Is there a way to code a website myself, but not have to write out <p></p> every time?
One good way of retaining full control over your website's code, but doing less work overall, is to use an advanced Integrated Development Environment (IDE) software for websites, which will allow you to focus on the pertinent parts of the website-writing problem while automating common tasks.

You might want to check out a list of HTML editors on Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_HTML_editors

Another, method is to write your website content as a basic text in any text editor, and then use one of the "static site generator" (SSG) software that will HTML code out of that base text. You can then still edit the HTML code yourself before publishing, or better yet, customize the options of the generator. Generally, such generators are highly customizable, allowing you a high level of control over the final HTML and CSS code. 

I would recommend that you use `markdown` as your base text, as this is a popular, lightweight system of annotating the text while making it easy for machines to interpret its semantic structure -- ultimately leading to a better-looking website.

I can tell you more about markdown, list SSGs that I know about, or tell you more about other ways of creating and publishing a website.