SBD - Continuity
Jun. 5th, 2006 08:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jmc_bksToday's SBD topic: continuity in storytelling.
How many times have you read a love scene and wondered if the hero was either a contortionist or a guy with three arms? 'Cause there is no way he could possibly be doing that and that and that all at the same time unless he was Plastic Man. It always perplexes me when I find stuff like this, because I know that at least two people have read the book before it goes to print. [I assume that more than two actually read it, especially if the writer belongs to a critique group, but figure two is the minimum.] Did no one in the proofing-editing chain notice the hand that was touching there and there and there all at once?
And continuity problems are not just for love scenes or new authors. I read Brazen Virtue by Nora Roberts over the weekend; it is an older book (early 90s maybe) that I hadn't read before, romantic suspense with a serial killer, set in Washington DC. I do like NR's older single titles. Right after the heroine (Grace) and hero (Ed) meet for the first time (he's her sister's neighbor and she sticks her head out the window and introduces herself), the heroine puts on a pair of sweats. Four pages later, they are in the kitchen chatting, and the hero is mentally lusting over her, thinking about the loosely tied robe that is displaying a pair of gorgeous bare legs. WTF? Timewise, only a few minutes have elapsed since the sweats were put on. Did she take them off and put the robe back on to answer the front door? Did they dissolve under the heat of his gaze? Does he have x-ray vision to see beneath her clothes? Inquiring minds want to know.
How many times have you read a love scene and wondered if the hero was either a contortionist or a guy with three arms? 'Cause there is no way he could possibly be doing that and that and that all at the same time unless he was Plastic Man. It always perplexes me when I find stuff like this, because I know that at least two people have read the book before it goes to print. [I assume that more than two actually read it, especially if the writer belongs to a critique group, but figure two is the minimum.] Did no one in the proofing-editing chain notice the hand that was touching there and there and there all at once?
And continuity problems are not just for love scenes or new authors. I read Brazen Virtue by Nora Roberts over the weekend; it is an older book (early 90s maybe) that I hadn't read before, romantic suspense with a serial killer, set in Washington DC. I do like NR's older single titles. Right after the heroine (Grace) and hero (Ed) meet for the first time (he's her sister's neighbor and she sticks her head out the window and introduces herself), the heroine puts on a pair of sweats. Four pages later, they are in the kitchen chatting, and the hero is mentally lusting over her, thinking about the loosely tied robe that is displaying a pair of gorgeous bare legs. WTF? Timewise, only a few minutes have elapsed since the sweats were put on. Did she take them off and put the robe back on to answer the front door? Did they dissolve under the heat of his gaze? Does he have x-ray vision to see beneath her clothes? Inquiring minds want to know.
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Date: 2006-06-06 12:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-06 03:49 pm (UTC)That's actually the only thing I remember about Brazen Virtue.