Definition
A continuity error occurs when specific details in your story contradict each other from one scene, chapter, or section to another. These can be as small as a character's hair color switching or as significant as a character knowing information they haven't learned yet. They're the factual cracks in your fictional world that careful readers will notice.
Why It Matters
Continuity errors signal carelessness to readers, even when the rest of your writing is strong. They break immersion at the detail level - the reader spots the mistake, gets pulled out of the narrative, and starts looking for more errors instead of staying lost in your world. In a long novel with many moving parts, they're almost inevitable in early drafts, which is why catching them in revision matters so much.
Types of Continuity Error
Common Mistakes
No one can hold every detail of a 90,000-word novel in their head. Keep a story bible or running document of key facts, descriptions, and timeline events as you draft.
When you change a character's name, job, or backstory detail, do a full manuscript search. One missed reference creates a continuity error.
Beta readers catch the errors they happen to notice, but no single reader catches all of them. Do your own systematic continuity pass before sending your manuscript out.
Try It Yourself
Open your manuscript and pick one character. Search for every physical description of them throughout the document - eye color, hair, height, scars, clothing patterns, speech habits. List each mention with its chapter number. Circle anything that contradicts another mention and fix the inconsistencies so every reference aligns.
Which details in your manuscript contradict each other?
Novelium's Consistency Guardian tracks character descriptions, objects, and facts across your entire manuscript and flags when details don't match up. It's the continuity department your novel deserves.