Why Consistency Is So Important to Your Writing (and What Should We Do About it?)

One thing that may have many of us feeling unsure or out of sorts right now is the conflicting information that can come with stories and information about the current pandemic. Some of it is because we live in a 24/7 news cycle, and scientists and doctors are making new discoveries daily. Some of it is rumor and hype. But when I talk to my friends and family, this is one topic that’s often brought up: Everything feels so inconsistent. People are asking: Who do I trust?

Think about your best friend or a relative you are close to. You’ve established trust and a bond, and one of the ways this happened is because the person was consistent. He or she followed through on promises and showed up when s/he said they would. S/he was always there for you with consistent behavior.

So consistency is important to human beings; and as you know, human beings are your readers–at least for now, until we teach other creatures to read or life is found on another planet. (I’m only kidding–sort of.)

When I was thinking about this post, I thought of many, many ways that we have to be consistent when we write or because we are writers. I decided I would turn this topic into a series of blog posts. Today’s post gives you an overview of the topic; and then in other posts throughout the end of May and into June, I’ll provide some tips in different areas for how to be consistent in your writing and keep your readers happy!

Here are some areas where consistency is important both in your writing and in your career:

• Point of view character
• Worldbuilding
• Characters’ descriptions
• Characters’ names
• Characters’ motivations and feelings
• Spelling (i.e., U.S. vs U.K.)
• Formatting
• Branding
• Correspondence
• Social Media

Never Stale! The Muffin provides daily writing tips, inspiration, and news from the bakers of WOW! Women On Writing.