Free for series authors · A working checklist

The 12 continuity checks readers punish most.

A four-page self-audit you run against your own shelf. Twelve checks, the exact question to ask your manuscripts for each one, and a scoring pass that tells you whether your series is tight or drifting. Emailed to you as a PDF.

380,000median words in a five-book series
6 yearsmedian time from Book 1 to Book 5
12 checksdrawn from the errors one-star reviews cite

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The twelve checks at a glance

Each check comes with the exact question to ask your manuscripts, and an example of the error in the wild.

01Name & identity drift
02Physical trait drift
03Timeline arithmetic
04The resurrection error
05Setup → payoff ledger
06World-rule consistency
07Geography & distance drift
08Voice drift between books
09The knowledge ledger
10Relationship & rank drift
11POV & tense leaks
12The publish-time pass

One check, straight from the audit

So you know exactly what you're getting.

04

The resurrection error

The error readers forgive least

Ask: Has anything you killed, burned, broke, or banished reappeared without an explanation on the page?

A minor character who died in Book 2 answers the door in Book 4. The one-of-a-kind sword, shattered at the climax, hangs on a wall two books later.

CLEAN: verified, not remembered UNSURE: can't check without re-reading FOUND IT: there's at least one

Mark one box per check. Unsure counts against you, and the audit explains why.

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The audit by hand takes a weekend per book. StoryHelm runs these checks, and the rest of a full continuity read, across your entire series against one canon. It never writes a word of your prose. The founding cohort is forming now →