How can book writing software help you avoid continuity mistakes in your story? Before we deal with that subject, though, let's deal with the issue of what continuity mistakes even are. It's a term borrowed from the movie-making business. It deals with the tendency of mistakes to sneak into the story-flow of a movie. A movie is a incredibly complex project and so it's very difficult to avoid errors. The thing is, though, that even though we don't think of it as such, writing a novel is equally a complex project. And so, mistakes can manifest there too. Examples might include things like changing the colour of the characters' eyes half way through - not deliberately, or as part of the story, but as a mistake. I've even seen examples where characters' names have changed half way through the story. These sorts of continuity errors are frighteningly easy to make. There is so very much to keep on top of during the novel-writing process. There are a multiple balls to keep in the air: plots, subplots, character arcs, cleverly interjecting clues and red herrings, sowing the seeds for later revelations and all the millions of details of locations and characters' appearances. The problem is that it's extremely difficult to pick up on these problems yourself. When we read back on our work, we see what we expect to see, not what is actually there, and so mistakes can slide past us. But readers are coming fresh to the novel, with no expectations, and so they will see what is actually there. The continuity mistakes can just jump out of them, and this will spoil their enjoyment of the story. It's nearly impossible to guard against this totally. But one way of minimising this is to make sure to be very organised. I know that being organised can go against writers' nature. We like to think we're artists, going with the flow. But the thing is that a novel is a comlex structure, and needs as much science as art in its construction. Being organised is essential. There is room for the art in other ways. You can use index cards or post-it notes to keep organised. Both of these options are much, much better than keeping all the details in your head. But they can get lost, or out of order, and shuffling through a whole pack of cards (say) to remind yourself what colour eyes the hero has, is time-consuming. And so a modern option would be to use book writing software. The simplest of these acts like a virtual index card system, but one which is much easier to keep track of than real ones. And the higher-end products have other facilities such as timelines and mind maps. Regardless of whether you choose cards, post-it notes or book writing software, you need to do something to make sure that your novel is as mistake-free as possible.
Tracy Culleton is a best-selling Irish author whose passion is now helping other writers to achieve their success. Her writers' websites include www.fiction-writers-mentor.com and a comprehensive review site for book writing software: www.novel-writing-software.net
Article Source: http://www.writerspenarticledirectory.com
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