The Power of Three at a Sentence Level

Humans like the number three. Think about it. The three little pigs. Bronze, silver, and gold. Trilogies, trimesters, and triangles.

One reason for this is the human brain can identify and process groups of three easily. Another is that groups of three suggest completion. But the main reason is probably that humans process information through patterns, and three is the smallest number that allows us to recognize patterns in a set.

Whatever the reason, we humans like the number three. And we use it in many places. As writers, however, it often doesn’t feature at a line level. This is a pity because some of the most memorable moments in fiction employ this tool. Let’s take a look at some ways we can use this at a sentence level to really power up our writing.

The Epic Build

Picture this for a moment: A young woman stands on the railing of a ship, one hand clasping the rigging, wind whipping her unbound hair about her. She calls these words to her crew, encouraging them to prepare for battle:

“What the enemy will see is the flash of our cannons. They will hear the ring of our swords, and they will know what we can do.”

You might have recognized this moment as part of Elizabeth Swan’s speech from Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. Notice the group of three she used here: what the enemy will see, what they will hear, and what they will know. Her full speech actually has three groups of three things that serve to build the courage of the crew (you can read it here: Elizabeth’s Speech). And as we, the viewers, listen to her words, we feel our courage rising as well.

The Revelation

We’ve all experienced it, whether it’s in real life or the pages of a book. That moment when your adrenaline is pumping, you know something is wrong, and you are on your way to investigate. You round the corner and …

Stop dead. What you see isn’t quite what you expected. You had a suspicion it would be something like this, but not this in its entirety.

Or maybe it’s not quite like that. Your characters are investigating something, maybe a murder or something nefarious or simply where Aunt Maud stores her silver spoons. Whatever they’re looking for, whatever new clue they’ve unearthed, or whatever discovery they’ve made, the moment of revelation is a key one.

Using a group of three to describe whatever your character stumbled upon or whatever your character is feeling in this moment is a powerful tool. It slows the pace, allowing both character and reader a moment to process the reveal. It also helps mark the moment as important, demanding that the reader focus on it.

The Sweet Lull

This moment can come at any point throughout the book. It can also be right at the end, where characters have achieved what they set out to achieve and all is at peace in their world. It might even come more than once. These are moments of bliss, moments we don’t want to end, moments that are more sweet because they are set against the backdrop of the struggles of the story.

And these moments can be highlighted by including groups of three.

Rather than build to an epic conclusion or give us time to process an important and potentially shocking revelation, using groups of three in times of a sweet lull allows us time to savor the moment. It allows us—characters and readers—to rest around a campfire with our closest friends, to relax in a lover’s embrace, or to appreciate just being alive before heading back into the fight. Like with the revelation, a group of three in the moments when everything is as we would wish allows us time to pause. At the end of the story, it allows us to sit back with a sigh, knowing the characters are okay and will continue to be okay.

How To Use This Powerfully

There are (believe it or not) three key aspects to using this technique well. Let’s take a quick look at them.

 Length

To create pleasing patterns of three, you need to make sure the three items are the same length. In other words, you can have three words, three phrases, or three sentences, but a mix of those does not work. For example, let’s take a look at a moment from Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speech, “I Have a Dream”:

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

Now, let’s take one of the sentences and turn it into a phrase:

 With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope, transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

See how the moment has lost its effectiveness? That’s because we no longer have three elements of the same length. If he had wanted to truncate his speech but still keep its emotional power here, then he would have needed to make both of the remaining sentences phrases … which would have led to a rather long and unwieldy sentence. How he said it was right the first time.

 Parallelism

Let’s take a quick look at a line from Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address:

In a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground.

Note the group of three and how they are parallel with each other. The power is lost as soon as we remove the parallelism:

In a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—hallowing of this ground.

First, that’s bad English. Second, his original meaning is lost. And third, the power of the moment is gone irredeemably. What makes the original line of Lincoln’s speech so memorable is the parallelism in its structure. That parallelism of elements contributes mightily to the power of the moment … and is good English.

(If you’d like to read more on parallelism in writing, you can read my blog post “Parallelism in Writing: Crafting Pleasing Prose.”)

Frequency

As with any powerful technique, less is more. There are key moments in every story that this technique will enhance, but using it in every scene will lead to reduced effectiveness and irritation in the reader.

Let’s go back to our example from The Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. Elizabeth’s speech is short and powerful and rallies the crew. But what if she used groups of three when talking as a norm? Then her speech on the railing of The Black Pearl would lose its significance because that is just how she normally speaks. The power of three only exists when it is used sparingly.

In Conclusion

Using groups of three is a powerful technique that can ramp up the emotion of key scenes in your story. When revising, keep an eye out for missed moments where you can add to the drama by including this, but also keep a sharp lookout for places it might have been misused, where it is adding drama to scenes that don’t need it.

And Just for Fun …

Go back and read this post again. Try and spot how many different ways I used groups of three.