Consistent Characters
Welcome to Ron’s Tuesday Tips. Every Tuesday I share writing tips with
you. Usually it is about writing, publishing, or marketing. Occasionally it is
on other matters. This week it is
about:Consistent Characters.
Years ago, when I was getting reviews
for a novel I’d written one young man decided he wanted to review it. He
indicated he was a Christian and interested in Christian fiction. I sent him a
copy of the book and he later wrote a negative review. As a general rule, a
writer should never challenge a reviewer. And I didn’t, but I sure wanted to do
so!
Why? Because it was negative?
No, because of the following.
This young man didn’t really read the
book. Instead he skipped his way partway through it and then never finished the
book. Yet, he took it upon himself to write a negative review after first
admitting he never read it through.
What caused the negative report?
Before answering that let me tell you
about the book. It was a novel based on Biblical events in the Book of Genesis.
Many of the characters had the same name. For example, there was Enoch and
Enoch. The first Enoch was a son of Cain; the second Enoch was a prophet who
walked with God and was translated. There were other same-named people.
Because the reviewer skipped through
the story he arrived at sections where for example it talked of Enoch walking
with God while earlier had shown Cain’s son Enoch badly. He assumed it was the
same person when in fact they were two different persons.
As a commonsense rule it is good to avoid characters having the same name, but when dealing with historical figures that is not always possible. I did my best to clarify who was who but I never imagined a reviewer, let alone a reader, skipping through the book.
Sometime later this person wanted to
review another of my books. I had to reject him and I told him why. He
apologized, but I didn’t trust him to do an honest review.
So, what’s the point?
The point is that this reviewer
perceived inconsistencies in the characters of my story. And his complaint
would have been correct if it was one character and not two characters. The
personalities of the two Enoch’s were completely different!
A greater point is that if you are
writing a novel, always try to keep your characters separate and unique. They
are allowed to change, but the reader needs to observe the change, especially
if the character’s nature changes from bad to good, or good to bad!
Sudden changes are like thunderbolts.
They jar the reader. Now if that’s your intent they go with it. Most likely it
wasn’t your intent.
How do I avoid clashes?
It’s not that hard. If you have two or
more characters with the same name you can always change the name of one or the
other. If they are historical, then you need to provide some kind of
characteristic that identifies one of them. For example, one could stutter. When
dealing with historical figures your liberty isn’t as strong as with fictional.
But you can still differentiate using clothing, speech, habits, or some other
unique characteristic to separate one character from the other. The differences
can be multiple or just one.
But Characters are not the only places
for consistency.
For instance, let’s say that your
story surrounds a person who lives in a tent. It suddenly changes to a home and
later on in the story changes back to a tent. All without explanation. This is
another jolt to your reader’s experience.
How about conversation? If you are not
careful it is possible to have the wrong person saying the wrong things. This,
by the way, is a strong argument for edits by you or someone else. Conversational
inconsistencies are also harder to pick up. I doubt that any software can pick
up verbal inconsistencies. This requires actual reading of the text.
How bad can inconsistencies be?
I related above about a negative
review simply because a careless reviewer thought there were inconsistencies.
That negative review didn’t really hurt me, but it could have. If the
inconsistencies were real just think of the impact that man’s review would have
had. And it is possible that those people who followed him may have reacted by
not buying my book.
In conclusion.
Do your edits! Whether you personally
edit or hire a professional editor, editing must be done! That’s the only way
you can illuminate potential problems that can turn readers away.
For information on TR Writing Services contact us at marketing@tr-indbkstore.com.
We have a Free booklet telling you about our services. And we are upfront on
our prices (all are low).
VISIT MY AUTHOR’S PAGE TODAY: amazon.com/author/rfrederickriddle.
ARE YOU A BOOK REVIEWER? I am
always looking for book reviews. Whether it is Perished The World That Was
(Book One), World of Noah and the Ark (Book Two), World of Shem
(Book Three), World of Abraham (Book Four) or Death Ship (Book One), Pauline A New Home (Book Two), Task
Force Hunter (Book Three), Black Death (Book Four), or Rise of
I.C.E.S. (Book Five), I value your reviews.
If you would like to review any of these books contact me at marketing@tr-indbkstore.com with the subject line indicating that desire. An example of an
appropriate subject line would be: ‘Seek to review [book Title].’ In the email
make sure to indicate your email address, your name, and the choice of copy
(PDF or Epub).
– – – – – – –
R Frederick
Riddle is the Editor of TR Writing
Services providing help to struggling and/or new
authors to write and publish their books. In addition, he is the author of
several books and is best known for Christian Historical and Speculative
Fiction. For more information on him or his books visit his Amazon Authors Page. He is also
co-founder and Vice President of T&R Independent Books where his books are featured. To reply to any blog you have the
option of commenting on a blog and/or sending an email to marketing@tr-indbkstore.com. You may also be interested in his Facebook page at RFrederickRiddlesWorld.
