Plot holes are the absence of ‘how’ a character goes about the plot, or ‘why’ an event takes place. Plot holes such as E.T.’s ability to fly a bicycle but not fly to his ship, an illegal kick to the face that wins The Karate Kid, or the mishap with time travel in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban can be avoided with a little thought and preparation. But fret not! Even some of the greatest writers succumb to the treacherous plot hole, and they can be hard to avoid. But try these tricks:

1. Allow your character to fail

Convenient skill is a major plot hole. A convenient skill is having your character face an obstacle, like climbing a rock wall, and your character is suddenly an expert free climber.

Now, if you need to climb that wall to move on, the best way to bust that plot hole is to allow your character to fail first. Scramble up the wall and fall once or twice. Knock a few stones down. Have your character pause and panic a little. Remember: failure is always an option!

2. Don’t take the direct route

Trapped in the enemy’s lair and the protagonist can’t escape… but he needs to escape! Or maybe they’ve lost a very important artifact. Whether searching for a way out/in or an object, don’t lead your characters right to their goal. Instead, lead them down the wrong path, look under the wrong rock. Make this a challenge.

If time is of the essence and your characters have to locate something quickly or find their way out sooner rather than later, you can still get around this plot hole. Present the exit to your characters, but have them pause and wonder about the convenience of it all. Is it a trap? Is this the doing of Evil Bob? But oh no! Here comes the dragon to roast our hindquarters! Darn it, we have no choice! Still a plot hole, but concealed.

3. Allow some questions to go unanswered

Nothing spoils a plot twist more than reveling too much of the twist before hand. Half the fun for your readers is figuring things out for themselves. Drop only subtle clues – sounds, colours, smells. If the main goal of your characters is hiding right next door, don’t let anyone know! Otherwise, reveling too much of the plot can poke holes in the plot itself and make your writing seem weak and unimaginative.

4. Just the facts, ma’am

Plot holes can also come about by giving to much information, or providing incorrect information that you then need to cover up later. There is a trick to throwing your reader off the scent, but if you purposely mislead them, they’ll abandon your novel once they figured out you’ve taken them on a ride. To avoid this, present your reader with just the facts as the characters know them, and allow the reader to decide what to do with those facts.

5. Stay away from the rabbit hole

Leading readers down a subplot that has no bearing on the overall arch of the story is another plot hole. Are your characters trying to fight evil? Keep them constantly moving towards that evil and don’t stray into back stories and ‘once upon a times’ that distract the reader from the real plot.

6. Convenient flashback is convenient

You see this used in anime all the time; two arch rivals are about to go toe to toe in an epic battle. Just as they’re about to exchange fisticuffs, the  author realizes they haven’t had enough time to explain why the arch rivals are going toe to toe. To cover their gaff, they throw in a flashback that conveniently answers all the why’s, when’s, and how’s.

Readers hate flashbacks. Period. They bring the story to a grinding halt. If you haven’t had enough time to explain why your characters are about to enter the battle of a lifetime,  then you’ve failed as a writer. Go back and start injecting these tidbits into the story earlier on to avoid the potential flashback.

7. Eradicate irrelevant sub plots

Also known as filler, irrelevant sub plots are attempts to provide some character building for supporting characters who you just couldn’t be bothered to build up in the first place. A supporting character’s issues with their mommy, or their everyday trials and tribulations… no one cares. If your side trip characters are not contributing to the overall plot, do not give them an adventure.

8. Remember to catalogue the journey!

If in scene #1 your protagonist slays the baddie and then in scene #2 he’s pimp-walkin’ outta that castle, you’ve got yourself a plot hole, my friend. A journey through a plot relevant location must be addressed. That castle’s a big deal to your characters, so at least give them a page worth of finding their way out.

Now, a stroll through a grassland just to get to that castle may not necessarily need a narrative. But when the characters encounter resistance relevant to the plot, take on plot-relevant injuries, bond, or explain the need to get to said castle, only then does the journey need to be explained.

9. Kill Your Darlings

This is a term referring to killing scenes and not characters. Sorry George RR Martin fans. Your Darlings are scenes you’ve written and have absolutely fallen in love with it, but in the end those scenes do not drive the plot. Sex scenes are notorious darlings that must be killed, not unless the outcome of that romp in the sheets drives the plot (such as Bella Swan’s sparkly and likely very cold romp in the sheets that gets her preggers with a baby that tries to kill her).

Always keep the plot in mind with your darlings; if you’ve written a great and spanning scene that does not drive the plot, unfortunately you must get rid of it no matter how much you love it. Readers will get side tracked and confused as to what they need to pay attention to if you leave these scenes in your work. When readers get confused, they’ll put down your book and move on to another.

10. When in doubt, re-write

And last but not least is an odd technique that new and budding writers don’t like to do: rewrite a scene. Sometimes it has to be done; you’ve gone down the rabbit hole, you’ve created a side story, your Darling is growing into a problem child. You don’t have to abandon the scene fully.  Simply open a new and blank document and write the scene again. Sometimes you discover nuances you had not realized before, and sometimes you just may find your way through that plot hole!

I hope you enjoyed these tips and tricks. Check back often for more updates! And until next time!

– Rissa