Friday, December 10, 2021

Repetition as a Tool

 Maybe it was my lawyerly training that had me using repetition in my stories. We presumed judges had thick skulls holding dim wits. But I got corrected too often and stopped. LitHub published On Repetition As a Powerful Literary Tool. The article makes this point 

No one wants to read a great two-​page essay that’s ten pages long. (Trust me on this: I’ve graded thousands of them.) The writers quoted in this chapter use repetition wisely. One principle to keep in mind as you experiment with repetition: repeat yourself only when you know why you’re doing so.

after detailed examples from Jack Kerouac and Bob Dylan and Dylan Thomas and Ani DiFranco.

For my stories, I thought repetition could convey an emotional impact. I will have to think again on my use and non-use of repetition.

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