Are you ever scared that you'll accidently retcon your own story?

[Van]

I've rewrote and redecided on alot of parts of my story, that led to things that I originally wrote not making sense later on.

I hope my notes and scripts were all coherent enough and I didn't accidently write anything that gets contradicted by a chapter from two weeks ago or something, but the feeling of dread won't leave...

[CommanderMarty]

I don't usually get this issue because I like to plan everything ahead and if I get a new idea that would contradict something in my story I either won't use the idea in that story or find a way to make it work.

[cherrystark]

Sometime but I am a firm believer in trusting your gut when it comes to writing. Part of this feeling is just anxiety. You've read your stuff the most so it's understandable if the story feels muddy to you. You decided to rewrite your story for a reason. Take a step back if you need to and relax. Your story is going to be fine.

[MST3KFan]

Given how often comics from companies like DC and Marvel retcons stuff when their characters have over 50+ years of history to them, I wouldn't worry too much about it unless it completely destroys what you already had done completely.

[Iris-Grimoire]

Reread both your outline and your final work so far, not all the time but whenever you feel you're losing track of things. Updating your plot notes means that you refresh yourself on themes that might get lost in the routine of writing, but also, you might find scrapped scenes/events that could be used for exclusive side content or another work entirely.

[DokiDokiTsuna]

Yeah...I'm always editing my comics as I go along, and I don't like to re-read the pages I've already finished. So you'd think that'd be a recipe for disaster...

...But for some reason, I don't worry about it. ^^; I guess I'm just overconfident.

[vothnthorvaldson]

First, I don't think it is necessarily a bad thing, if it is bringing extra layers of interpretation.

But I suppose you worry about completely losing the interpretation you want to push forward, or about creating plot holes.

I worry about that to. Although I have a precise outline and all important scenes already written for my long form comic, I tend to change, add, or remove content as I go.

The way I deal with keeping things consistent is re-reading all my comic until the part I'm changing, keeping in mind what I'm changing while I reread.

To make the reread more efficient, I first verify (or guess) what my change can impact. Will it impact the timeline, or one (or more) character, or the environment etc?

Then as I read I make a mindmap with all the info that will be pertinent to the part with changes. I make sure it flows logically.

Then I read the later developments of my story (after the altered part) and continue the mindmap to detect any inconsistencies.
I find that part is the most important: it's rare for me to write something inconsistent with what is already finished, but if I forget to alter the events AFTER the changes, I may mess up, because I can forget that I made any changes and assume my detailed outline is 'safe'.

[crowstories]

Yes. I wrote a scifi novel involving time travel, but it was a reincarnation of something I'd started writing two years before, and a lot changed. However! I found ways of dealing with it through outlining and maintaining a timeline of events. Due to time travel the order of events as they come up in the story is not the linear order of events as they take place in time, so my timeline was like another, less detailed version of the outline that put it all in sequential order, and was riddled with notes on things I needed to update so as to avoid continuity issues.

[TedGravesArt]

omg yes. I am constantly worried about that. I'm writing a sci fi universe right now, and after rewriting the universe like 12 times, I feel like I've forgotten which version is canon sometimes. Just do your best man, it's all you can do.
And if you feel unsure about something, double check it before you lock it in! That's saved me several times already!

[Inspector_Spinda]

Yes lol. I dont have an outline anywhere. Everything is in my head

[TheGentleArtist]

At times, yes, I do fear it. So I just think of way on how to incorporate the idea without retconning; if it doesn't fit, it doesn't fit.

[joannekwan]

Not a solid fear but I think it's a thing creators should be wary of when making their story.
It's why I always have my earlier pages/text around to reference at a moment's notice as I write new material.

[NickRowler]

I am pretty sure I have already retconned my main comic. I am not sure if a casual reader will pick up on it tho.

So I guess if you are worried, just make sure the change is something minor that doesn’t mess up your whole story.

[mrtoontastic]

Sometimes I have this problem, especially when editing. hilariously, I re-read a bunch of my previous entries of a series I made, just to make sure I didn't miss any details. It takes a long-ass time, but sometimes its nice to do just for editing reasons and progression in both the canon and in my writing.

[Iridium]

Greetings!

I believe I never came across retcons in my stories --- at least not that I can remember. However, I have a script of a narrative I wrote from 2008-2016 that I migrated to WordPress to republish it, and I decided to retcon it entirely in the form of a comic book series.

My advice to you is to make notations at the end of each chapter of your script, just for you to keep track of the character/scenario development, especially when you go through creative blockage periods. And trust your instinct, always. If you feel that certain facts won't make sense in the script, retcon it and own up the retcons. It's all part of the process =)

[rajillustration]

it's why I don't like to post before I've finished because when I rewrite things I rewrite a lot. Usaully, I have enough time to fix stuff so it all works again before the posts go up. Occasionally, I have slipped some things into published updates because...things had to go in earlier for later stuff to work. It's just kinda how writing works. Sometimes you just get a much better idea than what you had and there's no turning back.

And honestly, I can't do this with comics--so I really try and nail that script before the comic happens because wow it's so much time to redo comic pages.

[Tanako]

well if you dont how will you learn? I do worry about that but i try to trust my instinct. i do my best to proofread and go over my work but man its so difficult. rereading the same thing over and over isn't fun even though you love it. i do my best and dont worry about it. if i do see a mistake in the future i learn from it. honestly if you dont screw up, how can you learn and get better right? so i try my best not to worry about it

[Kaydreamer]

I spent nearly a decade on worldbuilding, so I hope not! But that's the chance you take with writing ongoing stories in a sandbox universe, especially if you're releasing them on an ongoing basis.

Thankfully, Blue Star Rebellion doesn't delve too deeply into the lore of my Dragonfeathers Project, so I do have some wiggle room for the next five years. But when I start on Arc 1 of Dragonfeathers, I really can't fiddle with the magic system or the philosophies underpinning it any more.

It does concern me though, because my own understanding of philosophy, morality, and so forth has deepened quite a bit throughout the years. As such, the lore of Dragonfeathers has changed and deepened with it. The BIG one for me has been a gradual shift in priority away from the Disney-esque ideals of individualism and exceptionalism, and towards ideals of social good, and the virtues of selflessness and sacrifice. That really shook things up a few years ago, and massively changed the themes and tone of the story, which led to me changing parts of the lore to support it.

I just hope that, should I have any more metaphysical growth spurts left in me, they simply build on what's already there rather than uprooting the forest!