I love reading. Getting lost in the new or a familiar world and characters, forgetting the realities of…well, reality, is a most satisfyingly relaxing pastime for me. When I read for pleasure, I try to turn off my “editor brain” and simply enjoy the experience. I can easily see past typos, grammar infractions, and format issues. But (I bet you heard that “but” coming), my “reader brain” is immediately tripped up when faced with one particular problem. The issue? Nothing takes me out of the story faster than an error in continuity.
Inconsistencies in the plot or character scream off the page at me. These types of errors break the spell for me as a reader, and it usually takes me a while to return to the story world. Think about it… Have you ever noticed a continuity error in a movie? Once you see it, you can’t unsee it! Same thing happens for me with a book.
I certainly appreciate a writer’s efforts. Many stories include numerous characters, several locations, multiple points of view, and a myriad of plot points. Weaving the story web without forgetting a detail or two is not easy. We are all only human, after all. Keeping the details accurate within the story is tough. Keeping them consistent across multiple books, as in the series, is even more difficult.
Are you challenged by this issue as a writer?
If the answer is “yes”, there is help.
One of the solutions to this vexing challenge, is the use of character profiles.
What is a character profile?
It is a tool that allows authors to organize and keep track of details such as appearance, mannerisms, personality traits, relationship connections, and so forth, about the character they create. At minimum, it’s a good idea to develop and maintain character profile(s) for the main story character(s). However, if you’re writing a series, you may want to do the same for secondary characters as well, as you never know when these folks’ voices start demanding their own stories of you.
Referencing character profiles will help you as a writer to ensure your characters don’t find themselves with a different colour of eyes, at a wrong location at a particular point in time, or with an inconsistent background or actions. Those are just some examples that cause continuity errors.
Character profiles also foster a quick memory refresh without having to reread the past chapters or preceding books during the rewrite stage.
And, character profiles provide a “roadmap” for documenting your character’s growth and development.
A character profile is a guide where you can list important facts about your characters. It can also be modified to include additional fields, based on the level of detail you want to employ for your story. How comprehensive your character profiles need to be is completely up to you! Just remember to always keep these up to date.
While character profiles are a helpful tool to organize the details, to overcome continuity errors, authors often also rely on the skill of a trusted editor partner. Character profiles can help your editor to get to know your story world and reoccurring characters, allowing them to spot inconsistencies and continuity errors across multiple books.
To me, the devil is in the details. Continuity is a critical point to the enjoyment of a novel. As an editor, one of my goals is to ensure consistency and details are preserved. I rely on my experience and training, on background research, and on familiarity with the author’s “voice” and previous work to reach this objective. As such, I find character profiles an invaluable resource. I’m sure you will, too. At Beyond the Proof, development of character profiles for up to two main characters is included as a value-add within copy editing services I provide. In addition, I am offering a free character profile template that you can use during your writing.
Contact me to request your copy of the template today!
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