Probably just a common 'new' writer's mistake, but when I read back over a day's work I keep finding the same syllable rhythms in my writing. Most commonly: paar-par-paar par-paar (full stop) paar-par-par Does my bloody head in. Really does. (Jooooke, before you go pointing it out!) Is this just my 'style' and I can expect regular readers to enjoy it, or is it a glaring neon sign of amateur writing? Anyone else do this?
Don't worry about it when drafting. When you come to edit/revise, you can look into mixing up the rhythm (if you want) to aid interest. The same old repetitive can become stale. And, don't worry about it. A style of rhythm is no bad thing, and will give the writer individualism. Writing should have a beat, and a reader will fall into it. As long as the rhythm helps to read smoothly, and quick, then all is good. Sometimes though, you'll want to slow the reader down. Keep writing, Dave. Writing should have rhythm. *grins*
There is a rhythm to writing, a balance in prose that makes it flow easily. If you put rhythm in prose in your search engine, you'll find loads of sites which deal with this. This seems to be a good one; http://www.richardgilbert.me/2009/10/06rhythm-flow[/URL]
This is the sort of thing you can easily spot when you read your work aloud. I used to have the same problem, and I still do, sometimes, in my first drafts. As I've gained experience, though, my sentences have grown longer and somewhat more complex (much to the annoyance of some people on this forum), and that tends to reduce the obviousness of the repetitions in my prose rhythm. Those repetitions are there, though, and I kind of cherish them.
Do you listen to music while writing? Or have songs playing in your head? Perhaps a more random background sound source can help break up your rhythms.
i find music seems to help with sorting this out, pick an artist or band whose sound can vary (i listen to metal, so i try and pick a band that has some really short, fast songs, and a couple of really long slow songs, like Trivium or Machine Head) then if i have their back catalogue, create a playlist of their music and set it to shuffle, that way you dont know whats going to come up next...
