Eric Kent Edstrom

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Holy Plotholes, Batman!

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fix plotholes with reasons

You’ve been merrily writing along, building your story day by day, and yet something about it nags at you. Some doubt.

Did you overlook a plot hole?

This fear is reasonable. After all, even if you’ve carefully outlined your book, it’s entirely possible that you’ve missed something.

Writers do get too close to their novels, such that they cannot easily see the larger picture.

My answer to this worry is simple:

Yes. There are plot holes in your novel.

There. Now you don’t have to worry about whether or not they are there.

When you go through your revision process, you’ll uncover a couple. Then you’ll fix them. Sometimes this requires major reconstruction, other times little patches. It’s part of the process.

The most troublesome plot hole is when your readers notice an alternate, lower resistance path your hero could have taken. A path that would have avoided all the drama and conflict.

Remember our discussoin about what to do when you get stuck at the 1/3 point in your novel? Have your POV character make a tough decision.

Writers sometimes leave holes in the plot when they are too tentative in forcing a hard choice on the main character. Choices that, when taken, cut off all other options.

Sometimes all you need is this:

Freedom was through that door. She could charge through and escape. The killer would never find her, never root her out of the alleyways and lanes she knew so well. This whole ordeal would be over. Except for the lifelong hangover of self-loathing she would suffer, for being a coward, for being weak.She wiped the blood from her lip with one hand and gripped the crowbar with the other. And then she crept deeper into the warehouse, more afraid than she’d ever been. But the only true freedom lay ahead, in there, beyond the shadows.


In this case above, I’ve filled a potential plot hole (“why didn’t she just run away”) by making her decision to go into danger very clear. She knows safety lies in the other way, but she’s given a reason for going forward.

Here’s another. “Why didn’t the hero use his sword to cut the rope bridge behind him? Then the ogre-skeleton could never have crossed. The whole fight that followed could have been avoided.”

Kerek staggered off the rope bridge just as the ogre-skeleton was lumbering onto it. Kerek unlimbered his sword. There were four ropes, two for handholds, and two massive ones supporting the wood planks. He raised his sword. Then lowered it. If the ogre fell, it would not be destroyed. And Kerek knew what lay at the end of the gorge below. The village. To cut the rope would subject everyone who lived there to the skeleton’s wrath.

OR

Kerek drew his sword. There were four ropes, two for handholds, and two massive ones supporting the wood planks. He quickly severed the top lines. The bridge twisted under the ogre’s weight. It fell and clung the gyrating bridge.But the support ropes were secured to tie-offs well below the ledge. Kerek couldn’t reach them. The ogre skeleton was clambering toward him like a weresloth, hanging from beneath the bridge. And it was coming fast. He ran.


Very often all you need is a sentence or two to let the reader know your POV character had a reason for their decision. It doesn’t have to be a good reason, or even particularly rational. As long as it is in keeping with who they are, the reader accepts it and goes along for the ride.

Whenever you discover a plot hole, look for a spot where you can have a character think about the alternative path and dismiss it for a reason. Better yet, have them try it and fail.

Another common problem is the continuity error. Readers sometimes call these “plot holes” when they are simply mistakes. If your main character has blue eyes in one scene, and then later has green ones, that’s a continuity error. You’ll catch most of these during revisions.

Or maybe you’ve put the same character in two places at once. I’ve done that! That takes a bit more creativity to fix, but in every case remind yourself of this: You are creative. You can fix it.

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Screeching to a Halt? Hit the Gas!

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A writer’s momentum often slows right at the 1/3 point of their novel. Here’s what to do if that happens to you.

I’m writing this on November 10th, which marks the 1/3 point of NaNoWriMo.

If you’ve been writing 1667 words/day, that means your manuscript is 16,667 words long now. And that marks the 1/3 point of a 50k word novel.

And that is exactly where many writers experience their story slowing down, or even grinding to a halt.

In the first 3rd of a novel, your main character is reacting to external events. This is where the detective is reacting to the murder and collecting info; this is where the lass becomes smitten with the laird, the shepard is chased from his village by pillaging orcs. This is where the main character is on the back foot.

If you find your writing bogging down, it’s time to reignite your creative mind and get those sentences coming again.

Your main character needs to make a decision and do something proactive.

That’s all you need to know. Don’t overthink it.

Your creative mind sometimes resists big decisions. Why? Because big choices cut off options. They force your character past a point of no return.

This is why your confusion and frustration with your novel is so often a direct reflection of your main character’s confusion and frustration with her situation.

When she doesn’t know what to do, or when everything she’s tried has failed, her motivation flags too.

For you as a writer, just as it is for your main character, this is a turning point. Marshal your will, call upon allies, urge your subconcious to look at the problem from a new angle, dig deeper. Your hero’s journey, is your journey.

And this is why I keep repeating the Bradbury mantra. “Write. Don’t think. Relax.”

