by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
The other night, I watched a mystery on television. The actors were good, the puzzle itself was good, and the setting—a boarding school— was interesting.
The problem that I absolutely couldn’t get past was that a horrible murder had occurred at this boarding school—and life at the school continued as usual, apart from the presence of the investigating officers.
As a parent, I’ve seen a phenomenon play out over the years, rightly or wrongly, where parents descend on a school en masse to retrieve their kids….for just about any reason.
Ice storm predicted to commence? They’re coming. A teacher somewhere at the school suffered a fatal heart attack on the grounds? They’re coming. Power outage in part of the school? They’re on their way. Crazed murderer stalking students on campus….oh, they’re SO there.
But in this production, classes resumed as usual (where are the guidance counselors and the child psychologists?), giving the killer another shot at a murder a couple of days after the first one—which, of course, the killer took advantage of.
I understood why the screenwriters set it up that way—they couldn’t shut down the murderer. The writers had an objective to accomplish. But once I fell into this plot hole, I couldn’t climb out of it…it bothered me that much. It simply wasn’t realistic at all.
What probably would have worked well is if they’d written in a short scene with concerned parents at the school, and the school administration and police calming down everyone and insisting that the school was safe. They needed to address the plot problem straight on. If they didn’t want to write that scene, they could even have shot a short scene in the dean’s office where he’s frantically fussing over the number of phone calls and meetings he’s had with parents to persuade them to keep their children at the school.
I’m well-acquainted with plot holes. Unfortunately, I sometimes write them into my own manuscripts. In the last editorial letter I got from my editor for the quilting mysteries, my editor pointed out that my elderly sleuth’s daughter would surely be more interfering than she was…especially considering the circumstances I’d put the sleuth in. She suggested an easy fix—temporarily distract the daughter by a huge task that she’s trying to undertake. Easy enough. The daughter wasn’t a cold-hearted person, but her lack of involvement came across to my editor that way.
The best way I’ve found to fix these issues is to address them head-on and early in the book. We usually create these problems purely because of plot convenience. Most of the time we can keep our set-up as long as we acknowledge the unbelievable part early and somehow offer an explanation. It’s not hard to do and it can prevent us from losing a reader.
Do you ever run into these kinds of plot problems as a reader, viewer, or writer?
Photo: Señalética Patricia, Flickr
I’ve certainly written my share of plot holes but they usually jump up and smack me during re-reads so I can take care of them. Nothing will spoil a story faster for me as a reader than a failure in logic.
I scrapped a whole story because of a gigantic plot hole I couldn’t dig my way out of. I may have the skills one day to fix it – but not at the moment! :)
The answer is yes to all three. I’m a detail person to the extent that it interferes with my life sometimes. I watched a movie the other day where I felt like what had filled the plot hole in the book must have been left on the editing floor.
BTW – Thank you for always being supportive. I appreciate it.
Elizabeth – Oh, yes, I have. And as soon as I fall into one when I’m reading, it makes me step right back from the story instead of stay involved with it. I’ve let plot holes sneak into my writing too even though I don’t like them. I think it’s most likely to happen when I am too eager to get to a scene I think is going to be very good and forget how to get there believably.
Very early on, when I was just starting, more to see IF I could write a book rather than having a clear vision of what the book was about, my then-mentor stopped me at one point, after Bad Stuff had happened to my heroine. “Where’s her mother,” my mentor asked.
And then I realized that our characters can’t live in a vacuum. I had to address it. I certainly didn’t want her mother showing up in the scene, I had to figure out why not. I learned to ask “Why?” ever single step of the way as I wrote. And then count on my crit partners to point out the plot holes I still missed.
Terry
Terry’s Place
I’m sure many will be pointed out as I write. (I’m on my first mystery.) I find I’m having to step back and ask Why a lot as well. Why are the techs there? Why wasn’t the place being watched? Why did the security at this building suck? So many details! I’m actually having some trouble with clues, as in why would they find that there? Sigh.
LD–Sometimes mine smack me and sometimes my editors have to smack me with them. :)
Jemi–Maybe you can figure out a way to plug up the hole!
