Writing Tips and Reviews

Consistency and Retcons

Consistency is a crucial in a story, if you mess up, the entire thing could fall apart. You need to read through your work multiple times just to make sure you are contradicting yourself and the sentences make sense. I know this because I'm constantly checking my work to make sure I'm being consistent. I've updated Tales of Zestiria the World Beyond multiple times because my consistency isn't perfect and sometimes I read sentences that make no sense.

CONSISTENCY

If a character got a hair cut, logically the next day, they should have their hair shorter than before. If they don't, then you've failed. Looking at you Miraculous Ladybug.

Character development, world building, everything, even little things like how a character talks should be consistent. Other wise it breaks the immersion of the reader.

Just because you're a superhero show with a weekly monster doesn't mean you have to fail at basic world consistency.

I've also been watching the Owl House and like how they're doing Amity's character. She's the best current example of consistency in a character. She started out as a typical mean girl but became friends with Luz. Instead of the show forgetting that, they continued her arc and her and Liz became better friends. They hang out more and Luz knows her family.

In another episode, her past with Willow is revealed and she tells Willow she won't let the other girls pick on her. Then in another episode, she tells off one of her friends in a subtle way to stop picking on Willow. She also made it about status and attention to hide the fact she's protecting Willow. It's a slow character progression and I'm glad happy to see this in a show.

Miraculous Ladybug's Chloe could have been like this, but the writers decided to keep her character the same and only worsen to make her the bad guy. Which would be consistent if they didn't make episodes of her growing and becoming a better person. It's like a rollercoaster that jumps to the next rail instead of naturally going to it. That doesn't sound like a good idea in real life, so don't do it in story telling.

Maybe the it can be done if a character is recalling past events and skipping a few things, or if you're doing one of those weird stories that jumps around.

RETCONS

I love these, because they suck.

Introduction to power: Celestia's power is to see into the future.

Use of power: "I saw that we would all get in trouble."

More use of power: She had a dream about the future.

Retconning the established power to ignore the plot: "Well, it is your first time using your power."

Great job at writing.

CONCLUSION

Don't retcon information in your story. People will notice and it will be jarring.