After a “Mad” Monday, everything got unsettled and confused. I’m tired of dark dreary skies, droplets of water, outside, and did I mention dreary skies?
How many times in our writings do we hear echos? We find a phrase or a couple of words and repeat them all over the page, or chapter, or chapters, or throughout the whole book. “Well, this is the way to recognize my character.” But on every page? “My character speaks like this all the time.” Then silence your character(s) for a few pages.
Echos equal repetition and as writers, we are capable of creating such a vast entity of settings, words, descriptions, and conversations. We do not need ECHOS. Or do we?
If done in a subtle way, this can create a reference to a crime. Then the reader gets shivers knowing about the echo. Or you have a vicious love circle and the same phrase, “I’ll be late.” comes out quite often. Still not in every scene.
When we write, we need to get our ideas out, kinda like a free-write. These ideas are fresh to the writer. We can’t take the chance of forgetting one twist or turn. So we write, write, and write. Word fill up the pages and echos reverberate. Not loud enough we hear them, until revision time comes. Then, we shake our heads and start to worry how many of them did we put in?
A simple “Search and Find” can do the trick. If at any time you think you have echos or overused a certain word, hit the find and then the next, and next, and next. I’m always surprised and shocked. I don’t remember writing the same word that many times, but there it is right in front of me.
A gentle reminder to all of us, don’t forget about “Echos.” Your readers will remember.
Happy Writing. Happy Writing. “Oops.”
See you back on Friday.
patriciachats 