Teresa–Good point–maybe these little explanation scenes get edited out by well-meaning directors? Not realizing their importance.
And…I love visiting your blog. :) I always have great memories when I go there.
Margot–That’s the worse part–that it takes the reader out of the story. Which means it’s not an escape anymore! Yes, sometimes I think I’m hurrying when I write one in.
That was totally unrealistic. It was contrived as much as it was a plot hole. Forcing the story to go someplace illogical just because you want it to go there never works.
Diane–Exactly. So contrived. I’m sure tons of viewers must have had a hard time getting over that hurdle.
Terry–Ha! Likely why there are so many orphans and motherless children in stories. :) Moms are always worst to interfere, aren’t they. And adult daughters, I guess, of older moms…which is where I ran into issues with my own story.
Those beta readers and editors are wonderful–they always catch this stuff.
I think as authors we sometimes just overlook things. We’re focused on some other aspect of the plot or story. It’s really good to have a beta reader who can catch stuff like this!
Absolutely. In my current WIP, my critique group pointed out that my protagonist and family seemed so unconcerned about the attempt on her life that they left their houses unlocked as they went about their daily routines. Yes, I have some revising to do in that section of my novel.
Meg–It’s tough, isn’t it? So you’re writing stuff in like sick security guards or putting in a distraction of some kind. Maybe your protagonist does something like set a fire at one end of the building to create a diversion.
Helen–Beta readers and editors are worth their weight in gold!
In first drafts I get so caught up in the plot progression that I often leave out things like reactions and support. In my last WIP I had my heroine in a crisis, and she never phoned her family. Thank goodness I caught it.
Man-that drives me nuts! I hate it when a good story is derailed that way. That story you saw could have handled itself with an airline crisis or something-some reason parents COULDN’T get there. The one the bugs me the MOST is when heroes or heroines don’t see something that is SO OBVIOUS to the reader. And that’s a hard one to suspend the disbelief on–you have to give them a REASON to want to delude themselves or supply someone tricking them.
Hart–That would have been a perfect solution…that they *couldn’t* get there. And good point…it bothered me when the *cops* weren’t saying, “Hey, it’s really odd no parents are here on campus, considering the Crazed Killer Problem…” :)
Horror movies do it all the time. Which is why so many of them are awful. If I can’t buy the setup, I can’t buy the whole story.
Alex–They sure do. Thought it was interesting when the film “Scary Movie” took on all the contrivances of the genre.
Patricia–Ha! Yes, I’ve run into the unlocked door problem before. So had to either have the lock picked or the spare key copied, etc.
P.A.–That’s another good one to catch. What would a regular person do in this situation? But it’s so easy to forget to add those details because we need to move the plot along.
As a reader, I really do notice them. One little thing can throw me off and I dwell on it.
As for shows and movies, that is one reason why I can’t watch slasher movies … the people never use common sense, and that bugs me to no end.
Kathy M.
Kathy–Oh, that’s so annoying, isn’t it? And the screenwriters could work around it, too, if they just tried a little harder. If the protagonist had come up with a plan to meet her monster-fighting partner in the parking lot and they’d go into the dark woods together…but the partner has a flat tire on the way over and the monster attacks the protagonist in the parking lot. Some sort of set-up where the protagonist is trying to be smart, trying to be careful, but things just go awry. Or the protagonist is armed with a powerful gun–but the gun jams. Something that shows some sense on the part of the character.
Hi Elizabeth – I can quite see your point and I guess the setting was in the modern age – not when Victorian discipline reigned and no-one reacted out front … no breakdowns or anything ..
That would put me off too .. interesting post and comments – cheers Hilary
Hilary–That’s right–modern day setting, with interfering, nosy parents. :) Good point about writing historicals…since the traditions and reactions of the day would be different from modern life, the writer might need to remind readers in some subtle way so that it wouldn’t seem contrived.
Those sort of holes drive me bonkers and I fixate on them. It’s sad when they botch up an otherwise potentially compelling plot.