Pages - paragraph breaks

Bear with me because I'm not versed in computer jargon. I'm using OS X 10.9.2

I originally wrote this document in another word processor (Scrivener, in case it matters). I then copied it into Pages. It was originally formatted in single space with no paragraph indentions and an extra blank line between paragraphs (like this post). In Pages, I have successfully changed the paragraph indentions to .5 and tried to double-space everything. It mostly worked, but there are a number of paragraphs that still have a wider space between them than the double-space that should be there. When I delete the space at the start of the new paragraph, it becomes part of the previous paragraph; then I hit return and it starts a new paragraph, but again there is a wider space between the paragraphs than the desired double-space. (So it's not just a case of me hitting return one too many times.)

I know that I can go through manually and hit delete and then shift + return at the end of every paragraph to get rid of these extra spaces, but that would take a huge amount of time. Surely there is some way I can fix this problem without doing that?

Here's an example:

As you can see, between paragraphs 2 and 3 (and 3 and 4), the spacing is the standard double-space. Between paragraphs 1 and 2, the spacing is wider than that.

Does anyone know of a formatting way for me to fix this? On Microsoft Word, I would be able to go to Format - Paragraphs and put 0 for paragraph breaks, but in Pages, I can't find a similar way of accomplishing that goal.