What methods do you use to avoid plot holes? (Or do you not worry about it?)

Just checked over there, and took a sampling. Does the author of that site have no conception of genre? You don't take poetry and apocalyptic writing literally! Sheesh.

Verses on other pages are "contradictory" only if the site author has a pre-conceived idea of how God is supposed to work. Like the random one I pulled up where the Lord is talking in various places of how He will turn His face away from His people for their sins-- including a verse that prophesies how He on that first Good Friday would turn His face away from His own Son as He bore the sins of the world. Where's the contradiction-- unless the author conceives of God as a toothless indulgent grandpa who lets the kids get away with literal murder?

People don't have to believe it if they don't like. But at least let's be honest about it.

And if anyone has a genuine question about the biblical text and its message, PM me. Answering things like that is what I'm trained to do.

 

As I revised my first novel, I found that the biggest gaping plot holes arose from my failure to conceive of my characters as "real" people. So I had the villain persecuting my protags, but never showed them suffering from it psychologically or particularly reacting to it. Then when I'd ticked off my plot progression boxes in the thriller thread, I dropped that and switched to the love story plot. And then, arbitrarily, I switched back to the thriller plot.

I'm sure any discerning reader would have said, "Wait a minute. Why is the villain so obsessed with the male protag (no, not that way!)? Am I supposed to believe he lies low for months then suddenly emerges with a fully-equipped private army and a WMD or two? Is it really believable that the protags go through all this trauma early in the novel and never think about it thereafter, tra-la, tra-la?"

No, no, nopity-nope-no!

Hope I've got them reasonably filled now.

Now I'm on to filling other, minor plot holes. Like where somebody gives my female MC a sweatshirt to put on because she's cold, but a few minutes later she's back wearing just her shorts and her raggedy tee-shirt and suffering scrapes on her bare arms. Trifling, but I don't want anybody thinking I don't have my little world under control.

The cool thing about filling plot holes is that if your story idea is strong enough, you can generate material from what you already have to pull together two, three, or more gaps. E.g., I came up with a new basic fact about my villain's personality that explained his obsession for the MMC and how he got the WMD and solved a few other problems as well.

 

This probably needs a new thread or the subject dropped, but are you claiming that the hundreds of links to contradictions on that web site are all explained by literary license? And you're sure because you checked one link?

Not trying to start a debate about people's belief in the Bible, like you said, people don't have to not believe if they don't want to. But your dismissal of the contradictions seems counter to the evidence.

Perhaps if you looked at the original source: Skeptic's Annotated Bible: Contradictions, you might find some more clear examples.

The best explanation is the Bible is a collection of texts written by different people at different times. When different writers put an oral tradition down on papyrus they are bound to be recording different stories.

But getting back to the discussion of plot holes, there are some really big ones in the Bible. Not the contradictions, that's a different subject. But plot holes. I think I'll put this in the debate thread before I get into trouble here.
https://www.writingforums.org/threads/plot-holes-in-the-bible.138399/

The point of the thread is just to address the question, are there or are there not plot holes in the Bible. It need not be discussed from there but if people wish to, fine.

 

@GingerCoffee - that actually sounds like an incredibly interesting book. I'm so totally reading that! I like it even more that you say the author has left it up to the reader to make up their minds.

@jannert - in the case of religion, there're issues of identity and what you've built your life around, decisions you've made based on your faith that would become meaingless, all that you've done and lived for obselete - the reasons you may let go of a contradiction are far more complex. There's also the fact that we obviously don't understand everything as humans with limited knowledge and limited understanding. One of the most common things a Christian might say is that God is a mystery and bigger than us. We have all kinds of illustrations expressing this basic principle.

I think the principle regarding how people can ignore or perhaps let go of contradictions in religion, whether apparent or actual, could be applied to story writing. Basically, the principle that's similar in both religion and story plot holes is that once the person is invested enough in the thing in question (a deity or a character or a story), one can overlook many things.

So in answer to the OP, I'd say if you create a genuinely good story with characters the reader can fall in love with, plenty of people would forgive a lot. A novel is such a big thing, I actually think Stephen King was right when he compared a novel to discovering a dinosaur fossil. It's so intricate that you're bound to miss something and can't possibly hold the whole thing in your head. As such, I'm not entirely sure plot holes can be completely eliminated in genres like fantasy, sci-fi, action/action thrillers etc. You wouldn't write it the way you did if you genuinely thought it didn't make sense, and even test readers aren't necessarily going to spot the lapse in logic because it's not always immediately obvious. And I don't think you should worry about it as long as you've made every measure/effort to fill in the plot holes.

However, I think it would be good for the author to try and do the most logical thing rather than necessarily the most interesting thing, at least from time to time. One of my writer friends' best excuse for a lot of things is, "It's fiction and there're always exceptions to the rule." I think the worst problems sometimes aren't plot holes per se but far-fetched ways through which characters get out of situations (or into situations) simply in order to move the story along or make sure the character doesn't die. I remember Lee Child's bestselling character Jack Reacher unscrewed the nut of a running jeep with a bent spoon...

 

It's a big subject, but there is a unifying theme. I wish I had time to answer every point on a debate thread, but I don't. So again, if anyone has a specific question and is interested in a take on the subject from somebody who actually has a degree in theology, PM me.

Cheers.

 

I probably opened a can of worms I hadn't intended, by bringing religion into the discussion. What people decide they want to believe is their own affair, and having a leap of faith that contains contradictions is perfectly okay in religion. However, when applied to writing, if you present a contradiction and don't point out that it IS a contradiction, then you're potentially creating a plot hole.

I think what sparked this train of thought in me was the point somebody made earlier, that Hermione Granger possessed the power to go back in time and eliminate the threat of Voldemort ...and she didn't use it. And no explanation was apparently given. Plothole. If there had been some reason she couldn't go back and use it, then that should have been made clear. Apparently the point just got glossed over.

I made the connection between Hermione's situation, and the idea of an all-powerful and loving god who does nothing to prevent misery in the world, even though he could if he wanted to. This contradiction doesn't make sense. If he has the power to alleviate suffering but doesn't use it, then he can't be loving. This is a philosophical plot hole, unless something else gets added to the mix. However, something else DID get added to the mix which eliminates the plot hole. The explanation that makes that contradiction acceptable is— apparently—'free will,' or the fact that humans must have the freedom to choose to make mistakes, in order to be fully human.

This is simplistic, and I don't want to argue the fine points of this example as regards religion or belief. I was looking at it from a writer's point of view. My point is this: if you present a situation to the reader where characters CAN fix situations but don't fix them, then there needs to be some explanation as to why. Otherwise ...plot hole.

 

No kidding! And tropes galore.

 

It's still worth seeing, kind of average though. The Imitation Game was a great movie, however.

 

So many good and thorough answers here! It's gonna take me a while to respond to some of these and some I will respond with PMs cuz I love you guys!