Friday, 7 August 2009
A bit repetitive
I was reading a short story in a popular women's magazine yesterday which the hope of getting published in one day forbids me from naming. The exact same three words were used to describe the hero's eyes three times. When you consider that the story was only about 700 words long I thought that was a bit repetitive. Without intending to sound bitter because this story was published and I have been rejected by this magazine more than once, isn't such repitition frowned upon?
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2 comments:
Yes, it is! Although it's surprisingly easy to repeat yourself, while writing, without realising you're doing it, or even noticing it afterwards - my editor has sometimes picked up glaring examples in my books - thank goodness she did. I suspect there was something in this particular story that appealed to the magazine editor - whatever it was, it made her decide the story was publishable and perhaps mag editors don't have the time to go through short stories with such a fine toothcomb. It's easy to say that they should, or that the repetiton shouldn't have been there in the first place - but in the real world, unfortunately, stories and books that we know (in our heart of hearts) aren't as good as something we've written ourselves, do get published. I think we have to accept that, or drive ourselves mad! xx
I would have thought so, GBW, but who knows nowadays. I would if the writer is a newbie or someone they have published before? As they might overlook such things if the writer is well known to them.
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