You’d think, as authors, we would be so close to our own stories we would instantly realize the error of calling a minor character by a different name the second time he appears. You’d think we would see our protagonists so clearly we’d never make the mistake of giving them blue eyes in one scene and brown in the next. But the truth of the matter is: it happens!
Wives & Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell (affiliate link)
At least, in the days before such handy features as Word’s Find tool, authors had more of an excuse for their forgetfulness. For example, Elizabeth Gaskell’s beloved classic Wives & Daughters, published posthumously in 1866, is rife with niggling inconsistencies.
- She blithely—and, one would presume, obliviously—changed one character’s name from Sally to Dorothy to Clarinda and back again.
- Another character’s surname darted between Fitzpatrick and Kirkpatrick.
- The local tavern was called the George in one scene and the Cumnor Arms in another.
- And the opposing political alignments of two prominent families flip-flopped between Whig and Tory somewhere in the middle of the book.
Ultimately, every story inevitably contains mistakes no matter how many objective eyes have read it. The good news in all of this is that if you write as well as Gaskell, your readers will likely forgive you. But that doesn’t negate the author’s responsibility to seek out inconsistencies.
Write yourself copious notes, check and double-check yourself, and ask beta readers and critique partners to be on the watch for errors. Your readers will thank you—and you’ll be able to avoid embarrassing discoveries later on.
