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Keeping Your Plot Consistent

So, I know that in a previous blog post I whined about how inconsistent and nonsensical writers’ plots can be in modern fiction, but if writing my first novel has taught me anything, it’s that keeping consistency within your plot is hard! (#hypocrite)

Because I’m writing in a science fiction/fantasy world, I’ve got a lot to set up such as a magical system that feels logical and rules of time travel that don’t just feel silly. If I was sensible, I would’ve made notes on all that stuff before I put pen to paper (well, fingers to keys…), but I’m not that sensible! 

I also set my story across several decades of the main character’s life, which means I should’ve made notes about which chapter is set in what year. Did I do that either? No I didn’t!

The result was that while writing the second half of the book, I started to doubt the things which I thought were true about my story. My brain would get confused about different types of portal conjuring magic, or whether a particular character had already said something or not. I kept telling myself that if I’d made any mistakes, then I could fix them in the edits, but now that the first draft is complete and I’ve gone back to working on chapters 1 and 2 again, I’m beginning to doubt myself.

The answer could be, of course, to start making notes now; on the timeline of the story, on the magic system, on the time travel system, on who was in positions of power in certain years etc. But I’m not going to!

I’ve come to realise over the last few months that one of the themes of this blog that is really important to me is the idea that there is no one correct way to write. Despite the industry that’s developed to provide writing advice, you don’t have to follow anyone’s rules but your own. That being said, if there’s a tip that really resonates with you and makes you think ‘yeah, I could use that!’, then that’s great; go use the tip, I hope it helps.

Here though, it looks like I’ve reached a whole new level of shooting myself in the foot. When I’ve identified a plot point that might not be consistent as I was writing the first draft, I’ve now forgotten what these night have been while writing the second. And if I’ve identified something that might not be consistent while writing the second draft, I’ll almost certainly have forgotten it by the time it becomes a problem in the later parts of the book. 

But I’ve elected to do almost nothing about this because of the way I write. At the moment, I receive some income from language teaching for adults, and planning lessons, promoting my services, and administering the business takes up a lot of time. In addition, my wife and I are trying to save money to buy a house because, to put it bluntly, landlords are evil and we need to find a way to escape being subject to their every whim. As a result, my wife is taking on extra contracts for her freelance work and I’m helping by doing some of the simpler data processing that is involved in her projects. On top of that, I’d like to spend some time with my wife in a non-work way because she’s really nice and we enjoy watching sci-fi programs while snuggled up under a blanket on the sofa!

All of this is leaving me with very little time for writing despite it being my passion. So, I’ve ended up going back to my original method of getting some writing time; writing on the loo! This means that I have to take only one device in with me, and I have to get the most out of my time in there, and that means editing my book quickly and efficiently. 

All this means it would be very difficult right now to keep the kind of notes which would make it easy for me to maintain consistency throughout the plot of my story. I’m hoping that my knowledge of the world I’ve built is sufficient to ensure that only minor plot holes creep in. But if it’s not, then I’m still proud of the world and the characters I’ve created, and I believe that Between The Canvas And The Stars will be well worth reading. At the end of the day, isn’t that what matters?

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