Plot Holes - Where and How To Fix...

 

Plot Holes... 

Like potholes, they often pop up over time and can be as deep as a glacier crevasse, swallowing your manuscript whole, starving it of story oxygen, and having it slowly suffocate and die an excruciating death.

Oh, was that too gory? Sorry, I lean towards the morose side of life...

Nevertheless, those suckers exist, and until you can find them and fill them in, they will haunt you like Edgar Allan Poe when a raven flies by...

So, where, how do writers find the gooey stuff to fill them in?

Good question, and one that centers around the psychological.

"Again, with the shrink talk, B. J.? Geez..."

"Sorry...not sorry. Hey, I yam what I yam, and that's all, folks!"

As a writer digs ever deeper into his book plot, despite a decent outline, black holes can appear where you just can't visualize where the characters go next or what they will say or do, and nine times out of ten, writer stress plays a part, where seeing the trees for the forest is no longer possible.

The Only Solution: leave your desk, and relax your conscious mind, so your sub-conscious can take the reins.

For me, there's only two options: swimming or taking a shower. Water has always relaxed my mind ever since I was a wee tot, and the moment I dive into a pool or lake or let warm water flow over me in a shower, ideas, solutions spring to mind like May flowers.

For you, think back to what's always relaxed you; a long walk, a talk with a friend in a coffee shop, yammering on to the bartender in a seedy watering hole. Anywhere where your active mind can rest, is the place you'll fill in those black story holes, and quicker than you ever thought possible.

IF you allow the mental process to take its course.

Writing a book is a journey far more than a destination. Today, with the world revving at full speed and the finished product is king, new writers think to blaze through a draft at all costs is the thing to do, when to write a great work actually requires a truckload of patience and perseverance — to wait for the right scene to pop into your mind, and the discipline to sit down and seamlessly weave that scene into a long work tale.

Nothing about a good book can be rushed, and the moment you try to force your brain to deliver is the moment those black plot holes will swallow you whole. Yes, there is a force field around a book. Prove to me there isn't! :-P

Note: have on hand a notepad, or waterproof crayons, to jot down those fixes as soon as they bubble up from your sub-conscious, as those precious plot gems can often be flighty. Don't assume you'll remember them when the typing time is ripe.

Find your happy place. Go there. Breathe deep and relax. And let your brain do what it must. Trust the process. Your body holds those grey cells, but don't think for a minute your body runs the show.

Patience. Perseverance. Plot holes Pleasantly Padded.

Pish-posh at my P's plethora!

HOMEWORK: It's Friday. After work, go sit out in the sun, and relax. Your mind's jonesin' to fill in those holes. Can't you hear your subconscious pothole dump truck idling? I sure can.

Scene Segment Your Writing Time...

 

How should you segment your writing session time? 

 

This is a well debated topic. But with all the varied advice out there, some "experts" force a rational process over a creative one, and that can often hamper the story quality.

 

If you segment by word count or chapter, you are thinking rationally. You will produce prose forced under a numerical quantity and not creative quality.

 

Although you may not be conscious of it, if you say to yourself, I have to write X number of words or X number of chapters, you will draft those segments with glue words - fillers, adjective, adverbs, info dumps, meaningless dialogue, and the like - that will only have to be altered or outright removed in the edit phase. You will literally be wasting your time.

 

Consider writing by scene, in line with the scene cards I mentioned in an earlier post. Apply one scene's details/factoids to one card, and in each writing session, work on the completion of that scene, completely disregarding its length or shape or word count.

If one scene is very small, write out two scenes per session. 

If one scene is huge, segment it into its parts. 

 

As an artist, never lose sight of the visuals/story essence in your tale, and be devoted to their quality presentation, and not some arbitrary numerical delineation.

You do that, and what you produce will be a quality draft that will hold less gaffes to be dealt with in the edit. And your writing session efforts will be satisfying, for you will know you remained devoted to the story's world instead of some meaningless marker.

 

In your next session, follow me, and give this a try. You'll be glad you did!