Thursday, June 30, 2011

A Near Disater in the Continuity Stakes

I had a worried moment last night as I was working on my WIP.

As I have said I’ve been writing one POV at a time with the plan of assembling the units into a whole later.

I thought I had made a massive continuity error. Those of you who were reading my extracts featuring Valentina may remember Stepan. Stepan is a (possibly former)friend of Valentina’s who has been recruited into the Soviet NKVD. Like Valentina he provides ‘the voice’ for a number of sections of my narrative.

As I was tidying up a section of Stepan’s narrative on my way home on the train I had this sudden dread that I had Stepan at Murmansk in the Arctic and on the Don River in southern Russia at the exactly the same time. The two locations are literally thousands of kilometres apart!

I have a plot device to have him move from one place to the other but that requires months. Teleport devices are not in general use today, let alone in the 1940’s Soviet Union!

I got home late again last night and literally did not have the courage to look at my potential problem until today. With relief I found my panic of last night was exactly that, a panic! I have a time frame of nearly six months to work with. Last night I was thinking with a tired brain and my brain is not good when tired.

Now a few piccies from my night time excursions on the weekend.

My new camera gives me so much more control for night time shots.

A short exposure of mysterious lights.In a long exposure they become a brightly lit crane unloading an enormous container ship at Port of Melbourne.Further away these giant port cranes remind me of the ‘walker’ transport out of Star Wars.On the subject of mistakes. A real doozy was made in Melbourne’s Docklands.

Turning my camera in the general direction of the city you can see the ‘Southern Star’ observation wheel being rebuilt against the night skyline. Rebuilt because the original design was flawed and the whole thing began warping in the heat of an Aussie summer,

‘Psst guys let me tell you a secret. It gets hot in Oz!’

I thought I had made an error with my writing as big as that of the engineers who designed the Southern Star. Luckily my mistake was thinking I had made a mistake. Phew!
Have you ever made a terrible mistake with your writing (or otherwise)?

8 comments:

mshatch said...

oh yes, many mistakes. had to go back, rewrite. not fun.

love those night pics.

Susan Flett Swiderski said...

Hey, as the author, you're the BOSS! If you wanted teleport devises in the Soviet Union in the '40s, you've got the poetic license to put 'em there. Glad you were mistaken about making the mistake, though. (Can't have you hyperventilating all over the place.)

Sarah Ahiers said...

oooh i had a similar continuity problem on my last WIP. Like you, though, it turned out i had more time to play with that i'd thought

John Going Gently said...

I agree something out of a film

Blade Runner perhaps?

Old Kitty said...

You must always rest your brain in between shifts of thinking! :-)

Good luck!!

These shots are surreal! Take care
x

Lisa said...

Glad to hear you didn't have to rework a whole lot of your WIP!

Kathleen Jones said...

I love the night-time pics! And yes I've made some huge goofs - so embarrassing I can't bear to talk about them - in published books! At least you picked this up before it hit the press.

Rebecca A Emrich said...

Love the pics-- and yes I dod that all teh time, I havd my proof and-- lo and behold-- there is a mistake-- one which I should have caught but didn't.

Oh well, it's fixed now, but still I think we all make mistakes, it's just a matter of fixing them