Plot Holes

If you’re Nano-ing, bookmark this and come back in December. Good luck as the final days of November roll on.

I’ve talked about revising by identifying the focus of your writing and filling out details using the different tools of storytelling. I’ve also talked about looking at the growth (or rather the lack of it) of your characters and improving that. Today’s post is about looking for plot holes.

Definitely the “pot holes” on the road of your story, plot holes can make for a rough ride (“huh? what?” “why is she saying/doing that?”), or even break an axle (“oh no way that’s not possible!”), killing a reader’s interest in continuing to read.

Plot holes, just like pot holes, occur when there’s no support for the actions that are happening. You don’t ever want to have a reader go “huh? what?” or “no way that’s possible!” The first leads to rereading or flipping back to check if they missed something – and that breaks their immersion in your story world. The second reaction might lead them to put down the book entirely, no longer trusting you, the writer.

If Harry had never seen the Mirror of Erised earlier, and gotten Dumbledore’s warning, he wouldn’t have known what it was capable of. If the reader/viewer and Harry hadn’t caught onto the fact that the mirror showed people what they wanted to see (Ron’s vision) or achieve, then Harry wouldn’t have figured out how to manipulate the sorcerer’s stone into his pocket from his reflection right in front of Voldemort (and Prof. Quirrel).

So your character has to gain skills, gain insights, find the clues, before they can piece all of it together into the ultimate solution to their conflict or problem. Sometimes, all you need is a trophy or certificate of achievement on the wall. A memento they keep from the person who taught them some life lesson. Or it could be a full scene – a training, a conversation, an awards ceremony. How big, or recent, the ability is will play a role in what you choose.

Using failure to build toward success

Failing at something is a great teacher. Showing an early attempt to use a skill and having the character fail at it. You can also have them fail to heed advice.

“With great power comes great responsibility” said Uncle Ben, but Peter’s first test of that he failed – he let the thief run away with the money because he was mad at the fight organizer. So the consequences (spoiler: Uncle Ben is killed by this same thief) taught Peter, that no matter your feelings, when you have the opportunity and power, you must use it to intervene on the side of right. The next time the opportunity to act on the side of right, he did. It didn’t go well – he was still learning about his abilities – but he knew it was the right thing to do.

Multiple places to fix

As you can see from the Spiderman example, and the Harry Potter one, fixing a plot hole often means going into multiple places in your story. You need to add a line here, a scene there, add a test in some other place, in order to provide a smooth road for the reader to believe that your character truly has what it takes to be successful when it really counts and emerge victorious.

~ Lara

PS – if you are struggling to see plot holes that beta readers say are there, an editor can help with a manuscript evaluation and give you not only what the plot hole is but where information or scenes can go that will fix it.