I die each time I find a mistake in my writing.
Sometimes it’s no big deal. It’s something small, or something that isn’t worth going back and fixing. For something that’s already published, I tend to avoid changing anything. In fact, writing The Baker’s Wife taught me how to let go and just write.
This is my first series that’s an actual series, though. My very first one focused on different characters in each book. Except for the overall arc, they might as well have been stand-alones.
But this series, Trial of the Ornic…this is a tricky one. I have to keep continuity across multiple books and the same characters. The world definitely remains the same, and the longer we’re with these characters, the more I have to make sure everything hangs together. An editor, surprisingly, can’t help me with that. It’s not their job. No, continuity on that level is mine to deal with.
And I’ve never dealt with it on this level before.
My current solution is to create a detailed summary of The Baker’s Wife. So far, this detailed summary is over ten pages long. I’ve heard of some writers using a print copy of their books and highlighting/flagging different items. Apparently, some only need the pre-planning and research they did. Not me. I need something a bit more consolidated when it comes to the plot.
Why is all this important and why am I talking about it now? I found two continuity errors. They weren’t big, but they were big enough that it irritated me. In fact, it was those errors that made me create the summary (still not done yet), and that, in turn, has made me re-evaluate my approach to this series. That’s a good thing, by the way.
I’ve fixed the errors and will be uploading the updates to the various channels by the end of the week. My point is that I’ve been trying not to do this, but as I head toward print versions of these books, I’m learning I have to compromise a little. I have to be willing to allow some mistakes to simply be. The question is, when?
As for writing, I haven’t done any today, except for this post. I haven’t done any in a week, in fact. And that’s bad, folks. I stopped when I found the errors, because I also found one in a rough draft that has yet to be published. Not good.
So I’m working on making sure I have a reference for continuity, while my actual writing withers. That’ll have to change tomorrow.
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Amy Keeley 