say that again

A lively chat in a writing forum centered on repeated words. The consensus was that they’re a blight and send many a writer flailing toward the thesaurus as a weary swimmer might reach out for a pool noodle. But hold up a minute, there, my flailing friend— wait, did I already use flailing?

Repetition can be fully intentional. For instance, consider the epithet— not the word as it’s often used to mean an insult, but the real type of Homeric epithet.

This is a repeated phrase which occurs in connection with a certain character, thing or situation. Its original purpose was to aid a poet’s memory, and today it’s a tool in the writer’s trick bag which I, for one, throw into my books by the gleeful double scoop.

Thus my big river isn’t just “the Denna” but “the broad brown Denna, Old Mama River, Carrier of the World”. And I have others, culminating in a great big honkin’ obvious nod to Homer himself with the Midland Sea’s “brandy-black deeps”.

Do you use a favorite epithet in your writing? Sing to me, O Reader, and tell it.