Writing Have you ever experienced a plot hole involving inconsistent character descriptions?

[L1aei]

Se volvió radioactivo y muto XDDD

¡Perfecto! Ahora no es un error, es evolución acelerada... por capítulo.

 

[foxes]

Give him a magic wand. But that's boring. It's better to come up with a gluon mixture that allows someone who knows physics well enough to transform matter.

 

[L1aei]

Give him a magic wand. But that's boring. It's better to come up with a gluon mixture that allows someone who knows physics well enough to transform matter.

You reminded me of a comment I read a year ago: "I was going to suggest a gluon mixture, but I have conjunctionitis, so I can't even get my "ands" or "buts" straight, let alone my subatomic particles."

 

[Xcalibur_Xc]

Inconsistent Character Descriptions​

Edit:
Well, don't focus on the hair color example. Inconsistencies in character descriptions can occur in any attribute, such as eye color, height, birthmark, facial features, nose shape, etc. Or it can also be non-physical attributes such as titles, levels, relationships, family background, etc.

Maintaining consistency in character descriptions is important to avoid plot holes and make characters feel personal.

eye color (lens), height (Read Baki manga), birthmark (surgery), facial features/nose shape (Plastic surgery), titles, levels, relationships (You can't expect that to remain the same after 100 chs, can you?), family background (Can also be edited after 200 chs, by including hidden secrets.)

?? Just kidding, but gotta agree, I too got a point.

 

[Joyager2]

I can't say I've ever forgotten fundamental details, but I constantly forget when a character is injured (or how). More than once, my rough drafts have skipped over a broken bone or a stab wound written about just a few chapters beforehand.

 

[LightHikari]

I had a character named Sable that I kept calling Saber by accident. It's because this was in an arc where MC had fought a sabertooth tiger monster.

 

[RainyLiquid]

No.

 

[BigBadBoi]

I'm surprised a lot authors don't write their own character/plot glossaries to avoid these issues. Seems like an easy way to jog the memory if you start forgetting. It's useful for both the readers and the writer.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

I'm surprised a lot authors don't write their own character/plot glossaries to avoid these issues. Seems like an easy way to jog the memory if you start forgetting. It's useful for both the readers and the writer.

I started a cast list because I made one of these mistakes... It's cut them down by about 80%... (Have one character who's name I've spelled at least two different ways, still).

 

[KidBuu699]

My favorite was a background/job. I was reading one story when suddenly the college mc was an expert at shooting and being a detective. Asked in the comments where all this came from and the author got after me for not reading the story and that I should pay closer attention. Asked where it said all this at and got an apology(was surprised). Turns out that he made character sheets for all the main characters where he wrote all their information at. He thought he put the parts about the mc's dad being a police detective and teaching his son those skills in the family section but he didn't.

 

[JayDirex]

this is actually the reason i switched to using scrivener. i kept forgetting minor details about the characters, once i hit a full ensemble cast.

Scrivner is a nightmare of a learning curve. It's truly for those who love reading instruction manuals instead of writing. I have it and want to use it but it's like jfc