Tell me your retcons

[CarburetorThompson]

I want to hear about what you have retconned in your stories. No real reason just curious. Or perhaps you’re a level 99 planner who has never retconned once in your entire life? Idk let me know

 

[RepresentingWrath]

Nothing since I am a lazy bum who didn't get far enough into the story and went on hiatus.

 

[Representing_Tromba]

In my initial draft there was not a single intentional retcon. During editing, I had a lot of retcons because later stuff wouldn't make sense otherwise.

 

[l8rose]

Hoo boy. Thankfully, no one ever really gets to see my retcons as originals usually don't get posted. SfAL is probably the thing I've retconned the most but then, I did start writing that in like 2016, so I'll just post the notable ones I remember for that one.

Spoiler: Smith from Another Land

This is a Dragon Age: Inquisition and Skyrim fusion fanfiction so some of this might not make sense if you're unfamiliar with it but here goes...

I have retconned so much in this story that it's gone a nearly completely different path than I initially planned. Of course, no one has seen the originals (I may post them up after the story is fully done but that's a long way away) so people haven't noticed the changes as my retcons for this flow together with the story.

The most notable retcon was the love interest. Originally, the MC was supposed to become romantically attached to one of the members of the Inquisition. First it was one specific character then I retconned it to a different one before it's finally settled on no love interest currently. 85 chapters (300k + words) posted online without a hint of the MC even having those kinds of feelings.

The Dark-Haired elf who appeared in the MC's dreams was originally Alduin in elf form but because the story changed, I ended up using it for another character. It just happened to work far better the second way.

There's the personality of the Inquisitor. Originally she was a battle-hardened warrior but given that the MC is a Dragonborn Orc who lives for fighting, it just clashed too much with similar characters. She was retconned into being a teenager thrust into being a leader which has become a much more fun character.

Dreams play a role in the story and there was supposed to be scene where the Inquisitor witnessed the MC's dream of gaining a weapon via murder (Mehrune's Dagger in Skyrim for the curious) and then having things get explained by another nosy character. I ended up just removing it completely as it felt out of place with the characters. Of course, it also meant there were a few throwaway lines later that made no sense until I reworked a later chapter to use them for something else.

There are other retcons but they're all kind of minor things that diverged as I wrote (like different versions of scenes).

 

[John_Owl]

most of my retcons are from small throwaway mentions, and they're usually just explained away. "X had a bow, why did she attack with her claws, rather than the bow?"

uh.... because the bow is low powered, intended for hunting small game like rabbits, not larger game, like humans or deer.

Genuine conversation I had. And the truth? I'd forgotten I'd given her a bow, and just through a fox using her claws sounded cool.

 

[Zagaroth]

So far, most of the retcons have been relatively minor.

There are a couple of big changes in my upcoming revision, but amusingly enough the impact of those changes gets smaller as the story progresses. I just need to fix a couple of continuity issues that the changes create.

 

[Bartun]

In my initial draft there was not a single intentional retcon. During editing, I had a lot of retcons because later stuff wouldn't make sense otherwise.

Same. I didn't have a single retcon in my first draft, but now that I'm editing my earlier chapters I'm retconing a bunch of stuff.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Biggest retcon was when I accidentally posted a chapter to the wrong story... :D

Most of mine get caught before uploads - part of why I try to be at least three, five or more when possible, chapters ahead. Sometimes as I post a chapter, I realize I have to edit something later.

For example, the biggest real retcon was in Between Worlds - where in about chapter 50 I realized a throwaway character who was originally meant as a running gag more than anything else had somehow become central to part of the plot and had to go back to ... well, it will be the next chapter uploaded, and make some revisions to fit what happens later.

 

[sbdrag]

I usually modify more than full retcon.

In example: in the early chapters of DKG, I said humans get "demonic posioning" from eating too much demon food. I initially planned for this to be about like metaphysical energy due to the "realms" in the story being different planes of reality that had been like, tied together so had some overlap from influencing each other. While the last part stuck, "demonic" poisoning is actually just heavy metal poisoning, because their realm is so rich in metals their plants/animals have a higher content level compared to basically any other realm. So it's still called demonic poisoning, but the root cause is more mundane than I initially conceptualized, ha ha.

 

[Clo]

Worst I have had so far is characters growing further than expected, or running away with the story.

Retcons of setting details also happen as I further flesh out things. Like "oh, I established something about the price of gas in chapter 14, but there is a gas-powered car in chapter 6. I should add a mention back then already about how unusual that is."

 

[TheEldritchGod]

I once deleted a season. It was a favor. When they added those two new months, five seasons didn't fit into 12 months evenly, so it had to go. I figured it would be confusing for all of you so I just reconned it.

But retcons in a story? Uhhh... can't think of any off the top of my head.

 

[Elmir_Arch-Ham_of_Omega]

Original: "We have to watch our range, our radio can only go so far."
Retcon: "Our technomancer No Russian'd a masquerade ball just so she can MK-Ultra a mage to send satellites into orbit,"