“Don’t Repeat Yourself.”…

Metadata

• Author: @MichaelDean_0 on Twitter
• Full Title: “Don’t Repeat Yourself.”…
• Category: #tweets
• URL: https://twitter.com/MichaelDean_0/status/1672245176901980160

Highlights

• “Don’t repeat yourself.” We live in an era of minimal, efficient, and robotic prose. But repetition done well brings an intangible magic to your writing. 18 types of repetition in Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut you can try out: https://t.co/fa2DC2XyMu (View Tweet)
  • Note: Thread lyric loops
• There are dozens of formal, PhD-level, Latin-sounding types of repetition, like “epizeuxis,” “anadiplosis,” and “chiasmus.” Let’s make it simple. We’ll break these 18 quotes into 3 groups: Stamps, Loops, and Mirrors. Starting with Stamps … (View Tweet)
• The most obvious form of repetition is to repeat words. Stamps are a tool to emphasize ideas and layer meaning. There are multiple ways to do it.
  1. DOUBLE-STAMP (Epizeuxis) Put two identical words next to each other for emphasis. (View Tweet)
• 2. NEAR-STAMP (Diacope) Repeat words and syllables, but with other words in between them. (View Tweet)
• 3. FRONT-STAMP (Anaphora) Repeat the beginning of a phrase. (View Tweet)
• 4. BACK-STAMP (Epistrophe) Repeat the end of a phrase. (View Tweet)
• 5. CARRY-STAMP (Epanodos) Carry an important word from sentence to sentence. (View Tweet)
• 6. MULTI-STAMP Weave multiple words from sentence to sentence. (View Tweet)
• It starts to get fun with Loops. Create loops by repeating phrases across back-to-back sentences. A loop lets you expand or relate ideas, while setting the pace. Kurt Vonnegut does this in imaginative ways: (View Tweet)
• 7. CUT-LOOP Repeat a phrase, but make it shorter. (View Tweet)
• 8. GROW-LOOP Repeat a phrase, but make it longer. (View Tweet)
• 9. ASYMMETRIC-LOOP Make it so that the content after each loop are unequal in length. (View Tweet)
• 10. FLIP-LOOP Invert the meaning of a loop to its opposite. (View Tweet)
• 11. LIST-LOOP Start a bunch of sentences with the same phrase. (View Tweet)
• 12. ARC-LOOP Create an arc by varying the length of each loop. (View Tweet)
• 13. BACK-LOOP End nearby sentences with the same word. (View Tweet)
• 14. MID-LOOP (Symploce) Repeat the middle phrase in consecutive sentences. (View Tweet)
• Mirrors are the 3rd (and most challenging) type of repetition. They’re about creating a “line of symmetry” and then repeating words either near or far from that line. When done right, they create balance, show cause and effect, and sound phonetically pleasing. Some examples: (View Tweet)
• 15. EDGE-MIRROR (Epanalepsis) Start one sentence with a word, and end the next sentence with that same word. (View Tweet)
• 16. PIVOT-MIRROR (Anadiplosis) Start a sentence with the ending of the last sentence. (View Tweet)
• 17. DOUBLE-MIRROR (Antimetabole) Flip the order of two adjacent fragments. (View Tweet)
• 18. INVISIBLE-MIRROR (Chiasmus): Create symmetry through meaning instead of identical words. (View Tweet)
• That’s it. Study repetition, practice it, then forget it. Let it come out intuitively. Repetition is masterfully laced through all of Vonnegut’s writing. Here’s an excerpt showing 7 types of repetition coming together. (View Tweet)
• 18 types of repetition from Cat’s Cradle, all in one image. Bookmark this and use it when you write. Once you get the hang of Stamps, Loops, and Mirrors, it adds a new dimension to your prose. Follow for more breakdowns, RT, and let me know what to dissect next. (View Tweet)