183. How to Handle Plot Holes Effectively

“It's hard to fix a manuscript that is not yet finished. 

This is what I counsel all of my clients and people who might want to work with me is write the whole first draft because there's something that brought you to the story.” - Beth Barany

In this How To Write the Future episode, “How to Handle Plot Holes Effectively,” host Beth Barany answers a listener's question on how to handle your story's plot holes when you’re deep into writing the rough draft and how to take the necessary steps, depending on whether you’re a plotter or a panster.

In this episode:

• Gain insight into how to handle plot holes
• Tips to help you solve the problems in your story development

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Transcript

183. How to Handle Plot Holes Effectively

Introduction: Facing Plot Holes

BETH BARANY: One of my clients recently asked me how to handle plot holes. They were about two-thirds through writing their manuscript for their science fiction novel, and they were like, Oh my goodness, I just realized there is a big plot hole. What do I do? Do I go back to the beginning, rewrite the entire story to fix that plot hole? Do I go forward and deal with it later? 

And it totally stopped them in their tracks, and it in fact had stopped them in their tracks for weeks, maybe months.

So when they brought me this question, I asked them, So, how have you gotten to this point? Did you plan out the entire story and then just forgot something? Or did you write by the seat of your pants? 

[00:50] Plotters vs. Pantsers: Different Writing Styles

There's plotters and pantsers. So people who plot tend to plan everything in great detail ahead of time, and people who pants sit down and just start writing.

But there's also an in-between group in which I am also in this in-between group, whereas I do some, I don't like to plot, I do planning, and I know the major milestones of my story with quite a lot of detail, but I leave a lot of things open because I love to discover the story as I write.

I have both cats here on my lap. Hey sweetie. It's okay. Okay, so first off, if you get stuck with a plot hole, it's good to know how did you get here? How did you get here so far?

If you are a plotter, and Ezra, my husband, is a plotter, and he sometimes encounters plot holes. He goes back to his outline, and from what I see, from outside, because I'm not in his process and his process is a bit mysterious to me because I'm not a plotter, is he will make notes for the new plot direction he's going in. And he will also make notes on how to fix the plot hole, but he keeps writing, and this is for the first draft.

[02:05] Handling Plot Holes: Keep Writing

So he and I both are in the same school of thought, which is keep writing to the end because it's hard to fix a manuscript that is not yet finished, and this is what I counsel all of my clients and people who might wanna work with me is write the whole first draft because there's something that brought you to the story, and if you're able to finish the story, even if the end of the story doesn't quite feel like the end, in fact, my first drafts the endings are often not quite there. I feel like there's another piece missing, but I don't know what it is, and I cannot fix it right now. I have to read the whole book, and then I can add the ending, make some decisions about the ending. 

So if you are a more intuitive writer, and this client is a more intuitive writer, and only knew parts of the story, but not the whole story. They knew enough to get them going all the way two-thirds into the story. And then they started getting stuck and realized that they had plot holes. 

[03:03] Brainstorming Solutions: Journaling and Character Interviews

So what I recommend at this point is to do some brainstorming in writing, ideally, about the problem. And this is actually how I wrote my first, no, my second full-length novel is I would get stuck day to day, and I would write in my journal how to handle the next problem, and then I would write it. 

So use journaling as a way to figure out the plot hole. Often, the problem is with the characters, and something that I highly recommend you do is to interview or interrogate, question your characters, and find out what they think you should do, and if they don't know, interview another character, a secondary character, and if they don't know, interview a tertiary character, and if they don't know, interview a character that's not even in your story, who might have a perspective. Maybe this is a character from the future of the event that you're now writing about.

Essentially, use your creativity to write yourself out of that plot hole.

[04:10] Seeking External Help: Talking It Out

Now, if that doesn't work, I highly recommend that you talk out your story with a trusted person. This person could be a fellow writer, they could be a writing teacher or a coach, an editor like me. They could be critique group or just even a group of trusted, trusted writers, or please do not discount writing to a total or talking to a total stranger about your story and see if they have an insight. Or talking to somebody who is completely outside of writing, outside of this kind of work, can actually maybe unlock it for you.

This has happened to me a few times. Well, actually, one time, it was talking to a total stranger at a writer's conference, and they asked me just one question and made one suggestion. And from that, I was able to figure out a plot problem. In another case, I've also spoken to complete strangers who all also were creative people, but they didn't know anything about my story, and they helped me brainstorm as well.

So I've enjoyed that when I felt open to it. So just do it if you're open to it. 

[05:18] Summary: Key Strategies for Plot Holes

So, how do you handle plot holes? Here's my summary. Use interviewing your characters. Do not stop the process. Keep writing. Try something new. Be daring. I didn't actually include that in so far. I just I wanna underline this. 

[05:33] Be Daring: Pushing Your Characters

Sometimes when we're having problems with the story in our first draft, it's because we're not being bold enough. We're not being gutsy enough. We're not taking enough risks. We're not really putting our heart on the page.

Do the next riskiest thing. I dare you. And so this brings me to another question that we love to use in our writing teaching my husband and I, is when we're stuck, we ask ourself: what is the worst thing that could happen to my character right here?

Because that's really where you need to push your character. It depends, of course, where you are in the story, but most of the story is an escalation of problems until you resolve them, if that's the kind of story you're writing, and therefore ask yourself, what is the worst thing that could happen to my character here?

I've gotten out of a lot of plot problems this way because the daring idea would come to me. The idea that would both make me cringe and laugh, and I would realize, Oh my goodness, am I really gonna do it? Yep, I'm gonna do it. 

Go ahead and be daring. Go ahead and push your characters as far as you're able to push them, and that is another way to get through plot holes.

[06:42] Conclusion: Final Thoughts

Alright, that's it for this week, everyone. Write long and prosper.