How to format INSIDE a paragraph block

Using a paragraph block in Theme 2020 I sometimes want to have long entries but broken into separate paragraphs. When I hit “return” in the normal way it creates a new paragraph block below the one I am in but the gap between the two blocks is bigger than the line spacing so the whole section looks inconsistently formatted.
Secondly how can a make selected words within a paragraph block a different colour from the rest? Using the colour settings in the menu on the right simple changes all of the text to the same colour).