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Getting through that middle, making it all make sense, getting to where it all holds together, THAT is hard. And that is where so many people stumble and fall.
— Taylor
This week’s show opens with one of my favorite show beginnings ever, thanks to a listener who took the time to use our words from TSS072, How Important is the Title to the Success of Your Book, and put them together as book titles. We spend the first few minutes of the show laughing our way through those and offer our sincere thanks to David for the amazing creativity it took to put the titles together.
Our topic this week is started out as finding and fixing plot holes, but quickly evolved into a lesson on fixing story problems. Things that crop up from poorly understood character motivations, timelines and in a specific example, an antagonist that isn’t quite bad enough to drive a story.
In our call to action, Taylor wants to know how you define plot holes or plot problems? If you have a definition please let us know in either the comments or by calling the hotline (check the connect button above for the number.)
Thanks so much for joining us again this week.
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dava sobel just wrote this short essay on coming up with the titles for her (nonfiction) books. just thought you might enjoy. the title of the essay itself might be the best :). http://www.powells.com/post/original-essays/entitlement
Thanks for sharing that one, Karl. I’d never heard the story of Catch-22. I wonder if the book would have been as successful as Catch 18. And you’re right about the title for the article itself. Perfect!
plot hole = something happens in the story that i (the reader) simply do not believe. could be plot, could be character, could anything. canonical example: the villain has the hero captured, but instead of simply killing him/her, sits around talking until the hero can get out of the predicament.
whether it’s a “hole” is a matter of definition, but that’s what makes me roll my eyes.
conversely, when i read something that is a true surprise, that i didn’t see coming, but yet is so perfectly right within the story that it makes me shiver or cry or laugh or whatever … that is the best.