The Document That Contradicts Itself: What to Do
Launch library · evergreen read
Occasionally a single document contains an internal contradiction, a date that does not match elsewhere in the same file, a figure that does not add up, or a claim that conflicts with something stated just a few lines earlier on that very same page of that handwritten original document.
The instinct to quietly pick whichever version is more convenient for the story should be resisted, since an internal contradiction is itself a fact worth noting, and it often signals that the document was compiled from multiple sources or written across more than one separate sitting.
Presenting the contradiction honestly, rather than silently resolving it in favour of one reading, respects the reader's ability to weigh the evidence and keeps the writer from quietly overstating a certainty the source itself does not actually support, even when one particular reading would fit far more comfortably into the shape of the intended story.