A Tip for Avoiding Plot Holes

By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

As I’ve mentioned before, I have a love-hate relationship with outlining.  For me and the speed with which I’m writing, it’s become a necessary evil. But I dislike it.

I dislike it enough to happily deviate from my outline whenever I feel like it.  And frequently, the story is better when I do.

The only thing is that my outlines don’t have any plot holes in them (at least, they haven’t so far) and my deviations do. 

I deviated way off course on Monday and killed a character that wasn’t the intended victim in my outline (the outline, sadly, that was approved by my editor at Penguin.  I’m hoping this deviation will be okay.)  I felt as if the choice of victim was better and opened up more possibilities.

But then, as I wrote, I realized I’d written myself into a whole slew of plot holes.  Plot holes, if you’re new to this, are spots in your story that just don’t add up.  Sometimes they’re in there as a plot contrivance by the author, sometimes they’re just accidental.

When I realized the sheer volume of plot holes I was unearthing, I made sure to ask myself questions as I went along.  Actually, I only asked myself one question: why.  That’s how I got out of all the messes I made (well, so far.  I’m sure I will create more because I’ve come up with this deviation on page 207 and I’m sure it’s created some issues earlier in the book).

So here’s how it went for me (and there shouldn’t be any major spoilers here…but if you’re a reader, this book comes out next year and so….)

The victim’s death looks like suicide, but it’s treated like murder by the police.  Why?

The victim went on a walk that morning, but I’d said earlier that it was pouring down rain.  Why did he go on the walk?

The victim fell off a cliff in a remote area and there were no witnesses. Why did the police know to look for him there?

For my own devices, I didn’t want the victim’s wife to be a suspect.  But why don’t the police suspect her when spouses are the usual suspects?

Once I came up with all the answers, I’ll be able to go back in and fill in the holes.

Sometimes I don’t catch them all, and this is another reason why editors are so valuable—both for traditionally published and self-published writers.

How do you spot your plot holes?  Are you an outline deviator, too?

Image: MorgueFile: Gracey

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