Repetition Can be Great but Try Not to Repeat Yourself Too Much as Repetition Can be a Little Repetitive

Repetition can be a blessing or a curse. If used correctly, it can make a powerful theme radiate from your piece. Being a fan of repetition myself, I love using it in my poetrywhere can be used to bring life to a certain theme or idea that you really want the reader to focus on. Like a song's chorus, a repeated stanza in a poem makes you think that it’s there for a reason, that the writer wants that certain part read over and over again for a purpose. Whether it be for emphases, or because the particular stanza has information in it that pertains to the whole piece, repetition in a poem in particular almost always works, and if written well, flows quite nicely.

Prose generally tells a story in a much larger span than a poem. Stories need to be consistent, and therefor repetition is important in prose in the sense that you need to have a continuous theme throughout your story. This is done differently than in poems, however. The type of repetition that you see in poems can be quite tedious in prose. The style of prose is much more formal, and so repetition can become annoying, for lack of a better word. If you are describing someone or something and only focusing on one single detail and going back to it over and over again it can be difficult for a reader to move past -- such as continuously repeating words, as it just looks like nonsense.

However, if that sort of repetition is absolutely crucial to your piece, aim to repeat what you believe to be important in a poetic way, so that the reader doesn’t feel like they have to read what you’ve written, but want to, because it adds to the story. However, repetition can also be used for comedic effect, and therefore obviously does not need to written poetically. Just write it so that it's funny!

Repetition is a tool that can make or break your piece. Poems have less posture and are usually more free flowing; therefore, you can get away with a lot more. It doesn’t look as odd when you copy and paste that one stanza three times out of eight. It adds a different taste to your piece, makes your readers really think about what they are reading, makes them question as to why it is so important. In prose, repetition is important so that your story is consistent, and although more difficult to sporadically place well, it can be done. Just make sure to remember that if you are repeating something, ensure that it is dang important.