Forum: Story Discussion and Feedback

Continuity - the destroyer of stories

greensocks 🚫

continuity - this right here is the line above which to many stories fail to clear. For ME i can live with the spelling and still score a story above a 7 if it can just keep its own storyline straight. Are the lucky ones the stories i stop reading and never return cause i don't score a story i don't finish or is it the ones i do grind thru to the end and score 7 or lower cause they repeatedly fail to keep the story consistent from chapter to chapter or hell paragraph to paragraph.
Sorry just a personal rant after yet again finding a story that ticks all the boxes i enjoy but is so internaly inconsistent i just cant finish it.
I blame Al Steiner (Aftermath) his was the very first story i ever read here so many many many years ago and i have held everything since to that standard, fair or not. So many of you have met that standard and i give thanks that you shared with us your story telling.

Replies: Filmphotomaster BrandonInOhio ystokes awnlee jawking irvmull

Filmphotomaster 🚫

@greensocks

its an issue with everything.

there was a crime tv show. criminal minds maybe, one season ended with a cast member being killed, absolutely killed, yet the season opener for next season had the dead cast member back to work...

There was a CSI new york season, one charecter was paralyzed waiste down. Spent half the season in a wheelchair, then one day is wheel chair less and had never been paralyzed or wheelchair member.. never discussed again.

Replies: ystokes palamedes

ystokes 🚫

@Filmphotomaster

There was a CSI new york season, one charecter was paralyzed waiste down. Spent half the season in a wheelchair, then one day is wheel chair less and had never been paralyzed or wheelchair member.. never discussed again.

Makes one wonder if the actor even mentions to the writers "Where's my wheelchair?".

palamedes 🚫

@Filmphotomaster

There was a CSI new york season, one charecter was paralyzed waiste down. Spent half the season in a wheelchair, then one day is wheel chair less and had never been paralyzed or wheelchair member.. never discussed again.

CSI: NY, Danny Messer (played by Carmine Giovinazzo) is temporarily paralyzed from the waist down after being shot in the Season 5 finale, titled "Pay Up".

BrandonInOhio 🚫

@greensocks

There is a very popular long running series here that has many interconnected individual stories that all come into one "universe." I dont want to name names.

There is always an age gap in the male/female relationships. often over the course of one of the individual stories the FMC will age explicitly by two years. Somehow in that same store the MMC will age by 4-6+ years. Its not isolated to just one story.

I feel like if an author is spending the time and effort to build a large interconnected universe with a vast cast...perhaps keep a list of facts and dates about your main characters to avoid very obvious continuity issues.

Replies: Michael Loucks Inspectot

Michael Loucks 🚫

@BrandonInOhio

I feel like if an author is spending the time and effort to build a large interconnected universe with a vast cast...perhaps keep a list of facts and dates about your main characters to avoid very obvious continuity issues.

This was my entire reason for building a wiki. Even keeping notes wasn't sufficient.

Replies: BrandonInOhio

BrandonInOhio 🚫

@Michael Loucks

This is something that I appreciate greatly. To say it is expansive is an understatement.

Inspectot 🚫

@BrandonInOhio

Don't know if it is possible to change the introduction to a universe, but IT possible, the author could list the chronological order of the stories.

Replies: jimq2

jimq2 🚫

@Inspectot

I can just imagine someone trying to do that for "SWARM."

Replies: Inspectot

Inspectot 🚫

@jimq2

I agree. The ones that would be very dificult to impossible are ones that are written by more than one author such as SWARM that you mention and Damsels in Distress Naked in School.

ystokes 🚫

@greensocks

I love it when they call one person two different names in the same paragraph.

Replies: solitude

solitude 🚫

@ystokes

I love it when they call one person two different names in the same paragraph.

... or the MC is referenced as 'he' and 'I' in the same paragraph.

Replies: AmigaClone

AmigaClone 🚫

@solitude

... or the MC is referenced as 'he' and 'I' in the same paragraph.

... and it's not the case of multiple people talking in that paragraph.

Granted, what I have a strong dislike is when characters with female names that are referred to as female earlier in the chapter suddenly are referred to as male (with the same female name) or the other way around.

Replies: awnlee jawking helmut_meukel

awnlee jawking 🚫

@AmigaClone

Granted, what I have a strong dislike is when characters with female names that are referred to as female earlier in the chapter suddenly are referred to as male (with the same female name) or the other way around.

There was an author on SciFi Stories for a while whose characters seemed unintentionally gender-fluid. That aside, the stories were actually quite interesting. I wish I could remember the author's name :-(

AJ

helmut_meukel 🚫

@AmigaClone

Granted, what I have a strong dislike is when characters with female names that are referred to as female earlier in the chapter suddenly are referred to as male (with the same female name)

In English quite some given names are gender ambivalent.
I can imagine a scene where the MC was to meet Evelyn Wood and expected a woman, talked about her to others but then is shocked when actually meeting Field Marshal Sir Evelyn Wood, VC, GCB, GCMG, DL.

HM.

Replies: Grey Wolf Robin G. Lovell TheDarkKnight

Grey Wolf 🚫

@helmut_meukel

'Beverly' is another one. Austin, Texas has a 'Beverly S. Sheffield Park'. Mr. Sheffield was director of Austin's Parks And Recreation Department for many years. I suspect most people seeing the name of the park do not know it was named for a man.

Or, of course, Glenn Close. 'Glenn' is not commonly a woman's name. I suspect Ms. Close's fame has inspired some people to expand on its use for girls.

Robin G. Lovell 🚫

@helmut_meukel

In English quite some given names are gender ambivalent.

I have considered writing a scene where two individuals of the same first name meet.

Replies: Diamond Porter Switch Blayde

Diamond Porter 🚫

@Robin G. Lovell

Having met both males and females named Robin (or Robyn) I would think this is fairly common. Probably more common for Pat. If we include same-gender cases, it becomes very common.

Switch Blayde 🚫

@Robin G. Lovell

I have considered writing a scene where two individuals of the same first name meet.

Could be a problem with dialogue tags.

Replies: Grey Wolf

Grey Wolf 🚫

@Switch Blayde

Been there, done that. My MC's mother's name is Helen. His aunt's name? Also Helen. Helen and Helen do talk, from time to time. Of course, one is tagged as 'Aunt Helen', but it still comes up.

And I have a couple whose names are both Danny. They've never talked on-page, though, so I haven't had to deal with tagging them.

TheDarkKnight 🚫

@helmut_meukel

When my daughter played soccer in high school, the starting forwards were Sam, Mel, and Terry.

awnlee jawking 🚫

@greensocks

continuity - this right here is the line above which to many stories fail to clear.

Continuity seems to be a major issue for authors who use AI. I wish the authors thoroughly vet what they didn't write before posting it.

AJ

irvmull 🚫

@greensocks

It's not about gender-neutral names.
It's not about two people with the same name.

It's the too-common problem of AI changing the gender of a character in midstream, just like it changes POV in mid-sentence.

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Continuity - the destroyer of stories

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