Writing Blog Number 2

20240614 Plot Holes

Plot Holes

Yet another question from a WdCer, and something that a few editors (and one author) responded to when I sent out my emails.
How can we avoid plot holes and how do we fill them afterwards?

Okay, first… what is a plot hole?

A plot hole is a point in a narrative where something happens that does not make sense based on what happened before or the laws of the world it is set in. Logic takes a holiday and that suspension of disbelief in the reader is pushed beyond normal limits.

Most often, plot holes are seen in visual media (movies, TV), and many alleged plot holes are just continuity errors or were created by stupid editing mistakes. Or are seen as such by people being pedantic.

Oh, and despite what some modern critics claim: Plot holes do matter!

The most commonly cited plot hole is in the original The Karate Kid. In the final Daniel uses a crane kick to win. But, people cry, kicks to the head were deemed illegal by the judge! Plot hole! Well, no. Punches to the head were deemed illegal (Johnny was warned about that earlier), not kicks. Not a plot hole, just people not bothering to watch properly.
         The police emerging from Gotham’s underground after months of being trapped looking clean-shaven is not really a plot hole but a continuity error.
         Indiana Jones surviving outside a sub for a long journey is not a plot hole, just not explained. A cut scene, in fact, shows him hanging onto the periscope. So, editing issues as well.
         In Black Panther, T’Challa is rescued by fishermen from the Northern tribes, who are isolated and do no trade with any other tribes. Later on, the leader of said tribes says they are vegetarians. So, why do they have fishermen? That is a plot hole.

I hope that explains it. Basically, when something is explicitly stated and is important to the plot, then later contradicted in that same plot, it is a plot hole.

Now, in a book, because you can explain things, and the editing is not going to cut chunks of explanation (unless it’s cutting chunks of info-dumping exposition to make it, you know, readable), plot holes should be the sorts of things that a good beta reader (or even an alpha reader if you use them) will see and point out. A publisher and editor should also find any missed by readers. Should. Some things still get through. I guess the most famous is in Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe where he strips naked, swims out the ship and then fills his pockets with biscuits. Unless pockets is a euphemism **shudder**.

A more recent example is Michael Crichton’s Timeline where the concept of time travel is not actually time travel, but travelling to the present of an alternate universe… and yet a pair of glasses are left behind 1000 years in the past for people in the future to find. Yeah… that’s a plot hole.

Anyway, so the first thing is to work out if it is an actual plot-hole or not. If in doubt, then assume it is. Plot holes to be aware of as a writer include:

1) Events that don’t make sense or are impossible. I bring this up a bit, but a story I read had a horse ride from Melbourne to Adelaide take a day; it’s 8 hours by car at 110 km/hr. Even something as simple as no-clipping to get from one room to another can be like this. Another is characters coming back to life; don’t laugh, killing a character in chapter 2 and then forgetting you did and them coming back in chapter 31 is surprisingly common.
         On a wider note, the wizard who has a spell that can kill a person then cannot kill the hero at the end is one that appears way too often. The impervious hero is another; how did they survive that explosion? This is the most common plot hole I have seen in written work.

2) Character contradictions is the next most common. This is where a character’s personality undergoes a change for no apparent reason, or they perform actions that are completely out of character.

3) In-world contradictions is one I see most often in fantasy and science fiction works. This is where established laws/rules of the world are established and then broken later on; this is most common with magic systems.

Some also consider continuity errors as plot holes when it comes to writing. I think it depends, as these are usually easily dealt with. That’s because continuity errors are often just a matter of making cosmetic changes. One of the surprisingly most common is a character’s name changing halfway through a story! This is simply a matter (on computer) of search and replace. If it goes beyond that and does affect the ending, then, yes, it does become a plot hole.

So, how to avoid these pesky plot holes.
         First problem is recognising them. As the writer, we are often too close to the work, so it could well be that an initial reader is needed to point it out. Anyway, here’s the best ways to avoid them.

1) If you are a plotter, use the plan or skeleton of the story beats to identify plot holes before you write them into the first complete draft.

