Excessive alliteration

Q:

I love excessive alliteration, okay maybe just a healthy dose of alliteration. Sometimes I’m not even aware I’ve done it until I see all the highlighted words from my editor. But why is it frowned upon in my fiction?

A:

While some alliteration here and there is perfectly acceptable, repetitive instances will take the reader out of the story and point to the possibility of potential pauses in the plot and prohibit a protagonist from pushing the point or progressing the preparation of parables or puzzling problems of persons presented. But two or three similar sounds in sequence is fine. So keep writing!

 

 

From Merriam-Webster:

Alliteration: the repetition of usually initial consonant sounds in two or more neighboring words or syllables (such as wild and woolly, threatening throngs)

Excessive Alliteration: too much of the above.

 

I’ve been guilty of such alliteration in my writings, and it’s not until I read it aloud that I discover the faux pas. Just for fun, leave a comment with your best sentence of grand alliteration. Go wild!

Excessive alliteration and tea

Do you need to remember how awesome you are?

Try this book.