How to Fix Any Plot Hole Like a Pro

Is your novel riddled with plot holes? Plot holes ruin the experience of getting lost in a story for the reader and can make you look sloppy or lazy as a writer. Learn what plot holes look like, how they can accidentally be created, and how to find and fix them!Once, I spent a good three hours trying to fix a plot hole involving a parrot while writing my novella, These Savage Bones.

I wish I was kidding.

There’s nothing that can make a writer want to tear their hair out quite like a plot hole. They can be hard to spot and even harder to patch up. And in the case of a particular species of parrot, which turned out to be extinct during the time period my story was set, they can make you question your sanity.

Argh, headaches for days!

Are there pesky plot holes hiding in your story right now? Let’s take a look at the different forms plot holes can take, how they can be accidentally introduced into a story, and how to rid your novel of them for good.

What is a Plot Hole?

Before you can fix your novel’s plot holes, you must first have a clear understanding of just what a plot hole looks like. Funnily enough, Wikipedia (of all places) has one of the best definitions of a plot hole I’ve come across:


So, a plot hole is a contradiction or inconsistency found within your story.

Why Are Plot Holes so Bad?

The problem with plot holes is that they can shatter the reader’s belief in the story you’ve woven. You know that feeling you get when you’re completely lost in a book? During that time, you forget about the outside world and the story’s setting and characters become real to you.

When readers become aware of plot holes, it jerks them from that fictional dream. It ruins the magic of the story and makes them realize the book in front of them is indeed fiction and not real. The plot hole becomes a distraction, and the reader may even begin to look more critically at your novel and try to find more inconsistencies instead of just enjoying the story.

The other problem with plot holes is that they make you look bad as an author. Readers will think you’re sloppy, or that you didn’t bother to think through the logic of your story. Plot holes can be embarrassing mistakes.

Examples of Plot Holes

So how can plot holes appear in your story? Let’s take a look at some examples.

Inconsistency: Let’s say in chapter one you introduce your hero who is a left-handed warrior. But in chapter 8 he’s wielding his sword with his right hand. Or, in book 1 it took your characters 10 days to get from town A to town B. In book 2, it only takes them 3 days. Whoops.

Contradiction: Let’s say you’re writing a fantasy story and early on you established that wizards can only use magic with a wand. But halfway through the story one of your wizards casts a spell with a wave of his hand. This directly contradicts the rules of magic you set earlier in the story.

Illogical: Let’s say your hero has magical fire powers. She has just been kidnapped and is tied up. She manages to find a shard of broken glass nearby and slowly saws through the ropes around her wrists to escape.

But why doesn’t she just use her fire powers to burn through the ropes in the first place? Sawing through the ropes might create tension in that scene, but taking advantage of her powers is the more logical choice for the character in that situation.

Factual Error: Let’s say you’re writing a historical story and your hero arms his fort with cannons to fend off the bad guys. But the problem is your story is set in the 12th century and cannons weren’t invented until the 13th century. Uh-oh.

Impossible: Your hero falls off a 100 foot cliff and survives. Or he becomes a master swordsman in a few days. Or he jumps out of a plane and falls up instead of down. You get the idea. If it defies the laws of science or human capabilities, it’s going to create a pot hole.

How Do Plot Holes Happen?

Now that we know what a plot hole is and have looked at home examples, you might be wondering how they can occur in the first place. Here are a few ways a plot hole can creep into your story:

Losing track of details. A lot of times a plot hole is created simply because the author forgets a detail of the story. This mistake is understandable—there can be an overwhelming amount of details you need to keep track of in a novel, and it becomes even more challenging if you’re writing a series!

Going back to our earlier examples of inconsistency and contradiction, both of these plot holes could have been avoided if the author had been keeping a close eye on the details.

Not setting clear rules and following them. If you’re writing a fantasy story, you need to set rules about how your world works and then follow them. If you don’t set rules, you’re likely to create contradictions and inconsistencies later in the story.

Not thinking things through. Sometimes plot holes happen because the author fails to look at all the angles and think things through. Usually in this sort of situation, the writer is more focused on making things exciting or interesting instead of paying attention to the logical, natural actions the characters would take in the situation.

In our example of an illogical plot hole above, this could have been avoided if the author had put themselves in the character’s shoes and asked what the character would logically do to escape.

Lack of thorough research. Whether you’re writing a medical drama, historical romance, or detective thriller, if you don’t do careful research you’re likely to create plot holes.

Not every reader might catch these mistakes, but some will. If a nurse reads your medical drama and realizes you have no clue about surgical procedures, she will either become frustrated with your book or laugh at you.

Lack of explanation. Sometimes plot holes are created simply because the author neglects to explain something.

