Young Writers Society

Gyahh..

I have an idea that I've been working on (of the fantasy genre), on and off for a few months now. But every time I work on plot development certain aspects of my ideas just start to unravel and leads to numerous plot holes.. Which is frustrating because I feel like I can never actually make a proper start on the book, even when I really want to and am very reluctant to just scrap it and start on a new idea, because in general I am very pleased with it.

So yeah.. I guess I'm just wondering if anyone has any advice for tacking plot holes..?

Autumn x

Now there's an interesting problem...

If your plot's going nowhere or it has holes, for that matter, take a break. After a couple of days or even a good few hours doing something else (e.g. gardening, watching your favourite TV show, going for a walk), you can then come back to your story feeling refreshed. Who knows, you might have found some inspiration from the telly or out in the open air that might just help you fill that plot hole.

Good luck!

Friendly Gahks

This is what I do:

-gather every single plot hole you have and write them down. You don't have to keep the list, this just defines what you need to work out.
-next time you're in a really boring class or you finish an exam early, just think about these holes. In these situations, you should be clear minded and coming to the topic anew. You'll be able to see ways out.
-Look at what you already have in your plot. There are small details that you can make not so small that will fill in the gaps more smoothly.
-if your solutions create more gaps, just go back to your main plot points. What is the point of the story? What catches are there, what laws of physics etc. that you've already created that you can use to fill these in.

I write a fair bit of time travel into my main project at the moment, so I'm no stranger to plot holes (gaping, universe consuming plot holes).

Personally I find the key is to keep characters or sub plots in reserve. For instance, some of my characters have actually become more fully fleshed out because they had to evolve in a certain way, to make a certain stream of events plausible.

It's your story so just make sure that you spot the plot holes early and you can plug them with background information/character development (my personal favourite is intense symbolism).

Do you have any issues with specific plots you want help on?

Rubric