Continuity - Does Your Story or Series Have It? How Do You Ensure It?

Does your writing, or if you have a series, hold to a continuity?

I was re-watching some of the better Marvel movies recently, and it was pointed out to me how one detail or another slipped by the general continuity of the ‘franchise.’ (I don’t want to say ‘series,’ because it’s not that, either.) I have to say that the producers did a fantastic job of actually creating a continuity, and holding to what they did. A detail slipped past? Or they “ret-conned” something? Give ‘em a break! The creative process is not foolproof, and once you publish, it’s very hard to go back and “fix” something.

Besides, real comic books change continuity all the time. Then the Marvel Cinematic Universe started making continuity hold true.

DC comics films had individual properties. Problems started when they tried to create a DC Cinematic Universe like the Marvel one had.

And… you know?… it wasn’t needed. We are a smart audience. We get it. Team-ups are cool, but we will only expect a “universe” if you tell us that is what you are creating.

So, if you are writing a series, do you need continuity? If you are writing about the same characters in each story or novel, and there is a definite timeline, then… yeah, I suppose you do need to pay attention to those details, especially if you have written a prequel to your story and now have to make things fit.

You’re going to need to make a story bible.

Publication editors use style guides, which are compendiums of all details their authors, editors, and proofreaders need to adhere to when writing and editing. These include: spelling and grammar decisions like always using the Oxford comma; when to capitalize; how to refer to groups of people; when to use italics; the list is endless and always added to.

BBC Style Guide https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsstyleguide/

Buzzfeed Style Guide https://www.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeednews/buzzfeed-style-guide#.vwwQk7lN2

TV show writers create and expand a show bible or series bible - all details brought up in the writing of a show, season after season: what high school the father attended; what car the daughter purchased; the names of the neighbors living on either side of the family home; what injuries the main characters have sustained.

Adventure Time https://www.scribd.com/document/3122798/Adventure-Time-series-presentation

Star Trek TNG (Season 1): https://archive.org/details/star-trek-the-next-generation-bible/page/21/mode/2up

If you are writing a novel or a movie (film script), you get to keep track of your own details in whatever story bible fashion that makes sense to you. A notebook, a Word doc, some character sheets - whatever works with your organization, but make one. Someone gave you a nice Moleskine or Field Notes for your birthday? Finally you have a perfect purpose for it!

Should you make it alphabetical? Works great! What about loose notes landing wherever on your doc? Hey, some people work wonders with a “messy desk” and know how to use the “find” command.

Are these “bibles” successful? Quite often, yes. But the longer a series goes on, the more there is a tendency to forget these things, especially if, as on TV, there is a change in the writing staff, or the producers, or the director. Or there is the desire to flat-out make changes and ignore the details that were set in stone only the season before, or “ret-con” (retroactive continuity): apply the changes and pretend it was “always that way.”

On the TV series Happy Days, Richie Cunningham and his little sister had an older brother, Chuck, who was away at college much of the time. They visited him, he came home for Christmas… He was even played by two different actors, but hey, as an audience, we know how to deal with that, we just go along with it and believe it. And then… whoosh! He was gone. Where? No idea. The producers just decided he didn’t exist anymore. They could have written an episode where he joined the army and was sent to Lebanon and became a casualty, but they didn’t. He could have gotten married and moved to California, which would be a reason why he wasn’t in the show but could be brought back if they wanted to, but they didn’t. He just disappeared and was never referred to again. Did the fans catch that? Of course, we did. We asked about it, but were told the equivalent of “Oh, well.”

Soap operas used to play with continuity, but their fans almost expected it. If a character had a baby, the child would be a baby or toddler for about two years, then would be a nine-year-old the next season. The season after that, the same child would be a teenager because teenagers are interesting and can hold a storyline.

Not every series has a concrete continuity, especially comic books. Each comic line was individual to itself, and even then its own continuity changed often, including the character’s “origin” story.

• Superman’s and his home planet of Krypton’s story changed when the writers needed it to, and is still fiddled with in film adaptations.

• Team-ups between heroes were fun to read — especially because they didn’t happen often and it implied that they existed in the same comic “universe” and had a shared continuity. But they never really did. it was just for that issue. And maybe another one later on.

• The hero (your pick, all of them) dies. But is reborn a year later with a new book title.

• Batman's 2nd Robin is killed by The Joker— dead! blown-up! finished! buried! — but returns later on as the villain Red Hood.

• Characters don’t age, or they age very slowly. Eventually, Peter Parker graduated high school, went to college, got married, and had kids. Most others were just the same person fighting a never-ending battle against bad guys year after year.

• The entire DC set of comics “rebooted” in 2011 (The New 52), ignoring everything that came from the previous century of comics publishing. Then they changed it all again in 2016.

The TV show Lost was a great sci-fi mystery show, but there was no plan beyond the 2nd Season. You’d think something like that — where the fans required actual answers to all the mysteries — should have been outlined better, instead of made-up before each season’s filming. They were able to draw lines back to the details they’d created, but better planning would have made more satisfied fans.

The audience doesn’t necessarily expect an iron-clad continuity unless you tell them there is one.

Kids “these days” almost do expect it because of the good job the Marvel producers did. They’ve read book series that stayed true to the details — from Harry Potter to The Animorphs to Alex Rider.

Originally, the DC movies were filmed as separate stories. But then maybe there was a continuity, then there for sure was supposed to be a continuity, then the continuity failed and the producers ditched the stories, actors, and the series, looking to replace it with a completely new continuity. The fans got frustrated.

The Disney producers of the Star Wars films attempt at a new continuity were also very unsuccessful, alienating older fans and making younger fans go, “M’eh. What else is there to see?” (maybe a whole blog or two on this one…)

But for you, the writer at home? If you’re planning on making some drastic major changes to your series’ continuity, maybe it’s time to start a new series rather than damaging the one you’ve cultivated.

So, take some un-offered advice from those attempting continuity. Keep a log. Don’t depend on your memory, even if you are writing a roman à clef story — where the main character is basically yourself with a different name — because you know you made some changes to your character that are not a reflection of the real you.

Whether you are someone who likes to write-up a complete personal history for each character, or just take a moment after each 10k words you write to jot down into a story bible the details that may need to resurface, it will be worth it, especially if you envision sequels.

And if you have a prequel story in you, good luck.

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