Dealing With Plot Holes - Part 1:
Hello everyone, Mod Freya here!
Writing is a great way to let your imagination run wild. You create everything, from the world’s rules to its characters. You are an omnipotent god; your story is your dominion. And as a result, you can include anything you want.
However, those endless possibilities have a major drawback that, if not properly addressed, can immensely disturb the flow of your writing: plot holes. Because you’re able to put in any idea that might seem fitting, you will inevitably encounter contradictions and inconsistencies at some point.
It’s a merciless monster that devours everything unfortunate enough to cross its path. If you fall into its trap, it will swallow your ideas and pull them into an endless abyss until your story is reduced to a singularity. No one is safe from black holes-- plot holes. I mean plot holes.
I made that pun a week ago, and I’m still proud of it.
Since my fellow heartless writers deemed me relatively specialized in plot details and such, I decided to share my personal approach for treating black plot holes. Please take my advice with a grain of salt, as I’m a newbie writer with a limited experience.
You could probably tell from the title that I’m going to address this topic in two posts. In this one, I’m going to talk about how to spot plot holes. I have two ways to do that. Without further ado, here they are:
Make an outline: A good way to keep an eye out for plot holes is to organize your story. Having a planned outline helps you keep everything in check. I also found out that the more detailed it is, the more effective your plot hole radar will be. For example: I’m making a timeline for my first story right now, and whenever I mention something such as a magic type for the first time, I write side notes containing all the rules, strengths and restrictions I have for it. That way, I can come back to it whenever I mention it again and see if there are any contradictions.
Check the ideas’ compatibility: Whenever you come up with a new or rough idea, compare it to every rule, character and event related to it. As mentioned earlier, you can even go back to the outline or a character’s profile for reference. Ask yourself questions like the following: Does this make sense? Is this relevant? Is this compatible with the rules of my universe? Would it be logical for this character to do something like that? Would this effect the plot in a way that would realistically change an event or make it irrelevant? How can this even happen? Can I tweak this detail in a way that makes it possible? This will help you find and hopefully eliminate any future plot hole that might arise from new ideas.
This is how I personally look for those stubborn little parasites called plot holes. The next step is to annihilate them. There’s nothing wrong with finding things that don’t make sense in your story at first. In fact, it just means you have a wide imagination and a variety of ideas you want implement in your plot. Now, you just have to use said imagination to choose the most suitable ideas and play around with them until they do make sense... but that’s for another post!
Before I finish, I want to say that this is all subjective. My advice might not work for you, but I hope it’s as beneficial as possible. If you have other ways to spot black holes, please feel free to share it with us in the reblogs!