You Have a Hole in Your Plot

“You have a hole in your swing.” is a line from the Tom Sellick movie “Mr. Baseball.” A hitter with a hole in his swing is vulnerable. Since the batter has more than one swing per at bat, the hole may not be fatal. The author who has a hole in his “at bat” may soon find himself losing his present and potential readers. There is no excuse for leaving a hole in your plot. Edit. Edit. Edit. That’s why Hemmingway advised to write drunk, and edit sober.


Although never good, some genres can tolerate a small hole or two, horror and fantasy, for example. Not mysteries. The plot is the all in all. Mystery readers are perhaps the smartest and most careful of readers. When they plop down good money for a book, they expect twists and turns, red herrings, subterfuge, false flags, and all manner of misleads—but not plot holes. The rule of mysteries may be “Nothing is as it seems,” but the caveat is “until the end.” Mystery readers will not tolerate kludges. A key fact appended at the end to make the incomprehensible comprehensible is not acceptable.


If you write detective stories or police procedurals or cozies, a good way to keep your ducks in order is to compile a case file just as a professional detective would do. Compile your own “murder book,” lest the victim be you