Write the next sentence, and the next. The resistence you feel is your character’s resistence. Your job is to keep pushing pushing her toward the brink where she must make a choice.

She will, and the writing will race ahead.

Writing tips, tricks, and inspo straight to your inbox. Bi-weekly except for November when I send a daily email to keep you on track for NaNoWriMo.

Be Very Judgy of Others

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SIphotography

When introducing characters, let your POV character’s opinion show

Remember the “establishing shot” idea back on day one of this series? And remember how I said to filter setting through the opinions of your point of view character?

We can extend this idea to introducing anything in a story, including other characters.

Example of standard character description:

Ashley wore a tight fitting blue dress that fell to mid-thigh. Her hair was freshly done for a night out, wavy and full of highlights. A smoky eye and dark lip finished the look. Her clutch matched her sparkly heels. I caught a whiff of perfume as she came through the door, something at once floral and sensual.

Example of character description as opinions:

Ashley showed up at my place in one of her clubbing dresses. Satiny blue, and draping from her elegants shoulders. It clung to her curves, falling to mid thigh. It hinted at what it hid, and she wore it like liquid lingerie. Her presence overwhelmed me, tall in her sparkly heels, dark of eye with overpainted lips, all pouty. Everything about her suggested staying in rather than going out. The air that followed her through the door was scented with rain, but her floral perfume hinted at moonshadowed blossoms. She was in bloom—an intoxicating, elegant violet—rare, and wanting to be plucked.


Ahem. Whew. I don’t usually write descriptions like that. Excuse me. I need a drink of water, or something.

So you see how the point of view character (in this case the first person “I”) can reveal so much more when we allow their opinions to filter descriptions.

Same Ashley, different POV character:

Ashley showed up at my place in one of her scandlous “going out” dresses. I wouldn’t even call it a dress! I wore more to bed on my wedding night than that little blue wrap. And the way she’d painted her face, with those raccoon mask eyes and bruised lips. She could tell I was disapointed in her. I know she could because she tried to loom over me in her cheap heels, as if to dare me (her mother!) to say something. Anything. I kept my mouth shut and tried not to sneeze on her overpowering perfume. I complimented her purse. Inwardly I prayed for her. But there’s only so much a mother’s prayers can do for such a girl.


You will notice that descriptions filtered through your point of view character’s opinion reveal as much—or more—about the POV character as it does the character they are seeing.

Isn’t that beautiful? The reader loves this, because they get to sit way down deep in your POV character’s world, which makes it more real and much more fun.

Writing tips, tricks, and inspo straight to your inbox. Bi-weekly except for November when I send a daily email to keep you on track for NaNoWriMo.

Compelling Descriptions are Full of Opinions

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One of the biggest challenges of writing a novel is dealing with descriptions.

photo by thirteen

Most people get bored reading long descriptions of rooms, or castles, or women’s ball gowns. Probably because writers are bored writing such descriptions.

This is why many modern writers skip over descriptions entirely. But this can result in a bland world, or a sense that the action is happening in a white room with no furniture.

Our job as writers is to “invoke” the world. So here is my guidance:

When the events of your novel move to any new setting, whether it’s a bedroom, a concert hall, or battlefield, use the idea of an establishing shot.

This is from film and TV. It’s that wide shot that shows the apartment building on Friends, or the wide panning shot of the Shire in LoTR, taking in the green grass, the little road, and the hills with doors in them.

Simply start your scene with an establishing shot.

So how many words does it take? It can be a sentence, a paragraph, or a page, depending on how you handle it.

And this gets to my second tip:

When you’re writing, get yourself mentally in your character’s point of view. For descriptions of all types, tell the reader what your POV character notices about the environment. Tell us what the character’s opinion is.

And this is key: setting is opinion.

Example of standard description:

Grandma’s bedroom was square, ten by ten, with a window overlooking a back yard. Jen saw a tree back there, an oak. The walls were red and the bedspread with garish, neon floral embroidery. Grandma had been colorblind, and her stitching had been uneven, and that was before her stroke. The closet door was one of those sliding, folding things, but it was off its track and now hung open on one side. Jen saw clothes on the floor inside. And it stank as if a cat had died in there. Jen left.

Example of setting as opinion.

Jen felt claustrophobic the second she went into the boxy little bedroom. A sinister oak crowded too close to the window, blocking out what little light oozed through the autumn clouds. The crimson walls clashed with the weird floral bedspread—tulips and daffodils, but stitched in garish neon green and orange. She knew grandma was color-blind, but now she saw madness in those embroidered flowers. Her eyes went to the closet where the folding door hung askew on one side, as if it too had suffered a stroke. Inside, on the floor, lay a wadded nest of old clothes. And from that shadowed maw came the stench of cat urine and decay. Covering her mouth, Jen retreated.

