Continuity checks
The eleven deterministic continuity checks of Author, what each one looks at, severity, how to dismiss an issue, and what the checks cannot see.
The checks are rules over your data. No model runs. Every issue names the rule, the scenes, events and characters that break it, and a scene to jump to.
| Code | Rule | Looks at | Severity |
|---|---|---|---|
| C1 | In two places at once | A character in two overlapping scenes at different places | error |
| C2 | Travelled too fast | From A to B faster than the route allows | warning |
| C3 | The dead reappear | In a present-mode scene after their death | error |
| C4 | Before they existed | In a scene before their birth or founding | error |
| C5 | Age drift | A scene says an age the birth date contradicts | warning |
| C6 | Date and weather | A stated weekday against the calendar; two weathers at one place and time | warning |
| C7 | Order of time | Relative times in a circle; an anchored event timed outside its scene | error |
| C8 | Point of view not present | The point-of-view character is not in the scene | warning |
| C9 | Knows too early | A scene says they know something before they learn it | warning |
| C10 | One object, two places | A unique object in two places at once | error |
| C12 | Beat off its mark | A structure beat far from its target | info |
Flashback, dream and memory scenes are exempt from the presence rules.
Using the checks#
- Run them from the Story view or ask your AI to run them. The result is stored.
- Open an issue to jump to the scene.
- Dismiss an issue that is intended. Dismissals are remembered by fingerprint, and undo brings an issue back.
What they need#
The checks work on what you entered. For travel (C2) they need places and routes with distances on a map. For knowledge (C9) they need events of the kind learns or effects on knows. For age (C5) they need birth dates in the profile.
What they cannot see#
- A fact that is only in your prose and nowhere in your data.
- Style, grammar or whether a scene works.
- Statements about age in prose are low confidence and show as information only.