A better way to say "great authors write the same book ten times"?

June 18, 2013 8:22 PM

What's a better way to refer to the idea that an artist tries to refine the same central idea over and over again throughout their career?

For example, the notion that a novelist's tenth book is the tenth attempt at perfecting what they couldn't quite pull off in the first novel. The idea is not that these artists aren't coming up with new ideas, but just that the central concerns of their work hover around something aesthetically that takes many attempts to hone and sharpen, often shortened as "great authors write the same book ten times" or something like that. I feel like there is a shortish word (possibly in German?) to refer tot his concept but I can't remember enough to even google for it.

posted by deathpanels to Writing & Language (9 answers total)

Hedgehog and destiny neurosis (Schicksalszwang? a species of repetition compulsion) come to mind.
posted by Monsieur Caution at 8:30 PM on June 18, 2013

Leitmotif?
posted by Cold Lurkey at 8:32 PM on June 18, 2013 [3 favorites]

More: idée fixe and return of the repressed.
posted by Monsieur Caution at 8:40 PM on June 18, 2013 [1 favorite]

+1 for idée fixe, that's what came to mind as I read the question.
posted by egypturnash at 11:32 PM on June 18, 2013

I always say, "He only steals from himself."
posted by The Underpants Monster at 5:34 AM on June 19, 2013

I've also heard "returning to the same well."
posted by The Underpants Monster at 5:35 AM on June 19, 2013

A writer must find his or her voice and write faithfully in it.
posted by samuelcramer at 6:46 AM on June 19, 2013

I've heard it refered to as "one's project". Like, "Oh yeah, that's his project."
posted by bleep at 7:33 AM on June 19, 2013 [1 favorite]

I was going to refer you to a graphic, not a term, but the Wikipedia deletionists have cruelly taken away the John Irving Recurring Subjects Chart.
posted by psoas at 12:35 PM on June 19, 2013