The second is more compelling and invocative because it reveals the room through Jen’s opinions. It also reveals more about her grandma. There is mood and tone and atmosphere. And the primary technique is reporting setting through the opinion of the viewpoint character.

Practice this skill and you’ll soon discover that establishing your setting helps you understand your character better and helps generate plot ideas.

“Write. Don’t think. Relax.” —Ray Bradbury

Writing tips, tricks, and inspo straight to your inbox. Bi-weekly except for November when I send a daily email to keep you on track for NaNoWriMo.

Stomping on Landmines

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Don’t let fear of grammar errors or style “don’ts” stop you.

The landmine problem kept me from writing for decades.

Yes. Decades.

I didn’t write because I was worried about the landmines of grammar, prose style, adverbs, tropes, clichés, passive verbs, and on and on.

I didn’t want to embarrass myself. I didn’t want to write a whole novel just to have some editor laugh at me, or worse, dismiss my work entirely.

I gained this fear by reading about all the mistakes beginning writers make. It was so overwhelming, I simply gave up before starting.

But here’s the truth: fiction does not require us to obey the textbook. Artistic license allows us to punctuate according to our own style.

Grammar is a convention. And following those conventions is good, because it helps the reader understand. But read any popular thriller. They are filled with fragmentary sentences. It’s is a stylistic choice, to create a specific effect.

So let the words flow how they will. Allow them to cast their spell, to manifest your story in your own mind. If you’re not confident with commas, don’t worry too much about them. An editor will suggest changes later to make sure you’re achieving your goal.

Write by ear. Cormac McCarthy rarely uses commas at all, and he doesn’t even put quote marks around dialogue. I don’t reccomend that, but it’s a valid choice.

Your prose style will develop over time. And you will learn the fundamentals of grammar by having your manuscript edited by a copyeditor.

Never stop writing just to look up a grammar rule.

Why do I say this?

The most important thing is the story, not the manuscript.

You are going to revise your manuscript later. You will take care of punctuation; you will trim the excess and add in details as you shape your story. You can study grammar rules at a different time.

Writing should be discovery. When you begin tinkering with the buts and bolts of a manuscript you switch over to inventing. That sort of thinking sees errors and mistakes where there aren’t any. Pretty soon you’ve broken a story that was working just fine.

The first thing writers break is their own unique voice. They apply The Elements of Style like an Instagram filter and suddenly their writing begins to sound “professional.” That’s not good. Because “professional” means boring.

So go onward bravely. The landmines are not real.

Writing tips, tricks, and inspo straight to your inbox. Bi-weekly except for November when I send a daily email to keep you on track for NaNoWriMo.

Pen Addict: Affordable picks to get you hooked

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I’m not even ashamed of it. I love pens and pencils and empty journals and planners and pretty much anything that involves putting words onto paper. (Typewriters? Oh, yes indeed!)

If you get the pen bug, you might start getting pulled into ever more expensive and exotic choices. But if you simply want really good inking experience, here are my recommendations.

The Pilot G2 Shown here in a variety pack of colors. My favorite version of this one is the black ink. These provide a silky smooth writing experience, with good coverage and no skips.

I tell you a secret: I hate the red one. Not because there’s anything wrong with the way it performs. I just hate red ink. It means I made a mistake or I wrote a typo or a grammatical error. Or that I did any math assignment ever. 😛

The G2 also come as refills that can go into many other pen bodies.

PILOT G2 Premium Refillable & Retractable Rolling Ball Gel Pens, Fine Point, Assorted Color Inks, 8-Pack Pouch (31128)

Rotring 600 is my choice for a pen on the go.

The metal body and knurgled (I know it’s “knurled”, but I like my typo better) grip makes it the perfect field pen. It won’t slip out of your hand. It’s also fairly small in the pocket. The cartridge it comes with is good, but when used up, replace it with any standard Parker refill (like the Polot G2!)

Lamy Safari Fountain Pen: This is always my recommendation for fountain pen newbies. They are affordable and the cartrdiges have decent ink in them. Once you get used to a good fountain pen, watch out. It can lead to a deranged obsession. I had to put a moratorium on new fountain pens several years ago because it was getting out of control.

These come in several colors if you don’t like charcoal. Like red, white, and blue.

If you don’t know what size nib to try, I recommend choosing a medium at first. If you like your pens to be very fine, then go ahead and try the fine. I can’t write with larger nibs because my handwriting is fairly cramped and my letters all blob together.

Fountain pen ink is another huge adventure. There are so many colors and sheens. If you want to dive off the deep end, go to Goulet Pen Company’s website and try their “ink drops.” They send little sample vials of different colors to try out before you invest in a whole bottle.

Skilcraft Ballpoint Pens are the official pens of the US Government and manufactured in the US by Nation Industries for the Blind.

Check out this infographic from their website. I have a box of these and they feel fairly cheap in the hand but they do perform way better than the Fisher Space Pen, in my opinion (although I have a couple of those as well because they are “dope” too.)