Solving Plot Holes
Most people have a general idea of the plot holes in their story, but many can have a hard time figuring out how to fix them.
The main thing to know about plot holes is that they are inconsistancies in your story. Something is established in one way, and then manifests in a way that is not explained, or is made to seem like it’s been that way all along.
When you boil it down like that, the problem becomes a lot more straight-forward to solve; you just have to figure out what the inconsistancies are and make them consistant!
Thing is, figuring that out can be fairly challenging. The first thing I like to do is write down what the plot hole is, and be specific.
For example, “The mayor of the town established when he met the hero that the dragon has been harrassing the town for over a decade, and both the villagers and the town show evidence of this. But the hero also showed that the dragon was easy to kill and escaped without getting injured. The village should have done something already given the wreckage left by the dragon.”
Yes, it’s kind of long, but it’s easier to brainstorm solutions when the essence of the plot hole is stripped to it’s bare essentials. Now, you can brainstorm solutions that make things line up. For example, maybe the mayor says the dragon just came and it’s first and only raid was devestating. Maybe there’s some kind of spell on the dragon that only the hero can bypass and that’s why they were chosen.
(more details below the break)
