Definition
A consistency check is a focused revision pass where you examine your manuscript for internal contradictions and factual discrepancies. This includes verifying character details, tracking timeline logic, confirming setting descriptions, and ensuring the rules of your story world apply uniformly. It's one of the most tedious but valuable steps in the revision process.
Why It Matters
Inconsistencies accumulate silently across a long manuscript. You might change a character's backstory in Chapter 15 and forget it contradicts a detail in Chapter 3. A consistency check is your safety net - the deliberate, systematic process that catches what your memory and casual rereading will miss.
Types of Consistency Check
Try It Yourself
Pick three characters from your manuscript and create a quick fact sheet for each: name, age, physical description, key backstory events, and what they know at different points in the story. Then scan your manuscript for mentions of each character and check every detail against your sheet. Note any contradictions you find.
The Consistency Guardian tracks character details, timeline events, and world rules across your entire manuscript, showing you exactly where things don't match up.
What contradictions are hiding in your manuscript?
Novelium's Consistency Guardian performs a thorough consistency check across your entire novel, tracking character details, timeline logic, and world rules. It catches the contradictions that weeks of manual review might miss.