A special person is on the set for television and movies with the job of seeing that an actor wears the same scarf, uses the same glass set in the same place in each scene. Continuity. An author needs writing continuity.
What Is Writing Continuity?
Tolkien spent years with his world building to ensure his writing continuity. The languages, the creatures, the landscapes had to stay the same not only in one book, but throughout all of them.
I’m not in his class, but I am concerned with this too. One draft I was working on had a character in the beginning reappear toward the end with a new name. Oops.
Outlines Help
In my present novel draft, there is a major storm lasting several days. Yes, storms have changes from one day to the next. Some things must remain constant.
The wind is a factor. At the beginning of the storm there are high straight line winds. These are hard enough to tear leaves, twigs and small branches off the trees. These diminish for a time to a stiff breeze that does not pull leaves off the trees. It then picks up again as the storm blows itself through.
When does each change happen? What effects does Mindy see at each stage? I set up an outline to track the storm factors.
Heavy rain falls throughout the storm. Mindy tracks how much. She adds it up as the amounts increase. Writing continuity insists that the amounts add up correctly and gain in a match to the stage of the storm.
After the storm, Mindy is left cleaning up the mess. Part of that is repairing the cow pasture fence. How fast can she work? She is one person, working alone, not a super hero. And, how many posts are there around this pasture? Which way do they lean? Why?
Reading a finished novel, the reader sees the writing continuity without realizing the work the author did to ensure it was right. When it isn’t right, the reader knows it. Back to my outline so my novel will get it right.