2) Even if you are a pantser, have an idea how plot beats lead to other plot beats before (or as) you write them. Think before you write is what this means. I know that when you are on a good flow, that can be an issue, but it can help prevent future issues.
         Even as a pantser, when I wrote Invasive Species I had the life cycle of the monster all plotted out and even wrote a sort of an essay first to ensure it followed in the story.

3) Make sure characters are behaving in a logical manner in the context of the story. That last is important. A meek woman might be able to lift a car to rescue her child because it’s been reported and adrenaline is a mighty drug, but a meek woman becoming a popular public speaker in one day goes against what a meek woman would be mentally able to do. Use character sheets – I do that in my fantasy especially – and refer to them.
         This is my greatest weakness. People who beta read my novel here at WdC recently will note that I often asked if a character’s actions/ motivations made sense in the context of the story. I use betas to help me get it right.

4) Especially if you are creating a world, make sure you have a list of all the laws of the world. I mentioned earlier I did a detailed outline of the monster so the immersion was not broken. The more fantastic the world, the more you will need to make sure these laws are there. James Cameron did this with Avatar, to the point he has published essays about Pandora.
         Remember, though: not all of it needs to be included! Make sure you have it so your story has a logical through-line but don’t info-dump it all on your readers. Cameron’s essays have not made it into the films, but they show his world has remained consistent.
         I might be a pantser, but my fantasy worlds have been carefully created, often once I realised I was in a foreign world. So vital.

5) Never throw away a draft! If you make changes, keep the original. Sure, this is easy if you hand-write, but on a computer, create a new file and rename it! I am currently writing a horror and, after 25 pages, I knew I’d gone down a wrong path. So I created a file called ‘mummyB.doc’ and this is where I changed it. I am currently at page 60 and the file I am using is ‘mummyC.doc’, and the original ‘mummy.doc’ is still there as well. What this means is if you read later on and find a plot hole, go back to former versions and see if you didn’t have it there, and how you got around it.

6) Give yourself space before editing. Space is normally time, but could also be editing it in a different location (the human brain is a wonderful thing). I make sure I have written something else before editing, so it’s often months. Why write something else? Because then my head has pushed that first story aside and is concerned with something else, so when I return to a work to edit it, it is with fresh eyes. For example, some just find that three months is enough to forget about it.
         But the long and short of it is: do not edit straight away.

Now, one area that I am ambivalent about is that some consider unresolved storylines (especially concerning secondary characters). This is when a subplot is not finished. Now, sometimes, it does not matter and is a nice little mystery, sometimes it leaves it open for a sequel or can be closed in a sequel, but a lot of the time (and I am guilty of this) it is just ignored because the writer (usually a pantser) has forgotten.
         So a subplot checklist (an editor I contacted uses the term) is what is needed here. I do this. As things appear in a story, I write them down on a separate piece of paper. This way I can keep tabs of what is happening when and where. I plot in reverse, I guess, but it does make me ensure I no longer leave these plot threads hanging. Some plotters will have subplots running concurrently alongside their main plots to ensure they do not leave something out.

One surprisingly common error in this regard involves pets or animal companions. Dogs disappearing and re-appearing without explanation are very common. Not sure why. The solution is a simple one: if you have a dog with a character, don’t think of it as two beings, but one entity. This means whenever you think of the character, the dog is there as well.

So, let’s say we tried all of this, but unfortunately for us, a plot hole has been discovered by our eagle-eyed beta reader. We can’t just hand-wave it away, and there is no simple “add a paragraph” or “add some extra explanation” fix for most plot holes, or adding some exposition in dialogue, or hand-waving it as “magic” (hello, Harry Potter) to disguise the fact you made a boo-boo.
         Getting rid of a plot hole does generally involve a new draft. Sorry, but that is the way it goes, which is why avoiding them in the first place is by far the best way to go. You might have to change the personalities of characters, change the way the ending is reached, change subplots, add a new character, remove an old character, even changing a law of the story-world which will have knock-on effects all of its own. But it will make the work much better.
         Just remember, the simple fix of a plot hole is most often not the best fix.

So, that’s a lot of writing, but plot holes are something that no creator of a narrative wants to be faced with.