Let’s go back to our earlier example of our tied-up hero with the fire powers. The reason she has to use that shard of glass to cut through the ropes is because the bad guys have used some sort of special fire-proof ropes so she can’t use her powers to escape.

But the author neglected to mention this so the reader is left to wonder, why doesn’t she just burn through them?? This leads them to believe there’s a plot hole.

Lack of set-up or foreshadowing. Have you ever read a book or watched a movie where something seemed to come out of nowhere? Two characters are suddenly making out and you didn’t even realize they were attracted to each other. Or the hero is lucky enough to find that gun under his bed when the serial killer is about to murder him.

Situations like these can feel like an inconsistency or contradiction in characters or plot. Where did that gun come from? Why are these two characters in love all of a sudden?

To prevent these sorts of things from feeling like a plot hole, you need to foreshadow or set them up earlier in the story before they happen. Show the characters flirting. Show how the gun got under the bed. Then your reader won’t call into question your consistency or logic.

How do You Find and Fix Plot Holes?

Some plot holes you may discover as you write your first draft, but most you probably won’t notice until you get into editing. The more time you spend with your story the more familiar you will become with it, and the easier it will become to spot plot holes.

Get to know your story inside out. Then, learn to look at it with a critical, careful eye. Think through your scenes and story details and look at them from different angles. Are they logical? Are they consistent? Do they make sense?

I also highly recommended getting another set of eyes on your story. Beta readers will come to your novel with a different perspective and will be able to spot plot holes you may have missed.

If you do come across a plot hole, try asking the following questions to begin brainstorming a solution to fix it:

  • How much of the story did this detail effect? How much will I need to change? (i.e. the ripple effect)
  • Can I simply remove this detail completely?
  • Can I change this detail or replace it with something else that makes sense?
  • Do I need to add, remove, or change something else in the story for this detail to work?
  • Do I need to provide more explanation? Can I explain away this detail to make it work?
  • What would my characters naturally do in this situation?
  • Do I need to set up or foreshadow this detail earlier in the story?

Keeping Track of Your Story’s Details

Another way to find and fix your story’s plot holes, or avoid creating them all together, is to keep track of your story’s details.

Years ago, I spent some time volunteering as a script supervisor for a local film company. What is a script supervisor, you ask? Well, the script supervisor’s job is to make sure there are no continuity errors in a film.

Every day I would closely observe the scenes as they were filmed with my continuity log in hand, taking careful notes.

So, for example, at the beginning of a scene I might take notes on where all the props were before the actors touched them. If we had to do another take or switch camera angles, my notes would be needed to return the props to their original positions. Sometimes, photos would be taken in addition to the notes.

This would prevent inconsistencies between camera cuts in the final version of the film. So let’s say two characters are talking and there’s a gun on the table. The camera cuts to character #1, who is now holding the gun. Then the camera cuts to character #2. Then the camera cuts back to character #1 who reaches for the gun.

Um, wait a minute, wasn’t he just holding the gun a second ago? Yep, he was. The script supervisor’s job is to prevent continuity errors like these through the meticulous notation of details.

To avoid inconsistencies and plot holes, you must become the “script supervisor” for your novel and be obsessive about details.

To help you out, I’ve created a free worksheet for you inspired by a script supervisor’s continuity log. You can use this worksheet to go through your novel scene by scene during the writing and/or editing phase and note all of your story’s details to make sure they stay consistent and logical.

Grab it here:

Plot hole continuity log

Let’s Review

  • A plot hole is a contradiction or inconsistency found within your story.
  • They can take different forms: inconsistencies, logical fallacies, contradictions, factual errors, and impossible events.
  • They can occur in a number of ways: losing track of details, failing to establish rules, failing to think things through, lack of research, lack of explanation, and lack of set up or foreshadowing.
  • Getting to know your story inside out and learning to look at it critically will help you uncover plot holes. Beta readers can also spot errors you may have missed.

The Simple Secret to Figuring Out How Much Development Your Minor Characters Need

Who are the main and minor characters in your novel? Can you tell the difference? Where do you draw the line between the two? How do you decide how fleshed out each one needs to be? Use this simple trick and never scratch your head over how much to develop minor characters again!

At the moment, I have seven minor characters who have recurring roles in my current novel-in-progress.

Yes, you read that right—seven.

Yes, I’m a little crazy.

And yes, it took an endless supply of tea for me to get through this story without losing my mind. (Actually, that last part is still debatable, but I digress…)

It’s a large cast, the largest I’ve ever taken on, and it was overwhelming trying to develop and keep track of so many characters. One of the most confusing parts of having a cast that large, I quickly realized, was trying to figure out how much to develop each character.

