Continuity

That short story, “Hag,” was my summer project. I finished it before going back to school, and I feel really good about that. That means I can start looking ahead to the series finale for Minstrels of Skaythe. Step one of that will be to firm up my continuity from the previous five novellas.

What do I mean by continuity? In writing, it’s basically how you keep track of the details of a story. Everything from the broad plot actions to the details of a character’s appearance are part of the continuity. Most writers keep track of stuff like that so that they don’t make embarrassing mistakes. Growing up as a comic fan, I was always aware of continuity because characters would mention things that happened in previous stories, and we got footnotes telling us what title and issue that took place in. (Which, possibly, was also a bid by the publisher to keep up interest in collecting back issues.)

For myself, I usually did stand-alone novels, where most continuity can be addressed in outlining. Knowing Minstrels of Skaythe would be a series, I’ve been keeping track of continuity in a different way. Some of the things I’ve tried to note for each volume are where the story takes place and who the main antagonist is. If there are important minor characters, I note them down. I try to always have a giant creature of some kind, and that gets written down, too.

Mentions of the other minstrels are also important. The minstrels are a group of mages, each of whom has one volume directed to them, but I still want the readers to know the other ones are out there. I accomplish that by having them say things about each other. Finally, the minstrels are followers of a philosopher-mage named Ar-Thea, and they sometimes quote her wisdom. All of those mentions and quotes go into my continuity document.

I have roughly 2 weeks left before returning to work, so before then I plan to go over my continuity document before then. I think I got in a rush with Renegade of Opshar, and didn’t do those entries. Honestly, that should only take me a few days. I can’t let myself get too lazy!

Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my web site, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.

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