argh.

[erastes]

Just noticed that my character sets out from Berlin riding one horse, which is not only the same name as the horse of the other main character, but the horse changes name half way there.

*stabs*

Comments

[viggofest.livejournal.com]

Think of all the laughing you're saving your next editor from!

How are the eyes?

[aunty_marion]

Two little boys had two little toys,
Each had a wooden horse...

*g*

[crawling-angel.livejournal.com]

Not sure how but that just reminded me of Acorn Antiques. Must be the shakey set, lol.

[beckyblack]

I once magically moved a house from Putney to Chiswick in the middle of a story. "Mum, what's going on? The street outside looks different today!"

And there was that guy who went from being a Lieutenant Commander to a Major later on. Wrong rank and wrong branch in one!

And a guy whose mother was there in one flashback when he was in his 20s and who in a later one died when he was 14. Ghost mum!

[erastes.livejournal.com]

it always worries me that they won't spot that kind of thing. I think Ambrose's eyes changed colour in Standish at one point.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Oh dear - that's exactly this book. *snort* oh well, "inspired by" will have to do...

[erastes.livejournal.com]

i know. Shaming isn't it...

[erastes.livejournal.com]

LOL. Shame there's not a book version of You've Been Framed.

[m-barnette.livejournal.com]

This is why I started keeping a bible for each book I write. Prevents these sorts of things from happening.

I started doing it because I'd lost track of what color eyes a character had. Discovered that for the first half of the book they were blue, then switched to green, then back to blue in the last chapter.

So keeping a bible has prevented further mishaps on that front.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Seriously. Every SINGLE time i start a book I swear I'm giong to do that....

[beckyblack]

If there was I'd be rich with some of the howlers I've done. I usually catch them in the editing. Usually!

[wikdsushi.livejournal.com]

Occasionally, my characters will start out drinking brandy, and finish drinking sherry. It's more entertaining when they drink whiskey all night, though, and end up horking gin!

[aunty_marion]

Wall chart or whiteboard, with columns for each character, and rows for name, eye colour, hair colour, name of parent(s)/sibling(s)/horse(s), etc. Just don't have too many books going at once, or you'll be walled in by whiteboards!

[viggofest.livejournal.com]

I'd like to think I caught all of those! ;-)

[lee-rowan.livejournal.com]

So... one guy realized their horses both had the same name, and changed it. I adopted a dog named Bobbie (short tail) and changed her name. I suspect the horses wouldn't care any more than she did.

[m-barnette.livejournal.com]

I put everything in a computer document and keep it in the same file with the story/book I'm working on. I don't have nearly enough wall space in my entire apartment to do boards. I've got 9 different series going.

[m-barnette.livejournal.com]

It gets to the point that you have to do it, especially if you're rotating writing in different series. I'd go totally nuts--I'm already slightly nuts--if I didn't make bibles for every series.

[m-barnette.livejournal.com]

It's always the tiny details that become the bane of the writer's life.

I had one pair of guys drinking wine in one scene, wasn't able to work on the book for a couple of weeks after that scene ended, and then had them drinking beer.

Fortunately I caught myself during the read over or I would have submitted it that way.

[wikdsushi.livejournal.com]

Well, you could have just said they got drunk enough to forget. ;) (Proofreading has saved my butt so many times.)

[ali-wilde.livejournal.com]

At least you noticed. I read a book once where a man was happily having sex with one guy then his name changed and then changed back again. I admit that I was a tad confused and went right back to before the scene had even started, to see where this 3rd bloke had come from. I was amazed when I realised the name change had missed however many edits this author puts her books through. Probably not very many, cosidering...

[erastes.livejournal.com]

i read that same thing once!!

[erastes.livejournal.com]

i seem to have developed Dresdenitis--Jim Butcher has a slew of characters beginning with M and i've got Bs everywhere-which led to me forgetting who owned which horse!

[essayel.livejournal.com]

I write mainly in Gdocs and use the Gdoc spreadsheet facility to keep notes like that. I still make mistakes though.