Who was a minor character? Who was a main character? Where did I draw the line between the two? How did I decide how fleshed out each one needed to be? Did they all need character arcs? Did I have to tell the backstory of each one?

As if my head wasn’t spinning enough already.

Three drafts later I got it figured out eventually, but I want to save you that time and trouble and hopefully some extra work. Once I figured out the determining factor I could use to easily decide how much I need to develop each of my characters, I was doing a major face palm.

It’s pretty simple and obvious, and I’m going to share it with you in a bit. But before we get there, we need to go over how to tell your main and minor characters apart.

Main vs. Minor Character—What’s the Difference?

Main characters are well-developed, have an important role in the story, drive the plot, and spend a lot of time on the page.

On the other hand, minor characters are flat, don’t play major roles in the story, add to the plot but don’t shape it, and have less page time.

Main characters are the are the meat of the story; minor characters are the spices.

How Much Should You Develop Minor Characters?

By definition, minor characters don’t need to be well-developed. Yet I often hear writers say they’re worried their minor characters are too flat and they want to know how they can give them more dimension.

This thinking comes from the misconception that flat characters always = bad, and round (well-developed) characters always = good. Therefore, if you make all the characters in your novel round, it will be even better!

Hold your horses there.

This is one of the biggest MISUNDERSTANDINGS of minor characters. Your minor characters don’t need to be round. You’re creating unnecessary work and headaches for yourself trying to fix a problem that isn’t actually a problem.

You need BOTH round and flat characters in your novel. Why? Every character has a role to play in the story, just like actors in a play. Some roles are big (aka leading roles). Some roles are small with only a few lines. And some roles may not even have a speaking part at all!

The thing is, when you start to add more dimension and development to a minor character, you’re spending too much time on a character who doesn’t have a huge role in the story. The more time you spend on something in a novel, the more important your reader will assume it is.

So if you spend all this time fleshing out a character who doesn’t have an important role in your story, you will confuse your reader by misleading them to think the character was more important than they actually turned out to be.

The other problem is that every character simply can’t be round. There’s not enough page space to give every character that sort of development, not to mention it would create a mess. It would be like watching a play where every actor with a minor role was trying to hog the stage by adding extra lines and scenes for their character.

A good rule of thumb is that the bigger role a character has and the more important she is to the story, the more development she needs. The smaller the role, the less development.

We’ll explore this more in-depth in an example here in a moment.

Types of Characters

Some characters have larger roles than others, which creates a spectrum of varying degrees of importance and development. These can blur and blend together, but here are the main types you will often see:

Extras—minor characters who serve as the background or scenery of the story and help make the setting feel full and alive. They may have a brief role for one scene, but once they’ve fulfilled their purpose they disappear. Sometimes, they may not have a speaking role at all. (Ex. a waiter, taxi driver, bartender, etc.)

Recurring Characters—minor characters who may become momentarily involved in the action and have small roles to play. Unlike Extras, they appear multiple times throughout the story and we learn a little more about them. (Ex. the hero’s mother, teacher, coworker, etc.)

Main Supporting Characters—main characters who help the hero along their journey towards achieving their goal. They appear constantly throughout the story, and of all the minor characters they get the most page time and development. (Ex. the hero’s best friend, sidekick, love interest, etc.)

Hero—the main character at the top of the hierarchy, the most important and the one driving the plot. Without this character there would be no story.

Case Study: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Let’s look at an example of these types more in-depth using Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.

Do you remember Griphook, the goblin who takes Harry and Hagrid down into the vaults below Gringotts bank? It’s his only scene in the book, and we don’t learn anything about him other than he works at Gringotts. His role in the story is to serve a function in the scene—to take Harry and Hagrid down to the mysterious vault 713 and retrieve what we later learn is the sorcerer’s stone.

We don’t care that we don’t learn more about Griphook, and we don’t need to—he’s not important to the story. J.K. Rowling knows this, so she doesn’t spend much time on him. He’s a flat character but it doesn’t matter because he serves his purpose.

Griphook is an example of the “Extra” minor character—he’s part of the scenery and helps make the story world feel full and realistic, along with the other goblins in Gringotts who were mentioned but weren’t named or given any dialogue. Once his role is finished, we move on and leave him behind.

In comparison, Hagrid is a Recurring minor character. He doesn’t drive the story, but he becomes a friend and guide to Harry and becomes involved in the action from time to time. For example, “rescuing” Harry from the Dursleys and whisking him away to Hogwarts.

He has recurring appearances unlike Griphook and because of his relationship to Harry and his occasional participation is the action, we see more of him and get to know him a little better.

We learn he has a wand hidden in an umbrella and he’s not supposed to do magic, he’s a gamekeeper at Hogwarts and lives in a hut on the grounds, he has a dog named Fang, and he has an affinity for ferocious magical creatures.

