In my writing class we have the literary equivalent of a swear box, an automatic penalty for anybody committing the offence of repetition. I've blogged before about how slack your writing can appear if you use the same word more than once in close proximity -- it gives the impression that your vocabulary is limited and/or your editing is careless.
However, as with all good rules, there are exceptions. Many writers use a device known as a leitmotif, where the same phrase or image re-occurs at key points in the narrative to highlight an emotion or underscore a mental state; rather than being laziness this is a kind of orchestration which needs careful handling.
The idea I'd like to float today is the way in which you might use repetition in the structure of your work. Perhaps you could take a key scene in the life of your protagonist, a critical moment on which the plot hinges, and revisit it again and again as the story develops, casting it a little differently each time so that something fresh is revealed. Think of it in terms as a camera panning back slowly, going from close-up too long shot (or conceivably in the opposite direction) so that the picture which emerges is amplified (or concentrated). It's a way of adding depth and resonance to the story you are telling and of allowing the plot to unfold in a way that goes beyond the simply linear.
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