The Rule of 3 in Writing: When It Works—and When It Doesn’t
The Rule of 3 shows up everywhere, not just in writing: Jokes. Story Structure. Marketing slogans. Even religion and myth.
At its simplest, the Rule of 3 says this: Three is the smallest number that creates a pattern. And once a pattern forms, it becomes more emotionally resonant and more memorable.
Lately (thanks to AI) the Rule of 3 has become, like the em dash, oddly controversial. Not because it doesn’t work, but because it’s being used in ways that actually weaken writing.
AI loves the Rule of 3. I asked my ChatGPT to write me a sentence that it thinks is good using the Rule of 3, and this is what it gave me:
“She wanted the work to matter, the sentence to hold, the silence afterward to feel earned.”
That sentence is fine. A little boring, a little generic, like most AI writing. And below we’ll explore how the Rule of 3, when used like this—without intention—flattens prose instead of sharpening it.
When the Rule of 3 Starts to Dilute Meaning
Patterns and repetition help us remember things. But they can also dilute a point when they’re doing work the sentence doesn’t need. An easy example might be a list, like above. Instead of choosing the precise word or action, writers stack three adjacent ones. Not because the sentence requires it—but because it feels “writerly.”
James Baldwin famously talked about writing sentences “clean as a bone.” By that he meant clarity. Precision. Knowing exactly what you’re saying and choosing the right word, not three approximate ones.
Sometimes the Rule of 3 isn’t craft—it’s a signal of uncertainty. Or laziness.
The AI Construction That Weakens Emotional Charge
There’s another pattern AI loves, which is closely related to the Rule of 3:
It’s not this. It’s not that. It’s this.
Like the Rule of 3, this construction can actually reduce your emotional impact. Not just because it’s overused, but because it asks the reader to visualize the opposite of what you want them to feel before finally landing on your point. Instead of pulling the reader forward, it has them wandering around in places you don’t want them.
So next time you’re writing, hesitate if you find yourself asking: “What rule should I follow?”
Try instead: “What emotional resonance am I trying to create—and does my language choice support that?”
A Craft Example: Twos vs. Threes in The Dark Dark
To show what I mean, let’s look at how numbers are being used at the sentence level in an excerpt by Samantha Hunt (one of my favorite writers).
What you need to know about this scene is that Norma has been trying to get pregnant with her husband for years, without success. In this scene, she’s just gotten her period again.
This is from The Dark Dark:
She feels something familiar—a peeling, a pain. In the toilet, a streamer of blood sinks to the bottom of the bowl, a dark, dead fish.
Yesterday, Norma asked the waitress how long it took her to get pregnant and the waitress said, “I don’t know. Fifteen minutes?”
“No. I mean, how many times did you have to try?”
And she said, “Try? What do you mean, honey?”
The waitress has three kids. She doesn’t seem to like any of them.
Norma’s been trying to get pregnant for over two years, and each time she gets her period a small bit of strength leaks out of her. Iron and blood.
…
Norma’s shoulders have begun to slump. Her eyes often shift between what she is looking at and at the ground. It’s cold comfort, but Normal imagines the deaths these non-babies would have had to die had they ever been born: car crashes, heart disease, cerebral hemorrhage. At least she has spared her non-babies all that dying.
—
Now look at the numbers.
Twos:
“a peeling, a pain”
trying for two years
“Iron and blood”
Threes:
the waitress has three kids
three imagined deaths
Here’s the pattern:
Twos describe Norma’s internal world: unfinished, leaking, unresolved, out of order
Threes describe the external world: normalcy, completion, emotional stability
Norma’s life feels fundamentally misaligned. So Hunt uses pairs to describe Norma herself—her body, her effort, her emotions. And when Norma looks outward, she encounters threes: resonance, fullness, things that seem to work the way they’re “supposed to.”
This isn’t accidental. And it’s far more effective than blindly applying a Rule of 3 everywhere.
Final Thoughts
Writing rules are not achievement badges. You don’t use them, get a gold star, and move on.
Craft tools exist to be used for the right job, at the right moment. So yes, learn the rules. But then ask yourself what this sentence, this character, this emotional moment actually requires from your language. This is how you create masterful writing.
If you want more help with writing craft questions like this one, you can book a week or month of coaching with me. I’ll review some of your writing and give you feedback, as well as some authors and books to read. You send me pages; I send you notes.
Happy writing!
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