diff --git a/inklecate/ParsedHierarchy/DivertTarget.cs b/inklecate/ParsedHierarchy/DivertTarget.cs
index b8caf0d0..0d104a10 100644
--- a/inklecate/ParsedHierarchy/DivertTarget.cs
+++ b/inklecate/ParsedHierarchy/DivertTarget.cs
@@ -85,6 +85,17 @@ public override void ResolveReferences (Story context)
                 usageContext = usageParent;
             }
 
+            // Example ink for this class:
+            //
+            //     VAR x = -> blah
+            //
+            // ...which means that "blah" is expected to be a literal stitch  target rather
+            // than a variable name. We can't really intelligently recover from this (e.g. if blah happens to
+            // contain a divert target itself) since really we should be generating a variable reference
+            // rather than a concrete DivertTarget, so we list it as an error.
+            if (_runtimeDivert.hasVariableTarget)
+                Error ("Since '"+divert.target.dotSeparatedComponents+"' is a variable, it shouldn't be preceded by '->' here.");
+
             _runtimeDivertTargetValue.targetPath = _runtimeDivert.targetPath;
         }
             
diff --git a/tests/Tests.cs b/tests/Tests.cs
index 7519de20..cf8d1601 100644
--- a/tests/Tests.cs
+++ b/tests/Tests.cs
@@ -2383,6 +2383,28 @@ This content is inaccessible.
             Assert.AreEqual (string.Empty, story.ContinueMaximally ());
         }
 
+        [Test ()]
+        public void TestWrongVariableDivertTargetReference ()
+        {
+            var storyStr =
+                @"
+-> go_to_broken(-> SOMEWHERE)
+
+== go_to_broken(-> b)
+ -> go_to(-> b) // INSTEAD OF: -> go_to(b)
+
+== go_to(-> a)
+  -> a
+
+== SOMEWHERE ==
+Should be able to get here!
+-> DONE
+";
+            CompileStringWithoutRuntime (storyStr, testingErrors:true);
+
+            Assert.IsTrue (HadError ("it shouldn't be preceded by '->'"));
+        }
+
         // Helper compile function
         protected Story CompileString(string str, bool countAllVisits = false, bool testingErrors = false)
         {