Plot Holes—What They Are and How to Avoid Them

You’re sitting down with your laptop and a warm beverage to read through your novel. You finished writing it last month, and now you’re coming back to read it through. You’re excited as you open up your completed document, because this book was so much fun to write!

It must be perfect, a little voice whispers in your head. You take a deep breath and settle in—you know you’ll be here for a while—before starting at Chapter 1.

And what the actual heck.

Your book starts off making sense, but there are instances when you end up scratching your head and questioning the author’s—er, your—logic. Moments you assume are foreshadowing for a grand scheme of yours—previously forgotten, of course—turn out to be nothing. This character wakes up one morning with the ability to predict the future—and that’s… something—but it never becomes relevant. And there’s this scene that, though you enjoyed writing, does nothing to move the story forward, and you find yourself skimming over it to get to something more interesting.

You’ve run into a very common problem, my friend.

Plot holes.

To be more specific: plot holes are inconsistencies in a story line. Whether it be in a novel or TV show, these nuisances distract from the rest of the story and make it less believable overall.

Nobody likes them. This is one of the topics that readers and writers alike can unanimously agree sucks. Unfortunately, this is also a very likely mistake. It happens to the best of us! I should know!

So how can you avoid them? Here are the methods that have worked best for me.

1. Plan ahead: After Unmentionable Draft Number One, I started plotting out my book before I actually wrote anything. Although draft two is not without its errors, it is certainly better than the first. (Literally plot hole after plot hole after plot hole… I didn’t actually even have a plot. At any point in my writing it.)

2. Keep notes: Something I only started doing recently—now at draft three—is writing down my ideas. *snorts out an uncontrollable burst of laughter* It physically pains me to think of all the cool ideas I’ve had in the past that were lost because of failure to write them down. So, what would you write notes about?

Everything, really. But for clarity’s sake: facts about your world, snippets of character backstory you thought of during a particularly productive trip to the toilet, and even fashion details to further immerse readers into your world.

Keeping notes not only gives you more clarity, but by releasing your creativity, you avoid dumping too much information into one area of your story, which creates info dumps and—you guessed it!—plot holes.

3. Create character profiles: Another thing I did for the first time this year was physically write out my characters’ backstories. Find out what makes your characters who they are today. What’s their relationship with their family? What motivates them? What things do they like? What things do they dislike?

There are many, many questions you can ask, and the more questions you ask, the more deeply you’ll fall in love with your characters. However, it’s not uncommon to be overwhelmed by this kind of thing. If you want a starting point for your profiles, click here.

4. Simplify your plot: Sometimes the easiest way to be rid of existing plot holes is to limit your subplots to a smaller number. Oo, oo—I’ve got some personal experience!

So in my first and second draft of The Secret of Moonflower Valley, the foxes were banned from Moonflower Valley because they apparently killed members of the royal family some hundred years ago. While this was, technically, relevant to the overall plot, I had a subplot that was tied to it, which was ‘Clementine and Flynne are going to unban the foxes, hip hip hooray’. So this is mentioned at the start of the adventure, but then they’re just wandering aimlessly through the Black Forest, literally with no purpose. How were they planning on unbanning the foxes? I still do not know. So that was a train wreck, and also created questions as to Flynne’s motives. Apparently, her dream was to free her people from the constraints of the ban, but her actions didn’t match up.

Come draft number three and I finally realize that the foxes being banned from Moonflower Valley is just plain stupid. I tossed that idea and simplified: the fox packs are their own thing, completely separate from Moonflower Valley. Boom. Fixed. And it only took me three years.

5. Incorporate plot holes: “Hang on—what? Aren’t plot holes bad? Leah, you literally wrote an entire post on how to get rid of them! This idea is a plot hole! That’s it, you’re an unreliable source and I’m never visiting your blog again!”

… Please don’t do that. Hear me out: sometimes—not always, but sometimes—plot holes can add humor and even character development to your narrative. How? I’m glad you asked. When plot holes are presented as mistakes your characters make or staged as the author’s mistake but later turning into a plot twist, this can add depth to your novel.

For example, the antagonist is unbeatable. They seem to have no weaknesses whatsoever and are always three steps ahead of the protagonist. The last novel in the series has only ten pages left before the acknowledgements, and the main character has one last-ditch attempt to defeat them.

They set up a trap for the antagonist, and somehow, against all odds, it works! It actually works! With their last words, the villain reveals that their one and only weakness is platinum, and the structure they’re trapped inside is—coincidentally—made out of platinum. And then, boom, the villain dies. Everybody lives happily ever after.

The credits role, and readers are in stupid shock that the villain is gone for good.

Enter an epilogue in the villain’s perspective. We find out that the villain faked their death, and no, they’re not allergic to platinum. Because that would be stupid. And the epilogue ends on a cliff hanger, and the author announces a second arc in the series and their readers absolutely hate them. Love them, too, but hate them even more.

Do you see what I mean?

6. Have a good editor: I have my older sister, and she has me. When I have new ideas, I talk with her and get her feedback. The more receptive I am to her feedback, the less plot holes I have later on. Sometimes she helps me flesh out my ideas, and other times she implores me to set them aside because it just isn’t relevant.

While a good writer can limit the amount of plot holes they run into over the course of their novel’s journey, I think it’s nearly impossible to avoid them entirely. But that is completely alright. Being a good writer doesn’t mean you never make mistakes. It means that when you do, you accept them. Learn from them. And plus, you end up with funny deleted scenes sometimes!

After a few hour-long sessions, you’ve finally finished reading your novel. It needs a lot of work, but you’re excited to start the next draft. You have a note pad filled with scenes to improve, alterations for the plot, and questions to answer about your characters. You and your book still have a long journey ahead of you.

And you wouldn’t have it any other way.