Consistency of outcome or variation?

[Deadman]

I’m working on a story and trying to figure out how consistent I should be in how the chapters play out.

As an example, I’ve written two chapters so far and working on the third. The first two involve one character seducing different characters per chapter. In the third chapter, there’s a third person who is being seduced. In the previous two chapters, the seduction had basically the same outcome. However in the third chapter it feels like I’m writing a somewhat different ending. At least in terms of how the characters end up compared to the third being seduced.

So I’m not sure if this makes sense story wise because this third character will be involved in future chapters. Probably doing the same things as the first two characters will be doing. But I might be messing with the story consistency. It feels like the main character and the third character are leaving with a different relationship to each other than the first two.

Would something like that bother you? Why or why not?

 

[WarrenTheConey]

It doesn't sound like a problem to me.

In my experience, people care about the consistency of characters, more than anything else.

As long as you retain the consistency of your characters, there should be few, if any, objections about the path they follow and it's outcome.

Of course, people would have a problem with a path or ending, that seems out of line with what is considered reasonable for the world in which your story takes place. But that really goes without saying, usually.

So, if the ending is one that you believe your characters would naturally arrive at, then that ending should be fine.