it up. Yes, now you're going to say something like, "I can't look up the words because I can't afford the full unabridged OED, and at the library they have the full OED on a wooden stand. Is it permissible to use it without a wooden stand? What wood should the stand be made of? I asked the library, and they wouldn't tell me..." Read a book. When you encounter a word that you don't know, let's say it's 'xeriscape', go to Google and type definition xeriscape and Google will give you a definition of the word. Roadblocks. Stop with the roadblocks. And, no, you're not allowed to use "read a book" as a roadblock, as in, "I was going to write, but then someone told me to read a book, and I can't find the book that I chose because it's out of print, and..." No. Read now. And write now. Both.
