Hello everyone. I've decided to start a blog, partly because it sounds amusing, and partly because I want to remind myself of everything I should be doing while writing. This blog will dispense whatever sage advice I happen to have to offer, along with the side tangents and other thoughts that come to mind while writing these things. I will have space at the end of each blog for a more condensed version of the advice, for the sake of clarity and really making sure I get all this stuff. I'm still working on making it look pretty, and I probably won't have it super fancy until sometime in January. Let's face it, I'm never going to get around to it.
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Repetition

Posted February 8th, 2016 at 8:18 AM by Bardothren

Salutations everyone! I was debating what catchphrase, if any, to use for this blog. Salutations is fine and all, but I was thinking that I needed to come up with a better catchphrase... and that's when it hit me. So, I'm still coming up with a better catchphrase.

If you're wondering how my pinky is doing, it's much better now. Still tingles a little, but it's not nearly as bad as a week ago. That's good... because I have nine days to write eleven pages for a story that I haven't fully developed in my mind yet. Fun. I also got a free Chipotle burrito. It was the weirdest thing ever. As I was sipping on my lemonade, with the remnants of a consumed barbacoa burrito in front of me, a bald-headed man walked up to my table, offered to take my tray to the garbage can (which I accepted and he did) and gave me this fricking sweet card (like the combination of a credit card and a baseball card) and told me he'd like to buy my next burrito. And that is why you should always eat your burritos in the restaurant... if them getting soggy and cold wasn't reason enough in the first place.

As for my writing, I haven't posted in the fanfic section in quite a while, sadly. I've been working on story content and other life stuff. I'll get to it hopefully within a week or two.

Alright then, on to the topic of the week-ish thingy.

Repetition

This week's topic is born of a question I've been asking myself lately: how do you use repetition to get a point across? How do I tell if it's too much or too little? The short answer is... when in doubt, use as little as possible. The long answer... well, that's what this blog is for, isn't it?

First, I'll categorize two types of repetition: narrative repetition and thematic repetition. Narrative repetition is the same thing happening over again, while thematic repetition is the same image/metaphor appearing multiple times. Narrative repetition is almost always bad (Groundhog Day being an exception) because your reader will become quickly bored of all the repetition. Thematic repetition, on the other hand, if skillfully employed, will make your reader think a little more. The question is what to use and how often to use it.

As a real world example, I recently wrote a short story containing multiple edenic references to bring to mind the consequences of having particular knowledge, including multiple instances of fruit and snake imagery scattered throughout the story. I use such imagery to draw parallels, such as "this book = the apple" and "clothes = serpent". It's also important to understand what these images mean; for example, apples represent forbidden knowledge in this context while the serpent embodies temptation. It is then with careful narrative construction that one can make an argument, such as though it feels comforting to know how your future will play out in exchange for your free will, real paradise lies in the ability to make your own choices.

Now for the golden question: how much? There's no magic number; instead, I offer this advice. Ask a few people to read through a passage, ask them what themes or repeating patterns they saw, how quickly they noticed them, when it felt repetitive, which images were the most/least striking, etc. Then go back and prune out whatever images aren't necessary. Or, if no one gets the drift, add in a few more. If you lack good editors, then err on the side of caution; have a few memorable ones in there and the reader will either not notice or will applaud you for your subtle use of thematic elements. Having too little and overestimating the intelligence of your reader is better than having too much and underestimating them.

Alright then, summary time.

Summary


Narrative repetition should be avoided, but to bring out hidden thematic contexts, using thematic repetition can be a great way to make your reader think. Err towards too little repetition and get some good reviewers to help you fine-tune the repetition.

Some important questions to ask include:
What theme am I trying to bring out?
What references best tie this theme together?
How can I make each instance stand out without making the reference too obvious?
Are there any references that I can remove without altering the underlying theme?

Never say carte blanche what the theme is - let your reader discover it for themselves, for no reader will read your work the same way. And to close, I'll provide two examples - one great and one terrible - so you get the idea of what I'm going for. As usual, I won't tell you which one is the one I think works best.

Spoiler:
As he studied the ancient drawings on the cave wall, he took an apple out of his pack and took a big, juicy bite out of its cool, moist skin.


Spoiler:
As he studied the ancient drawings on the cave wall, he thought of Adam and Eve, and how they were ruined by the knowledge they had acquired.


I think this one's fairly obvious, and it should tell you the most constructive way to introduce references to your stories.

And that's that. Have a great week everyone, and don't forget to leave me comments to remind me that other people still exist.
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