WIP Challenge Check-in, Day 2 -- Friday

[linaewen]

Hello on Friday!  How is the writing going today?

• I thought about my fic once or twice
• I wrote
• I did some planning and/or research
• I edited
• I've sent my fic off to my beta
• I posted today!
• I'm taking a break
• I did something else that I'll talk about in a comment

Discussion:  Have you ever run into the problem of discovering continuity errors in your story, after it has been posted/published?  How do you deal with that?

In my early days of writing, I once discovered that, after I had killed off a character, I had used him again much later in the course of a long multi-chapter story.  This was discovered after I had published the chapters.  After I got over the embarrassment (and the irritation that no one reading the story at the time had actually noticed, either), I went back and rewrote the later section and made it a different person.  I had the satisfaction of knowing the problem was fixed, and that if anyone else read the story, it would be right.  Since then, I have usually been able to catch myself before I write something that disagrees with something I wrote previously, which is one reason I like having a detailed outline reminding me what I've written and where I'm going.

Comments

[the_rck]

I've been writing my remix today. I have to finish it before my daughter comes home at 3:45. It's not due until Sunday, but I don't expect to have much (if any!) writing time tomorrow or Sunday. I am a little concerned that I'm weakening the story by continuing it. The first part is pretty strong but doesn't cover most of the story I'm remixing. The part I'm writing now is weaker (there's a lot of handwaving and eliding of details), and I'm not sure that it doesn't break the story. I have what's right for the story up against what's right for the remix.

I've found a couple of continuity errors in my epic WIP, Rheotaxis. One is a thread that I simply dropped that I can't really pick up again now. It's not hugely important, but it bothers me. The other is one character maintaining that he didn't lie when he did lie. I'd just forgotten that he had. Of course, he might have forgotten, too, or he might have decided to lie about that, too.

[merryghoul]

Writing. Eh. Probably outlining NPT and what I think will be my first chaptered fic? I'm not sure.

I let errors go, for the most part, whether they're caused by changing canon or me goofing up in the fic.

[lilly_c]

I've got some writing and editing done. I feel like I can concentrate on my fics again, now that a legal matter I was dealing with has been resolved.

I don't really notice continuity errors too much but I do use handwritten outlines and I also pay more attention to them when the fic is longer than 2500-3000 words, so I try to catch them before I post but it isn't always possible and all my fic has a mistakes are unintentional in the header/notes section anyway.

[katzenjamming]

Today I posted! An update to a shorter fic and not one of my main projects, but I posted and that's always cool. I also added a few hundred words to the next chapter of a main fic.

I'm usually okay juggling story elements and don't think that I've ever had a major problem with continuity in a fic. I'd probably be mortified for a bit, then rush to do some editing (if needed) and post an explanation in the notes.

[silailo]

I've been mostly thinking about my fic lately, since I've been too swamped with school work. I have some plot points to work out before I continue anyway.

I'm usually pretty good about continuity, but I've run into some minor problems that were easy to fix. I had a character inside a house who suddenly appeared outside the house with the other characters with no explanation of why or how he got out there. I decided to turn it into something sort of comedic, although a less lazy way would've been to actually explain it. :P Another one was the time I had a character who is canonically vegetarian eating meat. No one said anything, but then again I almost never get comments or reviews, so I'm on my own to catch these things.