When writing follow up novels you need to avoid inconsistencies, or your readers will be disappointed. Credibility of plot and character will be diminished if events and character action contradict what has previously occurred. Any errors that appear in a novel can lead to poor critical reviews. Avoidable inconsistencies detract from the reputation of an author.

Serial novels and follow up novels inevitably feature some of the same characters and settings. It is essential for a serial novelist to keep notes and record details to avoid making continuity errors in follow up novels.

[1] Characters

Novelists know their own charactersl. They understand how each person should react. What a serial novelist may overlook is the personal history of a character who appears in more than one book. Each character has an educational background, social origins, family history and previous love affairs. A character will not forget a passionate kiss with another character, nor a personal betrayal that took place. An author cannot ignore anything that has happened, or that has been identified about a character.

The way people speak and behave must also be consistent in follow up novels. If someone speaks with a Scottish accent, or has a specific phobia, in the first novel, it would be a terrible mistake in a later novel for that person to talks like an American, and not to show fear in a similar situation.

* Errors of continuity can be prevented by compiling a document about each character, including physical appearance and personal attributes.

[2] Settings

A serial novel writer should take care when describing places and settings, real or fictional, so these do not vary too much in a follow up book. If the local church has a spire in the first book, it cannot have a tower in the next one.

* Writers of follow up novels should make sketch maps of any fictional setting, imaginary country, town or village. Rough plans should also be made of houses or other buildings where characters live, and in which stories are set. These will be of great assistance for avoiding inconsistencies in follow up novels.

[3] Timing and Events

Books do not need to follow the same passage of time as their publication dates, but time is important in follow up novels. Readers should be aware of how many months or years have passed since the events of the previous novel. Each character must in the follow up novel has to have aged at the same rate.

If someone became pregnant in an earlier novel, there should be some reference to a child of the right age in a subsequent novel, or an explanation if no child appears.

* To avoid inconsistencies in follow up novels, writers should keep clear accounts of significant events, real and fictional, and when these took place within an earlier work of fiction.

Writers of follow up novels should always keep notes and outlines of their plots. For a series of titles featuring the same characters it is even more important to record fictional biographies, causes and results of fictional events, and detail the time and setting of each novel.

Learn more about this author, Ruth Belena.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

---

Add your voice

Know something about Novel writers: How to avoid inconsistencies when writing follow up novels?
We want to hear your view. Write now!