Repetition & Variation

Photo by Corinne Kutz on Unsplash

Humans love repetition.

We eat the same foods over and over again. We watch the same episodes of television over and over again. Our clothes. Our hobbies. Our stories. They all repeat similar tastes, patterns, preferences, aesthetics, themes, ideas. Repetition is safe because it’s familiar.

Humans crave variation.

Variation is why we like to eat at different different restaurants that offer the exact same cuisine, each one has their own “spin” on a particular dish. Genres of music are defined by a particular sound or aesthetic (repetition) but each musician takes the conventions of the genre and adds their own take (variation). Variation exists within the patterns we’re accustomed to but the variations help us notice something we didn’t notice before.

Stories exist on the ideas of repetition and variation. Thrillers give us the tropes and techniques that are familiar to us; we expect these conventions. But, we want our writers to add variation to the tropes and techniques - to show us what we always see but through fresh eyes.

As writers we seek out familiar stories but with our own lens of lived experience or personal perceptions. Look for the pattens and repetitions in your writings and then ask yourself if you’re showing your audience those familiar patterns in new ways.

Audiences expect certain patterns but they also expect us, writers, to show it to them in a different way.