When I posted the WALL #4 progress update on January 6, I referenced the “Three C’s”:

• Characters Behaving Badly
• Continuity
• Contrary,( if not downright) Cantankerous Muses

I shared some insights into the phenomenon of Characters Behaving Badly last year, but thought you might be interested in the other two C’s as well.

So I’ll expand a little more on Continuity today and come back to Contrary, if not downright Cantankerous Muses either next Thursday or a little later, depending how the blogging aspect of the writing life plays out.

Continuity

The term arises out of film, I believe, but is equally applicable to long-form prose writing, traversing the spectrum from matters-of-magnitude through to far smaller concerns. A synonym would be “consistency”, although I believe continuity better captures the flow of detail and sense through an entire manuscript.

 

 

 

 

 

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An example of smaller concerns would be if a character starts the story as a blue-eyed blonde and ends as a brown-eyed brunette. At some point the author needs to decide which it is and ensure all the instances of the discarded option are removed from the manuscript. This is usually something that takes place at second-draft stage, with any instances that have been missed picked up by the edit/copyedit/proof processes.

Generally speaking, the characteristics of my major characters don’t change that much, so this is not an applicable example for my work. The names of minor characters are far more relevant, especially as Haarth is a secondary world so the names are all made up. There are also a considerable number of named characters, so although the major players are generally not a problem, sometimes rank-and-file characters can end up with identical handles.

Again, this is generally something that can be fixed up while tidying the manuscript, rather than when writing new.

By implication, when continuity slows down the writing process it’s because of the larger matters, such as lining up events from past books with their consequences in the present, and also ensuring that characters, having espoused values and/or actions in one book, do not advocate for or do the opposite now. Unless, that is, the character has been established as being contrary and/or unreliable, or events have occurred that profoundly change their nature.

All these matters directly affect the writing-in-progress, so where a question or doubt arises it is necessary to check back—and sometimes to track the evolution of events and characters through the preceding books to ensure the circumstances in this book hold water. And most importantly of all, ring true.

Fortunately, I know the books pretty well, so know where to start looking. Nonetheless, the process can take time—but more so when I haven’t checked soon enough and find rewriting is required.

Or as the hobbits found when first setting out on the ring quest, attempted shortcuts (or trying to ignore the continuity niggle) frequently make for long delays.

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PS Did you know that there’s an AI called Continuity in William Gibson’s Mona Lisa Overdrive (the final novel in the Sprawl trilogy)? Names are an important part of both character development and worldbuilding, imho, and I really like this one. 🙂

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Previous Bulletins From Inside The Writing Life:

• A Little About The Writing Itself
• About Those Muses, Then…
• Naturally Self-Isolating
• Writing Novels, Posting Blogs
• Another Milestone Ticked Off
• A Game Of Two Halves
• Further Reflection on Writing Transitions
• Fun With Friends
• Those Moments Of “Grr-Argh”
• Sometimes It’s A Case Of “Oh Frabjous Day!
• “O Frabjous Day” Reprised
• Listening To The Silence
• Characters Behaving Badly
• Many Placemarkers
• The Authorial Break
• Of Puzzles and Gardens
• Wrangling The Roadblocks