Engage Your Readers by Fixing The Plot Hole in Your Story

Fiction writing is not a simple task to accomplish. It requires a wild imaginative flight that produces stories and folds them in a manner that inspires and engages the readers. But a fanciful fiction can’t make that only. It calls for a compact and organic plot — an action without plot holes — to grasp the reader’s attention and engage them throughout.

Many writers yearn to grow into the novelists they aspire, but certain loopholes are debarring them from turning into one. The flaw rests not in their narrative, but in how they weave it into the plot.

Creating a compact plot structure makes your story phenomenal. Weaving into a loose plot can have serious consequences. A loose plot may still work successfully if it lacks plot holes.

Plot holes are unforgiving sins in the world of fiction. No matter how great the story is, but if there are gaps and inconsistencies, no one will thoroughly engage with it. The plot holes in your work will leave your reader’s curiosity dissatisfied.

What is a plot hole?

Have you read novels and found that something is missing in the storyline? Has the gap disrupts the development of the plot which counteracts your logic and compels you to reclaim your ‘Willing Suspension of Disbelief? Has the inconsistency of the character made you render the work a waste of time, as you cannot enjoy it anymore?

A plot hole is any inconsistency or story gap that doesn’t go with the accepted logical development of the storyline. These inconsistencies may be an illogical development of the plot, a contradiction of the events that happened before, occurring of impossible events, or events happening for no discernible reason or unlikely action and behavior of a character that harm the enjoyment of the readers.

Plot holes are considered a weakness and a drawback on the writer’s side. A successful writer takes great care of plot holes as the quality and engagement of the readers depend upon the lack of it. Having plot holes in your work has serious consequences for your fiction writing career.

5 categories of plot holes

The plot holes errors fall into the five major categories:

Contradiction

A contradiction occurs when a character’s personality or behavior changes significantly between two scenes with no logical explanation or insight into it.

For example, between the development of your story, you have established that man cannot fly in the air, and later on, you suddenly make a character airborne for some purposes in the story. This is a serious plot hole that weakens your prior claim in the story and puts your writing success at stake.

Contradicting your own established rules destabilizes your story environment and gives your readers a poor impression. Less impressiveness does not allow your readers to immerse themselves in your story.

Illogical development of events

The illogical development of events disrupts the entire plot. It upset the logical flow of the plot development and creates a big plot hole.

For example, your story has a powerful villain that intends on destroying the earth suddenly changes or abandons the idea completely without any apparent reason is a big plot error. The readers want to know the reason the big bad guy had suddenly changed his mind with no emotional investment or logical connectivity of the plot development that compels him to do so.

Such an event will crush your narrative and your writing career too.

Unresolved Storylines

A long narrative has the main plot and can have one or many subplots. The purpose of the subplots is to augment the idea of the main plot. The subplots should be strictly anchored to the main plot, and nothing happens outside it.

If you introduce a character or an event that has significant influences on the main plot or the protagonist is forgotten or left out with no reason is unresolved storylines.

This leaves the readers in a gap. The gap will make them stop there and will turn your readers against your work.

Impossible Events

There are narratives where impossible things occur and of course, as an author, you can create an impossible event. But it has to have some logic and reasons. Without one, you make a plot hole that will disengage your readers from your story.

Impossible occurrences are those actions or events that defy the laws of science or the general logic of the world.

For example, a newbie who wants to win the dancing competition can’t become a professional dancer overnight.

But if he practices day and night and gives triple time to that of other people, chances are there that he may become a professional dancer quickly and may win as you have created an environment that supplements the idea that he has invested more time and passion than others. By providing some logic, you can avoid a plot hole.

Impossible events create serious plot holes and can distract your readers from the story.

Factual errors

Factual errors are misinformation about the dates, era, or events that have happened. We often see factual errors in historical novels and movies. They are potential plot holes that can kill the reader’s interest in your writing.

For example, you are writing a romance story set in the American Civil War era. And the hero wants to meet his lover but uses a jet to go over to the place of his lover. This factual error can create a serious logical plot hole.

How to find plot holes in your story?

Once you have finished your story or still in the middle but revise, read your story meticulously and search for inconsistencies and illogical plot development.

The revision phase is a remedy for correcting the errors done unintentionally while writing your story. It happens with every writer as, during the writing; the thoughts sway from here to there without giving a trace of it.

Create a story timeline

Make an organized story timeline by creating a list of the chapters and the events in it. Check it for the logical sequence of the events that how and when they occur.

Such as the sequence of days, months, years, and even the timing of the occurrences that when they occur.

Follow your character

During revision, follow the development of your characters throughout the story to see if the development is consistent with the story and the personality.

