Plot Holes

Ah, the dreaded glitch. We’ve spent months or maybe years on a story, alternately elated and despairing that we’ll ever find the end. Or maybe we wrote right through the first draft to the end and have spent that time fleshing our baby out, adding meat and fluff scene by scene or line by line. And then we see it on the fifth read-through. The plot hole big enough to fly the starship Enterprise through. Or maybe it’s only Mini-Cooper sized, but closing it creates similar sized holes throughout the plot. What’s a frustrated writer to do?

Leave It

This sometimes works. Many a plot hole is to be found in published stories. Some readers never notice. Others will, but read on. It’ll be the point at which a few put the book down and never pick it up again. A few will let you know. If you’ve been diligent about re-writing, editing, and polishing before you noticed and it’s gotten past your beta readers without comment, consider leaving it and moving on. Yes, the careful reader will catch it, but hopefully your story will be captivating or exciting enough that they will overlook that particular hole.

Acknowledge It

If it’s a Mini-Cooper sized hole that only seems glitchy in retrospect, let a character notice it at a place where the pace slows enough for everyone to catch their breath. “We should’ve used your press pass to get into the event instead of trying to sneak in, jerk.” “I guess I should’ve tested the rocket booster first, huh?”

Retro-fix It

Explain later or insert a couple of lines of explanation immediately after the glitch. Sam: “Hey, Roscoe, why didn’t you just call Teddy in the first place? That would’ve solved the problem before it started!” Roscoe: “I did, he didn’t answer/he said no/he said he couldn’t help.” Or maybe, “My phone is/was dead.” In this case, be sure there’s an acknowledgement of time/ability to charge the phone before Roscoe uses it again.

Fix It

There’s no way around some holes, they require fixing. The hardest part is reimagining your story in a way that allows it. Raise your hands and back away from the keyboard. Go have a snack or a walk or call your best friend. Let your back brain work. Review your outline if you have one. If you don’t, now’s the time to write your story’s skeleton down on paper and connect the dots to fill the hole. Call on a writer friend or your first reader to help you brainstorm. When you’ve sorted the fix in your head, write it in on a new draft and then follow it through the story.

Don’t rely on memory to jump around and re-write your various threads to reflect the fix. It’s easy to snarl your story up worse because you forgot the fix would affect x when you re-wrote y. Instead, carefully review your story line by line from the fix on to find and re-write whatever moments and scenes are affected by the fix. Your editor, critique partners, and beta readers would thank you, but if you do it this way, they won’t know they need to. It can be time-consuming, but the plot hole will get smaller and smaller until it’s closed completely.

Learn From It

Plot holes happen to us all and they are almost always fixable. If you run into one that can’t be fixed, try rethinking your character’s motivations or occupation. Approach your concept from a different angle or setting. If all else fails, chalk your effort up as learning from glorious failure, and then take the parts of your story that work and cannibalize them for inclusion in a different story—or several different stories!

Happy Holidays, if you celebrate in December! Please share your thoughts on, or your experience with, finding and fixing or failing to fix plot glitches in your stories. Join me on the first Friday of each month for exploration, discovery, and discussion of the writing life.