Repetitive Redundancy and Repeating Things

We are told this early on in our writing experience: Word repetition should be avoided whenever possible. Be it nouns, verbs, descriptors, pronouns, whatever, nothing is more boring than finding the same word more than once in a sentence. It feels clumsy, basic, and uninspired, and out loud it creates an unmistakable grating sound. We learn to mix up our word choices, vary our verbs, and sometimes rewrite entire paragraphs to avoid ugly duplication. Eventually, our writing has all the variety of a Midwestern dinner buffet. At that point, we start learning when repetition might be a good thing.

Consider this sentence: "He ran out of his house, through the backyard, into the fields, away from every bad thing that ever happened to him, until he could no longer breathe." Pretty good as far as keeping the word blend in there. But what happens if we actually put some word repetition into this? "He ran out of his house, running through the backyard, running into the fields, running away from every bad thing that ever happened to him, running until he could no longer breathe." Repeating the word "running" is exhausting, but that actually serves a purpose by emphasizing just how important it is for this character to run away from whatever bothers him so much. In this case, repetition works to the writer's advantage because it takes its toll on the reader, which is exactly what this sentence should do.

Here's another example, this time through poetry. In one of the writer groups I attend, a fellow writer, poet, and all around good egg introduced us to a poem called a triolet. I had never known about such a thing, but once I heard about it, I became a little bit obsessed. A triolet can come in many forms, but one of the standard forms is an eight-line poem where the 1st, 4th, and 7th lines are the same line, the 2nd and 8th lines are the same line (different from the 1st, 4th, and 7th), and the rhyme scheme is ABAAABAB (the 3rd and 5th lines can be whatever you want as long as they fit the rhyme scheme. If this sounds complicated, well, it is at first, or at least until you see one. I would use my fellow writer's example but I do not know it offhand and didn't get permission anyway. Therefore, here is a simple triolet:

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Love lingers in the morning light,
A gentle touch, a whispered name.
It holds us close through darkest night—
Love lingers in the morning light.
Though time may blur our keenest sight,
The heart remains a steady flame.
Love lingers in the morning light, 
A gentle touch, a whispered name.

This kind of poem lives for repetition, using if specifically to reinforce a point. Now, this being poetry, there are allowances for repeating one's self and such, and many grammatical rules are optional. However, this emphasizes that using the same words or phrases can be a positive, even moving experience. You just need to know when to do it, and have a good sense of why it matters. In short, learn the rules so you know the best ways to break them.

As Monday will be Memorial Day (and my brother's birthday, my next post will not be until May 30th.