The Importance of Internal Consistency

In psychological testing, internal consistency refers to how well items on a particular test measure the same construct. In principle, items that purport to measure the same construct should strongly correlate to each other. We can make use of a similar idea when writing fiction.

A story is made up of multiple components, and it has internal consistency when all of these components operate and abide by the rules and logic that govern the world the story is set in. In other words, internal cons...