A Little Variety Goes a Long Way
As I was was playing my guitar this afternoon, I was reminded of an important aspect of songwriting — variety.
Variety should be prevalent in every aspect of a well-written song. The melody should be infused with a wide variety (or range) of notes, or else the song gets repetitive, often sounding monotone and emotionless. If the rhythms are too repetitive, the music begins to sound robotic and stiff. If the chorus sounds too much like the verse, the entire song becomes monotonous.
And it hit me that it’s no different with writing fiction. If you open up any of the classics, you will find that the authors use a great deal of variety in every aspect of their work, from broad themes all the way down to sentence structure and word choice. Without this sense of variety, a written work doesn’t flow properly. Take sentence length, for example. If every sentence in a work of literature were long and verbose, bleeding across half a page, complex in structure to the point where you no long remember where the sentence began, then it becomes a very tedious read, and you quickly find yourself moving on to something else. Likewise, if you have too many short, five-word sentences in a row, then it begins to sound very choppy and broken.
On the other hand, if you employ variety in the length and structure of your sentences, then you will notice a more pleasant flow. When you read it out loud, it will sound natural, almost conversational.
But it doesn’t stop with sentence structure. Variety needs to be infused into your word choice. Don’t repeat the same words or phrases over and over again in the same sentence or paragraph. Also, consider the length of your paragraphs. Don’t make them all long, but don’t make them all short, either.
On a broader scale, use variety in your setting and plot. Unless it’s absolutely essential to the story (such as in the Tom Hanks movie, Cast Away), don’t keep your characters in the exact same spot throughout the entire narration. If it is essential, then provide variety in other ways, such as the weather or the threats that are being faced.
Add a variety of themes (always staying consistent with your overall theme, of course), plot twists, moods, and dialogs. If all your characters speak the same way, using the same word choice and sentence structure, then ALL of your characters will start to become flat, no matter how much work you’ve done on their back stories.
I think you get the point. If something doesn’t seem quite right when you’re reading through your manuscripts, take a step back and consider whether or not there’s enough variety in the story. Adding a little variety may just give your story the spark you’ve been looking for.
But before I wrap it up, let me also say that there may be times when you purposefully want some repetition and monotony. Going back to the idea of songwriting, if you’re composing a funeral dirge, then you probably won’t have as much variety in harmony or rhythm as you would for a song of celebration. But as an overall rule, try to mix it up a little.