Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

A basic principle in writing non-fiction is Don’t Repeat Yourself. Write it once and point to it.

DRY means “Don’t Repeat Yourself.” This is simple, but not often used, and that causes us lots of headaches and heartaches.

I have a background in computer programming. A fundamental part of computer programming is the use of a subroutine (we have created dozens of names for the subroutine, but they all refer to the same thing). A subroutine is a small(er) set of instructions to the computer that we set to the side. Every time we want the computer to execute those instructions we “call” or refer to that subroutine instead of writing those instructions again and again and again and…

This is a simple concept. Just “do what I told you to do yesterday. That same thing. No need to repeat myself.”

Ah, “repeat myself.” DRY, don’t repeat yourself. Simply write the schedule on page 12. In the rest of the book, write “See page 12 for the schedule.” If the schedule changes, there is only one place where the editor needs to go to change it. If I had repeated the schedule in a dozen places, I would have to go to a dozen places, make the change a dozen times, and hope I did it correctly a dozen times in a row.

Don’t repeat yourself. Put the schedule on page 12 and only page 12. Put the contents of the box on page 11 and only page 11. Put the assembly procedure on page 9 and only page 9. This is simple.

There are many reasons why I want to repeat myself. Some of them are excellent reasons. Violate the DRY principle when it makes sense, but only when it makes sense. Violating the DRY principle complicates my life and creates extra work for me. Sometimes that complication and work are necessary. Often, they are not.