The Harry Potter series is the story of an ordinary boy who discovers that he is a wizard. His story spans across seven books. If you're a true Harry Potter fan, you will have read each of these books faithfully, and you must have felt immeasurably satiated when you finished reading the last line of the last book.
In the process, a few small errors may have escaped your attention. For instance, in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone , after Hagrid drops the infant, Harry, at the doorstep of the Dursleys, he tells Dumbledore and McGonagall that he has to return Sirius’ motorbike. However, in the third book it is indicated that Sirius gave Hagrid the motorbike because he didn't need it anymore.
This is where the idea of consistency comes in. Consistency in the context of stories means getting one event in the story to be compatible or in agreement with a related event from earlier in the tale. The example stated above shows an inconsistency in the Harry Potter series.
JK Rowling built an entire world in her head. While the ideas are largely consistent from one book to the other, there are small details that get overlooked.
Internal consistency in a story is especially important in the fantasy and science fiction genres. The author has to get the details right for the reader to believe that such a dimension can exist.
Kate’s rules
In her Ted-Ed video on how to create a fictional world, Kate Messner, who has written books for children, says that she follows certain rules when she sets out to build a fictional world. First, she identifies the time and place where she wants to set her story. Will it be in the past, present, or the future?
She creates a timeline to describe the events that may have shaped this world. Messner dwells on details such as the rules that may be in place. Does gravity exist in the fictional world? What form of government does it have? Who are the people in positions of power and who are the powerless? What do the people believe in?
The writer also thinks about different aspects of day-to-day life in the fictional world. This includes the weather; where the people live, work, and go to school; where do they eat and play; how do they treat their young and their old; what kind of technology exists; what do the plants and animals in this world look like, and so on. Knowing all this helps her story gain internal consistency.
Similarly, the growth of a character has to be in keeping with the story as well. Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery is the first of six books that follow the journey of the lead character, Anne Shirley, from being a young girl to a grown woman with children of her own. By definition, internal consistency is central to these books because it follows the lives of one set of people over time.
If a character decides to do something very unlike oneself, there has to be a gradual build-up for the transformation to be believable. Kathrynn Stockett's The Help is a book about African-American maids who looked after children in white households. It's set in Jackson, Mississippi during the early 1960s and provides an authentic portrayal of life in those times. The book tells the story of a maid named Aibileen Clark. At the start of the book, she only wishes to do what she is told. However, her outlook gradually changes as the book progresses.
Errors in continuity often occur when a writer decides to remove a portion of text but leaves a related bit of the text behind. Rick Taubold mentions on his blog that while revising a draft of his book, Vampires Inc. , he moved a scene from the inside to the outside. However, he still had one of the characters remove his feet from his desk after they were already outside walking.
While writing your story, keep a watch out for consistency, especially in the case of events that involve continuity. For instance, if you're describing a conversation between two people as they eat a meal, remember that their glasses cannot always be full of water. The food on their plates has to decrease little by little. There will be pauses in their conversation as they munch on their food.
