Writing is hard.

And it isn't hard because of inconsistencies or over-reliance in tools like spellcheck or grammar check, or because writers tend to pontificate, leading to the overuse of thesauri for words that might convey the exact meaning desired at the risk of transforming your characters or narrator from an ordinary individual into a literati into Kelsy Grammer. Recognition of that pitfall also leads to the mistake of overcompensation, where certain character' words are mispelled to mimic the charm of their 'drawl'. Anyone who has replaced "I"s with "Ah"s knows what I mean. Most of these nuances are just that, details: write them consistently and it becomes a part of your style and your audience, even if it's a niche of one, will adapt and come to appreciate what it brings to the experience.

The real problem is consistency. In a certain way every writer is a fanboy; if he writes any character for any length of time he will have to create a timeline that blends history, awareness, speculation and psychology if he is to have any hope of a plausable 'continuity'. And it's not optional, not unless you're writting an unhcangeing character, someone who endures life like waves crashing upon a rock. If I'm honest with myself, there's only one character in recent history I can apply that to. Sadly, I am not writing with Hollywood's version of Forrest Gump in mind. Every word that a character speaks, reads, hears is half of the puzzle; the other half are the words he misses, the events unattended, the plans left undone, the dreams unfulfilled and the opportunities missed. It is a strange practice in schizophrenia at the mildest and dissociative identity disorder at its most powerful because it's so easy to lose track of what each character knows, how they know it, and which combination of conflicts that pop up from that fit into the story you want to tell. There's so many ways any project can take on a life of its own.
It reminds me of a discussion from years past: 'The more complicated the sentence, the more lkely it becomes untrue."

Well, wish me luck. I'm finding it hard, but I'm not giving up yet.

-Z