Repetition

What It Does

Detects two forms of repetition:

1. Echoed words — non-common words repeated within a short window of text (proximity repetition)
2. Pet phrases — words used significantly more often than expected across the entire document

Why It Matters

Unintentional word repetition is one of the most common revision targets. When "regarded" appears three times in two paragraphs, the reader notices the echo even if the writer doesn't. Pet phrases — words a writer unconsciously overuses — create a monotonous texture across an entire manuscript.

What Gets Flagged

Echoed Words (Proximity Repetition)

Severity: Information

Example (flagged):

The garden was beautiful. She walked through the beautiful gate into the beautiful courtyard.

Why: "Beautiful" appears three times in close proximity. The repetition dulls the description.

Suggested revision:

The garden was lush. She walked through the wrought-iron gate into the sun-drenched courtyard.

Pet Phrases (Document-Level Overuse)

Severity: Hint

Example (flagged):

"Nodded" appears 47 times (expected ~8 based on document length)

Why: Some words become unconscious habits. A character who nods 47 times in a manuscript has a noticeable tic.

Filtering

The analyzer ignores:

• Common words (articles, prepositions, pronouns, conjunctions)
• Short words (fewer than 4 characters)
• Words that appear only once

Configuration

• Echo window size — configurable via repetition_echo_window (default: paragraph-based proximity window)
• Pet phrase threshold — configurable via repetition_pet_threshold (multiplier above expected frequency)

Technical Details

• Source: prose-craft
• Scope: Document-level (echo detection uses a sliding window; pet phrases use whole-document frequency)
• Method: Word frequency analysis with common-word filtering