Write well. Write often. Edit wisely.
Repetition is a powerful force in fiction. It can emphasize setting, highlight a character trait, draw attention to a seemingly minor detail.
Repetition can also drive your readers crazy.
Repeated words, repeated information, repeated sentence construction can turn your reader’s attitude from eager interest to downright hostility. Face it, there’s not much more irritating in a novel than reading the same events again and again. Or the same phrases. Or the same unusual word used three times in five pages.
Yes, readers like connection in their stories. But they certainly don’t enjoy overkill—Fiona and Ed walked the avenue, the most beautiful of the avenues surrounding central Paris. Of the roads and tree-lined avenues, the one just outside their hotel was the prettiest avenue.
Single-word repetition is often easy to spot. Yet sometimes its use does get past a writer. Be sure to proof your work for this irritant.
Information that’s repeated until a reader wants to throw your book across the room is also a problem. Tell the readers once. Repeat if you have to, using different words, a different character, a different tone. But don’t treat your readers like students who have to be told a point again and again. They find repetition of this kind more than annoying. And you lose readers when they’re annoyed.
Character description is often repeated in novels. How to avoid the annoyance factor? Give it a twist. If a character has unusual eyes and you’ve already said so, show how those unusual eyes affect another character rather than repeating that they’re unusual. Build on what you’ve established rather than saying the same thing.
Repetition That Works
Lest you think all repetition is bad, here’s a reminder that it can be strong rather than annoying.
Repetition is great for making a point, for creating a mood, for establishing rhythm. Sometimes a repeated word or phrase hammers home a point. And as long as you don’t overuse the technique, it can be powerful and effective.
Robert intended to leave a legacy, a legacy that would remind his children where he’d come from. Where they’d come from.
Because it’s noticeable, repetition has great power in fiction. It can drive the reader away or draw him deeper into your imaginary events. Repetition can weave threads to hold your reader close or pound at your reader until he gets the unintended message—leave this place; there’s nothing new here.
Use repetition, but practice restraint as well. Repetition should be effective without calling attention to itself. While you want readers to experience effect, you don’t want them noticing the cause.
If you’re writing long fiction, you’re trying to entertain your reader, hold him with your storytelling skills until he finishes the story. Yet, if he sees the mechanics, the underpinnings of the tale, he’s no longer involved in the fiction but in the elements that create the fiction. The reader doesn’t want to see Oz behind the curtain, manipulating him. He just wants to enjoy the manipulation. After all, he’s willing to believe your lies. He’s willing to invest time with your imaginary world. He’s willing to let his emotions be stirred and to put his mind to work to figure out the resolution before he reads it.
He doesn’t really believe there’s a serial killer loose in Dallas, picking off husbands of female cops. But if you write the story well enough, he’ll indulge himself and join his imagination to yours and he’ll act as if he believes, at least for the time it takes to read the novel.
Keep him involved. Keep him interested. Don’t give the reader an excuse to doubt that what you’ve written could happen—did happen—and that there’s something vital at stake for your characters and for himself.
As you use other writing tools, use the power of repetition to strengthen the fiction, the story, the emotion. Refuse to let it come between you and the reader’s enjoyment.
Tags: fiction, writing tools Posted in: Craft & Style
[…] trance where they can see the story unfolding around them. For more information on repetition, check out this post by Fiction Editor Beth […]
[…] Beth. “The Power of Repetition.” The Editor’s Blog. 13 May 2013. https://theeditorsblog.net/2010/07/05/the-power-of-repetition/. Accessed 31 Oct. […]
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Repetition of background details is probably one of the most annoying things in a novel. When an author feels the need to relay the same data in the same manner it just implies that I haven’t been paying attention. Well, I was, but now that you’re going to treat me this way I’ll zip through faster because I don’t have to worry about missing anything.
Repetition for emphasis, as in your example, is a potent rhetoric tool. Used judiciously it gives the writer an unparalleled authorial command.
Excellent tips, Beth. It’s a challenge to find that perfect mix of repetition and unique. I recently caught where I’d used “of the stage” in FIVE sentences in the same paragraph. Down right annoying, it was, so I rewrote parts of it. I like to repeat something in the novel as the final line of the book. It sort of ties everything together, somehow. At least, I think it does.
Olivia, I know exactly what you mean about tying the final line to something used earlier in the book. I love to do that myself and I love reading it in novels.
Vivian, I wished I’d thought of unparalleled authorial command.
Excellent article, Beth, and one of the things I’m most guilty of. After so many years of writing instruction manuals, where you have to repeat info in different ways for different learning styles, it’s a sad habit I’ve carried into novel writing. I’m adding “repitition” to my list of things to review on re-writes!
How about a character’s voice? Not so much as hukt on foniks dialect, but phrases, words that define their rhythm and voice?
That was the question. My comment is all of the advice that says “said” is all that’s required to drive conversation puts a lot of “said” on paper or the hard drive.
I know it’s wordy-er to say – Bobby reached in the cabinet, rubbed the glass on his sleeve, looked at Susie out of the corner of his eye. “Here’s a clean one, babe.”
But it beats page after page of “Here’s a clean glass, babe,” Bobby said. Said said said. Or am I missing something?
Thanks!
Phil, many writing experts recommend said because it is often nearly invisible. When it’s used correctly, said becomes more a background element, similar to a period. It’s there and it’s a marker, but it doesn’t take a reader a lot of time to understand its purpose and move on.
However, if saidused over and over in every line or paragraph of dialogue, it becomes much more noticeable. It can be overused.
The expert use of dialogue tags and action beats takes practice. Readers would get just as ticked off about extra lines of action used to identify a speaker as they would about overuse of said.
Sometimes you don’t need an action beat or a dialogue tag to identify the speaker. And sometimes you want dialogue to flow without any extra words, just the speech itself.
Err on the side of using said over erring on writing out too many descriptive action beats to identify a speaker. But now that you’re thinking about both issues, start reducing the use of both. Use them when necessary, of course. But if you don’t need to identify the speaker in a give paragraph of dialogue, don’t.
What about writing from first person POV. When your character is thinking something repeatedly; over and over again. What do you do? It’s not a problem of the author, but the character who is overly repetitive.
Trying to edit my first novel, written over a period of 30 years. Trying to sew the pieces together is like using baling wire to patch an umbrella. After rewriting the bits and scraps of notes onto my computer I did some word finds and was appalled at the numbers of repetitions. I have been creating my own thesaurus to painstakingly rewrite the document. I’m afraid I’m guilty of repeating themes and concepts too. I used different characters in other settings to accomplish this. Other than my faithful wife, I’ve struggled to find readers who will read and comment. I appreciate all the words of experience that have been offered by other authors.
I’ve noticed that many, if not most, news articles repeat their opening paragragh word-for-word, with no other txt in-between. It’s annoying. I’m assuming they’re doing it for search engines, but even that doesn’t make a lot of sense.