Next, we have Ron and Hermione, who are Main Supporting characters. Unlike Griphook and Hagrid, they get even more page time and development because they play a more important role in the story—helping the hero achieve his goal.

Companions, sidekicks, and sometimes even love interests who are constantly by the hero’s side are all supporting characters. Supporting characters need to be more rounded because we spend more time with them and they’re more important.

Finally, at the top of this character hierarchy we have Harry, who is of course the hero of the story. He is the character we spend the most time with, learn the most about, and who is the most developed.

Increased Importance = Increased Development

Hopefully you can see from this example how the development increases with each character as their importance to the story increases:

Griphook>Hagrid>Ron & Hermione>Harry

Extras and Recurring minor character like Hagrid and Griphook can be flat without any problem—they’re the spice that adds color and interesting flavor to the story. On the other hand, Supporting main characters like Ron and Hermione who are of greater importance will need to be more developed and be more round. Finally, your hero like Harry will need to be fully fleshed out.

The one caveat to all of this is that sometimes over a series of books a minor character can become more rounded and may even increase in importance and expand their role.

For example, towards the end of the Harry Potter series when we learn more about Snape’s past it gives the character more depth. But at the beginning of the series he just starts out as Harry’s nasty potions teacher. However, a standalone novel won’t have to page space for this sort of development of minor characters.

So to sum things up, the secret to figuring out how much development your character needs lies in their importance to the story. When you realize the size and scope of the role your character will play in the overall plot, you will be able to decide how much page time and development you should give them.

Let’s Review

  • Flat characters aren’t necessarily bad. You need both flat and round characters in your novel.
  • Extras, recurring characters, main supporting characters, and the hero all have varying degrees of importance.
  • Supporting characters like companions and sidekicks need to be more developed than minor characters.
  • The hero should be the most rounded and fleshed out character in the story since she’s the one the story is about and who we will spend the most time with.
  • The secret to figuring out how much development your character needs lies in their importance to the story.

The Ultimate Guide to Mastering Character Descriptions









What Is the Purpose of Character Description?






When Should I Describe My Character?








Which Characters Should I Describe?





How Much Should I Describe?












What Should I Describe?






  • Hair color, texture, and style
  • Build/body type and height
  • Skin tone
  • Teeth
  • Makeup
  • Clothing, accessories, and personal items
  • Voice/accent
  • Posture
  • Scent
  • Gestures, body language, mannerisms


1. Avoid Creating a Grocery List of Physical Traits




2. Choose Interesting Details


3. Use Similes and Metaphors




4. Consider Perception



5. Get Specific




6. Add Movement




Let’s Review




Key Takeaways:

  • Describing a character is more about characterization than flowery language.

Additional Resources:


My 4-Step System for Hacking Your Creativity






Step 1: Find a Quiet Place Free of Distractions








Choose whatever sort of ‘quiet’ works best for you.

Step 2: Unclog Your Mind and Focus on the Present












Step 3: Invite Creativity With Questions and Curiosity







Step 4: Capture Your Thoughts on Paper



You’re Now a Creativity Mind-Hacking Jedi!


To summarize, here are the steps again:








Here’s a description of the story:
















The Writer’s Guide to Self-Publishing Costs and Royalties



Self-Publishing Costs









Self-Publishing Royalties



When you self-publish through Amazon your have two options:





E-book Royalties





Print Book Royalties





Looks a lot better now, doesn’t it?

The Down Side…




Don’t Give Up









The Writer’s Guide to Advances and Royalties





















E-book: 25%


Let’s crunch some numbers, shall we?




Making a Living With Fiction







What about you?










These Savage Bones: a novella by Kaitlin Hillerich

Now, how gorgeous is that?? *SQUEE*




Now without further ado, let’s get on with today’s topic!

Why You Need an Amazing Cover





Where to Find a Cover Designer





What to Look For



Consider Your Budget (But Also Consider Quality)




Book in Advance



Communicating Your Vision




Additional Resources




A Simple Outline for Writing a Killer Book Blurb








What is a Book Blurb?




Sound like a plan? Let’s get started!

Part 1: Set the Stage


A. The Hero




Here are some examples of character description in book blurbs:





B. The Setting



Fantasy Settings




Historical Fiction Settings










Part 2: Introduce the Problem






D. What’s at stake? “Her world’s future.”



B. What’s her goal? Surviving and winning the games.


D. What’s at stake? Katniss’ life.










5 Reasons Why You Should Write a Novella





1. Explore New Ideas





2. Expand on Your Novel



3. Build a Readership




4. Create an Additional Stream of Income




Talk about a sporadic paycheck.



5. Appeal to Busy Readers





