Be Consistent Throughout Your Story

While writing and editing your story, pay close attention to keeping your facts and the rules that govern your universe consistent. Make sure that if you change a character's name halfway through drafting, you go back and fix it every place that it appears. This is easily done if you're typing your story using basic word processing software. Most programs have a "Find" and "Replace" feature that allows you to go in and search for all instances of the mistake and have the program correct it automatically.

A key area to watch for consistency is in the laws of your world. If your story takes place in a universe other than our own, you must have a concrete vision of how this realm operates, and make it a point to provide explanations for occurrences that take place there. For example, if you're writing a fantasy story and you've made it clear that a certain spell only works underwater, then your reader had better not catch that spell being used on dry land without a reasonable justification. Even though it's fantasy, there still must be the same level of stability if the story were talking place in a more realistic situation.

If you are writing (or plan to write) about an alternate world, I would suggest writing yourself a guide to this universe, along with a list of key rules that can never be broken. You want to have as clear a picture in your head as you can of what this world is and what makes it run day-to-day. If you don't have a solid plan when you start writing, just draft a basic outline, and then fill in more of the details as your story progresses and you develop your ideas more thoroughly. You might also consider drawing up a map with the names of cities, mountains, lakes, etc. These reference materials will be extremely useful to you as you are writing, and will make the revising process considerably easier.

Happy writing! :)

Laura Sepesi
Author
The Guardian of Kelmar
www.laurasepesi.com