The best thing is to make a list of your characters. Write the specific traits of your character and learn how each one should be developed into a complete personality to avoid inconsistencies in their actions.

Question your plot

Once in the revision phase, question everything that is in the story and related to the plot. Question the logical development of the plot. Is there anything such as a character’s decision or claim that doesn’t fit their personality? Is there an abandoned event or journey that creates a gap? Is there any question gone unanswered? Are the subplots augment the main plot or not?

By questioning your story like this, you will successfully find the plot holes in your narrative.

Check it for consistency

You should also evaluate the occurrence of the events and the setting of your story if they are consistent with the world they represent. If you are writing a fantasy, check if the world is consistent with magic-logic.

Keep track of your revision notes

Keep track of your revision notes is highly necessary. They may open up new subplots or may lead to the finding of more serious plot holes. Check your revision notes if they are consistent with the development of the whole thing.

Be objective in your revision

You can’t edit or revise your story properly if you are still emotionally attached to your work. Once you are in the revision phase, remove the writer’s glasses and put on the glasses of readers and critics.

Spare nothing that creates plot holes in your story. Either improve them by providing logical reasons or delete them altogether and rewrite them.

Let a professional editor check your work

If it is costly to hire a professional editor, ask a fellow writer to read your work. You can convince him/her by offering an exchange.

Pro-tip: The process is tiresome and time-consuming, but there is no way out. The best thing you can do is to plan an outline before writing your fictional narrative. It will help you avoid serious plot holes because you will know how the story goes ahead, divides into chapters, and fits into the plot.

How to fix your plot holes?

Finding plot holes may be easy, but filling them up is difficult. There is no straightforward solution to patch up every plot hole you encounter. Most of the time, it requires restructuring the entire plot, redeveloping the characters along a fresh line, rethinking the themes, and reassessing the connection of subplots with the main plot.

I know this is difficult, but for the sake of your story, do it. Don’t just patch your plot holes, but find the best fixes. You have a phenomenal story and you don’t want to make it leave a common impression. And to share that phenomenal story, commit yourself to the craft of patching the plot holes with the best fixes to get the best version of your story.

Research your theme thoroughly

If you are writing a story about a young and inspiring boy who wants to be a pilot; learn everything about becoming a pilot. Learn them like you want to become that pilot.

Be emphatic with your theme and reach that level of ‘Negative Capability. This will help you in identifying and fixing your plot holes.

The pro tip is to research from well-reputed sources to avoid the headache of factual errors and rewriting and restructuring.

Set guidelines for the universe of your writing

Before writing the whole thing, establish certain guidelines for the universe of your story for the readers and yourself. Let your readers know in the exposition that what happens and what not and how it happens. It will help you see the “deus ex machina” a device used to provide a simple solution to a seemingly difficult situation, to avoid making a plot hole.

Provide a proper setup and enough information for the readers to know about the possibility of the happening of something. The critics frown upon the illogical solutions to the problems. Follow the laws of your story’s world.

Provide rules and structures

Once you have established the guidelines of your story’s universe, know how everything works in it. Figure out how power dynamics, the backstory of narrative, rules, and regulations, and the setting of your story work together.

Think of how your characters are developing in that world. Are they following their dreams and goals? Are their goals consistent with the power dynamics of the world? How the story is developed and is the relation of cause and effect logical?

Walk away from your writing

Sometimes the writers get too closed to their writing and they can’t judge it objectively. In such situations, take breaks and walk away into an environment where you can get relaxed.

A short walk on the riverside or in a natural environment has significant influences on one’s creative genius. Visit one to get refreshed and get new inspiration.

It will help you come with fresh eyes and may offer a unique perspective of the problem you have encountered.

Final thoughts

Writing fiction is not a simple task. Have a mind that keeps track of everything. Writing a story may be easy if it is just to give outlets to your thoughts that never let you at peace. But to tell a story that inspires and leaves a lasting impression on the readers; read it first and get inspired by it yourself.

Countless fiction writers have written great novels, but plot holes make them unpopular. A plot hole is anything that baffles your readers by its illogical occurrences. It can be a contradiction in the goals and decision of a character or the happening of an event that happens out of nowhere — lacking a logical relation of cause and effect and has no connection to the main plot.

Leaving out a character or an event behind in the middle of the story without bringing them to a logical conclusion is another facet of the plot holes.

A successful writer revises his work, keeps records of the revision, and knows the world of his work best. He also knows how power dynamics work in the world and if there is any inconsistency in the plot’s development, character, and storyline that create plot holes; he finds the best patches for it that don’t sacrifice his craft and story.