You avoid continuity errors by maintaining a story bible during the draft and running a dedicated continuity pass before submission. The bible records every load-bearing fact — names, dates, descriptions, distances; the continuity pass reads the manuscript with the bible in hand and flags every contradiction in a single sweep before the manuscript leaves your desk.
Chapter i·Why it matters
Continuity errors are the most common copy-editor flag and the most-cited reader complaint in Goodreads reviews. They do not change the plot, but they break the reader’s trust in the author’s care. Catching them before publication is cheaper than the apologetic forum post afterward.
Chapter ii·What to include
- A character index: physical description, age, family, key relationships.
- A place index: spellings, weather, time-zone offsets, distances between locations.
- A timeline: in-story dates per chapter, character ages, real-world anchor events.
- A glossary: made-up words, technical terms, brand names with consistent capitalization.
- A continuity-pass checklist used before every draft handoff.
- A "voice consistency" check per character.
Chapter iii·Example
A literary novelist runs a continuity pass on her completed draft using a 12-page story bible. In one weekend she catches three spellings of a character’s last name, two different ages given for the same child, an inconsistent winter described as both January and March, and a phone call to a character who died in chapter eight. All twelve issues are fixed before the manuscript goes to her agent.
Chapter iv·Related questions
WriteLoom keeps a queryable character and place index next to your manuscript, so continuity checks take an evening, not a weekend.
See the Plan studio