Why Plot Flaws Happen – It’s About Problem Solving Part 1
Plot flaws happen for a variety of reasons, and the
result can leave writers scratching their heads, trying to figure out a way
around some of the huge problems they create, however, it’s how
they’re solved that makes the difference.
Plot holes are a by-product
of any writing; they appear as inconsistencies
or contradictions within the story, as gaps within the narrative, or huge holes
that you can’t account for. You can’t avoid them – they happen either because
we are not thorough enough, or they happen because of the way the story gradually
unravels.
The thing about plot flaws is that they don’t become plot
flaws until you actually read the work through in its entirety, because up
until then, the obvious won’t become apparent while you’re working on the
story. Only when it’s finished and you’ve left it or a reasonable time to come
back and do your read through will these problems manifest.
Plot flaws can be gaping chasms or they can be subtle
punctures in the fabric of the story. It’s about recognising them,
understanding the problem they create and how you deal with them successfully
that helps make the finished product flawless.
Dealing with them successfully, of course, depends on how
well you spot them and what kind of problems they pose. The best way to spot
them is read the work as though you are the reader.
Most plot flaws revolve around the following areas:
Continuity of facts – It’s
easy to contradict facts in your writing, like putting the date of a famous
event in the wrong time frame, or not getting names right. That means any gaps
in your research will show up as plot flaws. Make sure your facts are correct.
Continuity of characters – These
are common. For example, your character wears glasses at the beginning of the
story but half way through, the glasses have vanished as though he never wore
them in the first place. Other instances are when a character appears early in
the story and goes off to do something and is never heard from again. What’s the point of that
character in the first place?
Continuity of time/setting –
For example, the hero goes to his friend’s house in one scene, which is in the
middle of the day, but a few paragraphs later, the daytime has inexplicably
turned to night. (Movies do this a lot). Or there is the common one of
transporting a character from one country to another in the matter of hours,
without taking into account the time it takes to arrange the trip, arrange a
visa, buy airlines tickets, pack for the trip and so on. It takes more than a
few hours.
The
other error is that characters in novels that end up in a foreign country
without a passport, money or anything else. Did they travel by magic?
Contradictions – These
types of flaws arise when the writer simply forgets about things. For example, you have a character who loves
animals, and this is shown, but then somewhere else in the story is seen
killing an animal without batting an eye, with no further explanation. Or perhaps
you have a character that is a vegetarian, but four chapters later, he is seen
eating meat.
Contradictions
happen, but you have to keep an eye on your narrative.
Inconsistency – For
example, the bad guy, who is very clever and wily, does something explicably
stupid to help the hero defeat him. Another one often seen in books is the
tough hero, trained in martial arts and used to be in the armed forces suddenly
being defeated by a couple of bad guys who are not even half as skilled.
(Movies also do this).
Another
similar inconsistency is to have a strong female in your story, someone who can
stand up for herself, someone fiercely independent, and yet she is suddenly
reduced to a dithering heap in the face of danger or when confronted by the bad
guy, because of stereotyping and a contrived plot demands it.
Another
one is where the hero possesses amazing martial arts skills and can kill with
his bare hands, yet seems to forget his has these skills when he’s confronted
with the bad guys all through the story. But then at the end, when fighting the
villain, he decides to use the very skill he’d not bothered with all through
the story.
All
these are silly inconsistencies, yet writers continue to fall into this trap. If
you don’t spot them, your reader will.
Sometimes
plot flaws are not always apparent straight away and are generated whilst
writing the story. For instance, you have an important scene that takes place
early morning in the winter, with several key characters. You describe the
bright yet hazy, wintry sun, the cold air and hint of frost. You write a great the
scene, happy with the way it unfolds.
But
can you spot the obvious plot flaw?
You
cannot possibly have a bright hazy sun so early in the winter. Early mornings
are dark. And it gets dark early too, especially if there is daylight saving
time in operation. It means you would have to re-write the scene to reflect
accuracy and realism and avoid a continuity of setting problem.
Here’s
another plot flaw example. Your hero and villain are in a fight as the climax
mounts. There’s a struggle as each tries to get the upper hand, but then, from
nowhere, your hero pulls out a knife to defeat the villain, but unless you have
mentioned the knife in previous scenes, so that the reader picks up on this, then
the knife from nowhere will be a contrivance and thus becomes an obvious
inconsistency.
Contradictions,
flaws and inconsistencies are unavoidable during the writing process, but it’s
how we find and fix them that matters, so in Part 2 we’ll look at how to solve
the problem of plot flaws.
Next
week: Why Plot Flaws Happen – It’s About
Problem Solving Part 2
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