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.

Scheduling Escape - Feed the Writer Soul...

 

Those of you who've never met me in person have no idea that when I'm in work-mode, I channel a mélange of General Patton and General MacArthur. Yes, I'm a brazen battleaxe.

In university, if you bothered me while I was cramming, I'd chase you down the Rez hall with a used curling broom... no, not the soft ones you see today, the witch-on-broom itchy, scratchy, hard-as-heck type broom. My first year on Rez, I was humorously awarded the Miss Congeniality prize for my floor. Yep, I'm a keeper!

 

But even I knew when I had to vent steam... I'd play as hard as I worked... 

 

On my second year on Rez, my floor mates laid a pillow at the side door, and tacked a sign above, "Don't remove. Barbie's Pass Out Pillow." It got regular use. One night, while hosed, I couldn't find my way to the Dining Hall - I figured eating something might be wise - so my totally blind floor mate guided me there. Yes. It took a blind girl to guide me to nourishment. 

 

Did I mention I'm of North Irish descent and can't hold my liquor?

Yeppers, still a keeper!

 

Those pathetic visuals above are to demonstrate that even a hard worker needs to escape now and then. No, I didn't become an alcoholic, but I may play one on TV.  :-) 

Disclaimer: don't do what I did. Baaad. Seriously baaad. 

 

But...

Plan your escape. 

Hopefully with far less embarrassing results than I experienced in the '80s.

 

Take an evening and decide it'll be for pure escape, to not consciously think on your WIP - Work in Progress - but to laugh and play, and just gleefully be.

 

During the pandemic, for me, it's been Thursday night comedy TV shows, one after another, eliciting non-stop giggles. My regular TV time usually involves heavy subjects on history and politics and war. But not on Thursdays. That's chuckle night... free of guilt, joyfully spent, because I know I've earned it. I've stuck to my writing schedule all work week, and have definitely earned a break.

 

Escaping without earning an escape is fraught with guilt. You won't realize it as you run away and have fun, but when the fun ends, that escape will turn out to be a negative experience, which will leave you feeling more writer-despondent than when you began. 

 

ALWAYS EARN YOUR ESCAPE. 

 

So, in your present struggle to write, don't forget to vent the stress steam.

Do it in moderation.

Do it for one night a week.

Do it for the sheer fun of it. 

 

Let your sub-conscious ruminate on your WIP. Your writer soul will thank you.

 

P.S. No, I have no idea where my curling broom and my pass-out pillow ended up. They may be displayed in the Smithsonian museum, on the Dastardly Drunkards Disaster floor. ;-)