On Twitter, an author mentioned the new book she has available for preorder. I thought that my family had read and re-read her previous book (Station Eleven) so many times that she really should be allowed to just publish that book again. (It’s really, really good.)
Then again, lots of creators do publish the same book again and again. The word formulaic refers to authors who literally found an effective formula for their creations, and repeatedly followed it. Think genre fiction. The details change, but the patterns stay the same.
And it’s true in music, as well. We often write the same piece over and over again. Vivaldi certainly wrote the “same piece” many times, and so do any number of contemporary choral composers and arrangers. Think of those composers whose pieces you can recognize in just a few measures.
Patterns are natural, useful, and to a large extent unavoidable. But it’s worth considering how to balance writing to your patterns with finding opportunities to create outside those patterns.
Write in a new genre, or with a very different text than you usually use. Consciously avoid the familiar and try to develop new musical languages. Force yourself into a place where you have no idea what the formula would be. And then write your way out.
(And then, go back and write something following all of your familiar patterns. The point is to do both.)