A Guide to Writing

Editing: Fixing Plot Holes by Kristen Kieffer

The simple fact is, readers have opened your novel to be taken on a journey. They want to be entertained or enlightened, to leave their own world behind for a few hours. If you've written a fantastic story, readers may recognize the implausibility of a plot hole but choose to overlook it.

This is otherwise known as suspension of disbelief. And while you hope that readers won't have to put it into practice it, there is no need to be ashamed if they do. It means that they love your story well enough to overlook its minor faults.

P.S. And yes, your story will have faults. No writer is perfect.

Finding Plot Holes in Your Manuscript

But suspension of disbelief certainly isn't a Get Out of Jail Free card. The more plot holes you can work out of your novel, the better! Finding and fixing plot holes is certainly a tough task, but there are a few things that you can do to worm them out.

Let's break them down:

1. Know your story well. Last week, the wonderful Kaitlin of  wrote a guest post explaining the benefits of pre-writing, which you can . I loved this post because it highlighted the importance of getting to know your novel before you write.

As it is, the less you know about your story before you pick up the pen, the more likely you will be to write a first draft ridden with plot holes. And let me tell you (from personal experience, unfortunately) that it will indeed make for a hellish second draft.

Know your story well, and you'll identify plot holes before you make them.

2. Examine your plot. This may sound obvious, but take the time to look over your plot outline. Is it logical? Do the events line up? Does your hero play off of the villain's actions (and vice versa)?

Looking over your plot outline is a rather simple task, but it will help you catch plot holes before you begin to write, which in many cases is a massive time-saver.

If you'd like to really crack down on your plot, take the time to write out a full five to ten page plot summary. Examine every characters' actions from beginning to end, looking for any areas of your plot that seem implausible, inconsistent, or otherwise jumbled.

3. Keep character sketches. A simple way to avoid inconsistencies in your character appearances and actions is to write up thorough character sketches. Keep these sketches nearby as you write to use as a quick reference guide. With them on hand, your chances of including a silly mistake in your manuscript will decrease dramatically!

Related Note: There are six character sketch spaces built into the reference guide section of [her website.] If you want to organize your novel, set writing goals, and plan out a novel year, you'll want to give  a look.

4. Create a character checklist. To ensure that you avoid dropped characters and plot lines, keep a list of every character you introduce to readers. As you write an ending for each character, mark them off of your checklist. By doing so, you'll save yourself from a lifetime of disgruntled fan mail asking what happened to so-and-so.

5. Know the laws of your story world. Whether you're creating a fictional world or simply exploring a specific culture or lifestyle in our own, know the rules and parameters of that world.

If you are creating your own world, you will need to know its cultures, governments, laws, norms, and other social constructs. And if your novel has magic, make sure to lay out where it comes from and how it works. You can explore all this and more (and even create your own reference guide) in .

If you are exploring a specific culture or sub-culture in our own world, or even dealing with characters that live a very unusual lifestyle (think royalty or secret organization or cult), you need to know your facts. What laws and expectations govern these people? What can and can't they do?