Modern audiences are especially astute and often notice inconsistency. We should strive to avoid this in world building by following any rules that we’ve stated for our setting. There are several tricks that can assist with this by providing flexibility.
One is hedging, or using less strict language. Instead of writing that, for example, “wizards must be trained,” we state that “wizards must usually be trained.” There are other variants on this, such as, “No one knew how else to become skilled without it, and so wizards had to be trained,” or “Wizards believed they had to be trained.” With each of these, we’re giving ourselves a subtle “out” that things might be different than we’re saying.
One problem with this is that people don’t always read carefully or remember accurately, and if characters are acting like something is an iron-clad rule, this impression can override what we technically said. In both cases, the audience can come to believe it’s a bona fide rule and chide us for breaking it. That we did some narrational sleight-of-hand is something we may not have the chance to point out, and even if we do, could be accused of tricking readers. Use this wisely and not too often.
Another ploy is having characters state the supposed fact. After all, they’re people, and those are fallible. It’s hardly our fault a character passed bad information on to other people, including the reader (of course it’s our fault)! To do this, we need either their dialogue or narration that is done in their perspective. In the former, we might put these words in someone’s mouth: “Kier, why do wizards have to be trained?” or “Kier, every wizard must be trained!” If the characters to whom this is said accept it as true, so may the audience. We can use their reaction to bolster or weaken the perceived accuracy of the statements.
Whether we want to employ these practices or not, it can be wise to note any statements of absolutism that imply there’s a rule. This sometimes happens in the act of storytelling. Develop a sense of this just as we do with any other aspect of writing, such as grammar mistakes. If we don’t catch it on writing, hopefully we will on editing our work. When we create or find such a statement, write it down in a file about this setting, appropriately categorizing it. In the above example, it’s about wizards, so it goes into the magic file, which should periodically be reviewed while writing this setting or designing games there.
