From the Productive Indie Fiction Writer:
I watched the new Avengers: Doomsday teaser trailers recently.
They’re slick, quiet, visually striking, and clearly crafted to hit those emotional notes—legacy characters, iconic moments, crossovers we’re supposed to care about. If these trailers had landed right after Endgame, I might have lost my mind.
But now?
I shrugged.
After years of being yanked through character resets, overwritten story arcs, and multiverse logic-loops, I don’t feel anything anymore. Not even curiosity. Just the hollow thud of, Oh. We’re doing this again.
Marvel isn’t the only culprit. Star Trek has fractured itself into so many timelines I’ve lost count. Star Wars spent years building characters and then retconning their motivations in later films or shows. Even Doctor Who—a show built on continuity chaos—has made retcon choices that baffle long-time fans.
And this is why I’m writing this post. Not (just) as a fan who’s been let down, but as an indie author who watches what these franchises are doing and thinks:
Please don’t take this as permission to do the same.
Because here’s the truth:
Readers trust books more than they trust film or TV.
Books have a reputation for respecting their own storylines. For keeping track of what happened, and honouring the consequences. For following through.
You know why? Because authors can’t hit the reset button and expect the audience to just go with it. Not without a cost.
When a book contradicts itself or a series tosses out a plotline it once said was important, readers notice. And when they notice, they leave. Because in books, unlike Hollywood franchises, there are thousands of other options waiting to be picked up next.
We don’t get the same leeway.
But here’s the good news: We don’t need it.
Because the messiness that leads studios to retcon their way out of trouble? That can actually be creative fuel…if you let it.
There’s a great anecdote Orson Scott Card tells in How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy. He was sketching a city map for a fantasy novel and accidentally drew a gate without an opening. No space between the towers, just a sealed wall.
Most people would’ve corrected it.
Card didn’t.
He looked at the mistake and asked, Why is this gate closed? And that became the story: it was a magical entrance, shut down by political decree, now only used by criminals and smugglers. He didn’t erase the flaw. He built a fault line into the world.
And that seed became Hart’s Hope.
That’s the lesson. When you write yourself into a corner, you can either blow up the wall and pretend it never existed (Hollywood style)… or you can ask why the wall is there and let that answer change the story.
Guess which one your readers will remember?
Consistency Builds Trust
As indie authors, we rely on reader loyalty more than anyone. We’re not a billion-dollar machine with a massive marketing team to get people in the door, no matter how bad the last installment was. We build trust story by story, book by book.
So when readers spot that we’ve changed the rules mid-series, or rewritten a character’s motivations without grounding it in what came before, or quietly dropped a plotline because it got inconvenient?
They won’t shrug and move on.
They’ll stop reading.
They may stop recommending.
And they might not come back.
So Yes, You’re Allowed to Change Things—But Earn It
You don’t have to get everything perfect in Book 1. You will find yourself boxed in occasionally, and you’ll need to stretch your worldbuilding or characters to make things work in later books.
But don’t just overwrite what you’ve done and hope no one notices. Use the limitations. Get clever. Make the crooked line part of the map.
That’s what will make your world feel more real—and more rewarding to return to.
Because unlike the movies, we can’t afford to retcon reader trust.
And if I’m honest? I don’t think we should want to.
Have you ever written yourself into a corner? What looked like a dead end on the page? How did you get out of it? Did you find a creative twist, reframe the problem, or lean into the “flaw” like Card did?
Drop a comment or email me. I’d love to hear how you handled it, and whether it made the story better in the end.
— Tracy
Tracy Cooper-Posey
SRP Author and owner of The Productive Indie Fiction Writer
