gaps in output

Sometimes my XSLT output has huge gaps in between the elements that
appear to correlate with spacing in the XSLT.  For instance, if I have
gaps from an xsl:choose they show up inside a variable, making the
variable unusable so I have to put the whole
<xsl:variable><xsl:choose>....</xsl:choose></xsl:variable> on one line.
And I get an error when I have <xsl:element name=x"> and don't have the
following <xsl:attribute> on the same line.  (which means I can't use
Spy's pretty print)

I think one of the factors was because I created elements like this
<para> instead of like this: <xsl:element name="para"/>.  However, I
have fixed all these.  Also I am using 	<xsl:strip-space elements="*"/>.

Does anyone have any idea how to fix this?

Emily Garrett