When I talk about fiction book editing, the typical idea people have in mind is often pretty accurate—grammar, spelling, typos, etc.
But did you know that a copyeditor also checks for continuity within a story or manuscript?
Much like a continuity supervisor on a TV show or movie set, a copyeditor creates a style sheet, which is essentially a reference document. The style sheet is a whole other blog post for another day, but a big part of the document is a list of noted details for continuity and consistency. And for authors who plan to have multiple books in a series, this becomes invaluable!
Copyeditors look for many things, including:
- Character traits: the best friend’s hair is described as blonde in chapter two, but then brown in chapter thirty-two.
- Timeline points: the group of friends eat dinner, but five pages later a side character asks if anyone is hungry for dinner.
- Places: the diner is described as across from the library on Main Street, but later the character is described as walking next-door to the library after grabbing a bite to eat at the diner.
- And other things, including references to events before the book begins, illogical timelines, and specific character traits.
Checking for continuity is one of my favorite aspects of the job. For many readers, major discrepancies have the potential issue of pulling them out of the story. And we never want that!