Repeated Phrases are Repeated

Something I've been struggling with lately is the fear that all of my writing sounds alike. I'll be reviewing something I've written earlier, and suddenly I realize that I used the precise same phraseology to describe two similar scenes. I didn't know I was doing it at the time... in both instances, I felt that the description was new and creative.

That's scary, because it calls into question absolutely everything I've written. Am I repeating myself?

Have I already posted about this?

Part of the problem is a language limitation. There are only so many words in the English language. Even with our huge array of synonyms, not every word with a given meaning is appropriate in every context. Despite our vast store of words with the same meaning, some lexical items that bear an equivalent significance are not fitting in all places.

See?

What I'm telling myself, and I think it's true, is that the problem is one of revision, not composition. If I find that I have written a scene using language similar to one that came before, I'll change it. If it's still too similar, then I'll approach the scene from a different angle. Then the temptation to use the same language won't be as great.

And above all, my tendency to repeat myself comes with a bit of comfort too. How many times have I wondered how the story would have come out if I hadn't stopped writing it at various points? Turns out, there's nothing magical about the way I did it the first time. Chances are, if I had it to do over again, it would come out the same.