Let’s Talk Process: Continuity

panel is from Tiny Titans written by Art Baltazar, art by Franco

I am thinking, this week, about continuity.  Mostly because I saw X-Men: Days of Future Past and, while I very much enjoyed it, some very strange issues of continuity pop up over the course of the two and a half-ish hours.  Luke and I will be discussing the flick in an upcoming episode of the pod so I won’t go in to specifics here.  Because I want you to listen to the podcast.

HYPNOTOAD SAYS LISTEN TO THE PODCAST!  ALL HAIL, HYPNOTOAD!

These guys want you to listen too
image via flickeringmyth.com

Continuity errors are the nip slips of the geek world: horrifying if unintentional but if you live long enough, sort of inevitable.  Unless you’re prepared.  And you should always be prepared, kids!  Always!

Continuity is important.  It’s really, really important.

And people notice when it goes awry the same way they noticed Janet Jackson’s “wardrobe malfunction” all those years ago during the Super Bowl half-time show.  If you’re too young to remember that gem, do yourself a favor and don’t go looking for it on youtube.

I SAID DON’T!

I remember, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, hearing a story on NPR about the individual (whose name totally escapes me to the extent I can’t remember which pronoun to use) who’s only job in all the land was to continuity edit the Harry Potter series.  Not edit.  Continuity edit.  To make sure the large events lined up and no one came back from the dead when they weren’t supposed to or said, “Alohomora,” one time and, “Caveat Bullshit,” the next.  But it was also this editor’s task to go line by line, word by word, and catch all of the tiny things.  That the invisibility cloak didn’t go in to a backpack and come out of the same characters pocket five seconds later.  That one didn’t buy a chocolate frog on the train and then proceed to eat Every Flavor Beans.  That the dirt smudge was on the proper side of Ron’s face, and Hermione’s hair always always had the proper amount of frizz.

I am not.  Kidding.

The big things are important in continuity: birth, dead, life status, the movement of history, gods, monsters, etc etc.  But so are the small things.  And it’s continuity of the small things that shows your reader you respect her because it takes for-fucking-ever to comb through all that shit and get it right.  Whatever your world, no matter how fantastical, continuity grounds it, brings it to life, gives it a purpose, a direction.  Even if it’s up in the clouds and full of fat, winged, cigar-smoking babies with harps.  Continuity attaches the reader, gives her something to follow, to invest in.  Continuity of the small stuff is part of what moves a book over the “good” hump and chucks it into the “fucking a” one because they are what makes a world sold and a story engrossing.

Part character development, part world building, part plotting, part story telling.

ALL IMPORTANT.

But, Shiri, you ask, what if I’m writing a series and I get to book ten and I need something to happen but it breaks continuity?

A valid question and a real issue, even for those of us who outline obsessively. Because even if you do outline obsessively, things do change over time.  You get random, earth-shattering shower revelations or a certain song comes up at a certain moment and you have an “oh shit” brain ‘splosion.  Those moments are what keep us moving forward as writers and they are just as important as continuity.

They aren’t, however, an excuse to ignore continuity.

Sorry. I’m so, so sorry. I couldn’t help myself.
Image via redhookflicks.com

Be cautions of making continuity changes.  You worked hard on what came before.  Don’t blow it out of the water without a reason.  If the brainwave doesn’t fit, save it for later; there a million apps for that.  One of them is called a notebook.

Respect yourself and the effort you’ve put in.  Respect the reader and the time she’s put in.

Remember your new rule is going to hold from this point forward unless you plan to blow the whole thing up again.  Look ahead.  Make some plans.

Do not break continuity as a plot device.  It is bad juju.

If you do decide to break your continuity, give us the deets (aka: Flashpoint).  I’m not talking info dump; integrate it, have people act with it, not around it.  Make it part of the plot not a screech to a halt traffic circle.

How?  Have someone find a map or a pictograph.  Kill someone, bring someone back.  Be cautious of time travel and fate; done well they kick ass, done poorly, they are ass.  If you’re using a cliche, do something new with it.  Do not have a butterfly fart over the Gulf of Mexico facing East instead of North.  And for the love of Apollo, THOU SHALT NOT RETCON.  There are a very, very select, very, very few people who are allowed to do that and even with them, there better be a damn good reason.  Retconning is (usually) a cheap trick and your characters and your story deserve better.

It doesn’t have to be a massive existential emo crisis of epic proportions!  You don’t have to spend pages and pages on it.  Hints will do.  The small things: a formerly blonde character is born ginger because the new circumstances of conception were ideal for the mutation and the character who lived before, because she was blonde, now dies because the villain was bullied by a ginger kid on the playground and decides all gingers must die…

Follow the threads back to where you started.  Show the reader where they frayed and broke.  Make sure those changes line up with what you’ve already done and what you plan to do because even if you’re shattering your continuity, the old one still exists and it needs to fit as well.  Where and how and why it diverges is just as important as the diverging itself.

image via whatculture.com

Have someone check your continuity for you at several points during the editing process.  Find your most anal friend.  Or ask me to do it, I love that shit.  If you’re paying an editor, ask them to do a read through focused on continuity; you’re the consumer, use all your tools.

Remember, kids: only you and your alpha readers and your beta readers and your editors can stop nerd rage.