Mistakes, I’ve Made A Few…….

 

I have surfaced from several weeks deep in the editing trenches. First, working with my editor on the final edits to my forthcoming book. As I went through read through the MS, it occurred to me that might be a good time to retrieve book two of the Birchwood Inheritance Series from the box I had dumped it in last December, to check it against the first book for continuity and consistency in the plot, backstories, and characterisation.

I am glad I did. Although each book is standalone, as with most book series, there is an overarching main story that runs through them all. Minor characters, subplots and places develop, but much will stay the same. Things mentioned in book one become relevant in later books and so on. Ensuring everything tallies up is essential for the story (and the author) to be creditable to the reader. Thankfully, there was nothing major, just nips and tucks mostly in book two.

Unfortunately, errors do occur even in published books by well-known authors. Continuity errors in classics such as Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, for example. In the book, Crusoe removes all his clothes to swim out to the ship to salvage goods. While on board, he fills his pockets with biscuits.  

Errors in such classics might be understandable as they were written long before computers or the editing process familiar to many writers today, but it still happens even to well-known authors. In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling: readers learn that Buckbeak is tied to a tree; however, later when Harry and Hermione go back in time, the creature is tied to a fence.

One of the trickiest issues for me was getting the timescale and seasons right for each book. Leaping lambs in October rather than April does not work. Sunny days in December. I wish. There are other areas of our lives that require attention to detail, too. Our relationship with God is one. The Christian yearly cycle of times and seasons provides both consistency and continuity of our story with God. In each season or festival, we relive and make connections with our world with those in the Bible. They are consistent in their events and themes of the overarching story of God’s presence in our world, past, present, and future.  

 

A former vicar and community worker, Sheelagh is a freelance writer and blogger living in the northeast. You can find out more about Sheelagh here