There's nothing like a good main character to make an even better story. Imagine an excerpt going like this:

"Tavaris Herman is one of the weirdest Pokémon Trainers to step out of Littleroot Town. His short, five-foot-five stature and even shorter temper don't mesh well with the necessary patience needed to catch the Pokémon that never want to stay in their Poké Ball. The occasional gusts that blow through his blonde hair feel cool on his face. An adventure is starting for a Littleroot native who doesn't look as prospective as the typical Champion title-seeking Trainer."

Now this rather generic excerpt describing the main character gives us a few things. It gives us a small description of the main character (Tavaris Herman, 5'5", blonde hair, short-tempered). It also gives us a bit of insight on the tone of the author and how the plot may play out (doesn't look as prospective). It gives us a tense (present), and it also gives us a location (Littleroot Town). In all things considered, this an above-average attempt at mixing description while naturally flowing the story forward.

Now imagine after X chapters, the story is moving forward: Plots are developing, and characters are growing. The story is expanding while retaining an overarching theme that the author has decided a long time ago to use—then the twist ending suddenly punches you which makes you realize that the character's, well, character still exists.

Then we find this in chapter X+1:

"Tavarris was slumped over in the dank cell as Team Galactic grunts kept a vigilant guard with their heavy footsteps pounding against the cold metal fortress. Bleeding out, Tavarris put his hand on his abdomen, realizing that he couldn't survive being impaled by an Arbok without any assistance. His bloody hands were cold even though they were covered in fresh crimson from his arteries. His hands swept through his dark-brown hair once more like what he usually did when he was in trouble. It seemed like the end for him."

In all terms, this excerpt isn't bad. That is, assuming they're from separate stories.

Now it is probably from a fanfiction, so we can technically have Team Galactic and Littleroot Town in the same universe. We can also have an Arbok, since this is a fanfiction, and we can do almost whatever we want.

But when did Tavaris become Tavarris? Probably an error on the author or autocorrect on the device being used.

Did he suddenly change his hair color? Don't tell me there was some point in the story where his hair was dyed (also possible).

The point being, no reader who pays attention to a story would want characters changing suddenly without any reason. Anyone who pays attention can agree with me. I don't want my Arbok suddenly turning into a Seviper and then back again.

Continuity can sometimes be something hard to handle if your story hits 50+ chapters. Remembering to keep your hard and steadfast facts on your characters can be difficult. It doubles in difficulty if you go on hiatus or don't regularly update—even with your secret subplots from chapter three that creates the twist ending in chapter thirty-three. All this can be difficult to remember.

So what do you do? Obviously, you can regularly update so continuity doesn't end up being a problem. You also have an insane memory so you know the five hundred twenty-third character of your twenty-fourth chapter.

In all seriousness, there's a handful of ways to approach the problem of continuity. For some authors, they make a "Chapter 0" (that's the chapter before the prologue (so it's the prologue's prologue I guess)) that stacks a bunch of information "for the reader", but this can also be handy for the author as well. Especially in regards to fictional maps and regions, having this information pooled somewhere easily accessible is a great addition to a story along those lines.

Another way—and my personal preference—is to write it all down.

Whenever I have a story, I make a flowchart of the plot. I also have all my characters in a Word document and title it, "Characters List"; it has descriptions and facts about my characters for my reference.

It usually contains:

•Name
•Age (birthday included)
•Dominant Hand
•Eye color
•Hair color
•Gender (just in case)
•Height
•Weight
•Likes/Dislikes
•Hobbies
•Short bio (for flashbacks and purposeful character development from past events not written)
•Words that describe the character (because using "short" a thousand times gets repetitive)
•Lines (stuff that sounds like something the character would say when you have random epiphanies when singing in the shower, and you don't want to forget)

So my basic advice is to write it all down.

It's a helpful habit for future writers who want to go big and have good continuity in their stories. It also nets you some points in the Watties (whichever one you want to participate in).

That's my advice for this Magazine.

Over and out from GeekoTreecko! Thanks for reading!

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]

Article by GeekoTreecko (4/20/18)

Edited by ImberLapis ,kristenay , &NaivEevee