Maintaining Continuity In Your Writing

How to keep your readers hooked by editing out continuity errors

In his article, Don’t Waste Your Time on Details Readers Won’t Notice, David B. Clear urges writers not to concentrate on details that are unimportant. Referring to movie sets he says, ‘Don’t paint the back of your set’. Great advice, but there is another lesson writers need to learn from film-makers - continuity.

It is not just as simple as making sure a character that starts with dark hair does not suddenly become blonde. Continuity directors on film sets make sure that the actors are standing in the same spot, facing in the same direction, wearing the same clothes as the previous scene and a lot more.

Writers need to pay the same attention to the important details. I write and read a lot of erotica. It is amazing how many men unclip their lover’s bra multiple times. Maybe her bust is so big she was wearing multiple bras one over the other to hold them up but if she has done it up again the character should stop. I will certainly stop reading.

I have read about characters describing the person inside a room before they open the door. In another story, a man sitting behind his desk consensually puts his hand on the female character’s knee when, seconds before, the writer tells us she is standing in front of the desk. That is either a very small desk or he has extraordinarily long arms. It is possible he got up and moved around the desk but have you tried putting your hand on someone’s knee whilst standing in front of them?

These blips in continuity throw the reader out of the story and they ruin the realism of a scene.

David B. Clear says, ‘Don’t waste your time on details the reader won’t notice,’ but do pay close attention to those they will. The reader does not have to be told every step your character takes but they do need to know if they shift position so that the action can progress.

Writers have vivid imaginations - we can see the scene we are describing in our heads. For example, in The Pending Tray, Lucilia is invited into her boss’s office at the beginning of what will become a torrid, lesbian affair. The story is about her beginning to discard her conservative boundaries by submitting to her Mistress.

The Pending Tray

The temptation as a writer is to forget that it is the affair and the characters’ reactions to it that the reader is interested in and to start describing the colour of the walls, the style of Michelle’s desk, which Lucilia is bent over, and even the cactus on it. Unless the cactus is later used to prick her nipples it should be completely ignored.

What is important is that Lucilia is instructed to lift her skirt, pull down her knickers and bend over the desk. Michelle then leaves her in that position. When the action starts later it would seem odd if I mentioned her pulling her knickers down again.

My description of Michelle’s office in The Pending Tray may be too sparse. I have left it as a completely white space for the reader to paint their own image in. The Pending Tray was written as a teaser for, The Mistress’ Pet Show, when this longer story was published in an anthology. What was important to me when writing this story was the interaction between the characters; even the spanking is secondary.

Continuity is important to your readers, if it fails they are jolted out of the fantasy you have created. I do a continuity edit on my drafts which hopefully picks up most of the red dresses that become black skirts, the discarded clothing that is suddenly worn again and men kissing their lover’s nipples whilst fucking them from behind.

Sometimes it is important to add more detail. In one scene in Painted Stripes Episode 10 Jocelyne is caning a man whilst he fucks Sandie who is lounging in a chair. John A. Brown commented that this would be difficult as Sandie’s legs would get in the way. I had failed to fully describe my vision which was, Sandie with her legs up and back which would give Jocelyne full access to Sebastian’s behind.

Continuity is not just about the physical. If a character suddenly changes their mind or does something strange without reason the reader is going to find this odd. My worst continuity errors occur when I decide to heavily edit or re-write a scene that appears later in a story. I then have to go back to the beginning and not only check the physical descriptions but maybe modify the character’s dialogue and actions to blend in with what they do later in the story.

If I have followed David’s advice and kept the unimportant details to a minimum this is relatively easy.

Don’t Waste Your Time on Details Readers Won’t Notice by David B. Clear is available on Medium

Stories mentioned in the text