Plot gaps or plot holes can send your readers running for the hills faster than mad axeman on Halloween. As authors, we love our work. It is a sacred part of us that we share with the world, but it is true what they say: love makes us blind.
In this episode, we explore my five worst plot gap tropes in the literature that have the power to tank your hard work. We explore what a plot gap is and how to avoid or correct it in your writing, so you produce the highest quality, consistent story possible.
Key knowledge you will acquire in this episode:
For more information on related content check out my website at www.TheRealGaryKhan.com
Music Credits:
Is it fine if i kiss you? by Barradeen | https://soundcloud.com/barradeen
Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en_US
Plot gaps or plot holes can send your readers running for the hills faster than mad axeman on Halloween. As authors, we love our work. It is a sacred part of us that we share with the world, but it is true what they say: love makes us blind.
In this episode, we explore my five worst plot gap tropes in the literature that have the power to tank your hard work. We explore what a plot gap is and how to avoid or correct it in your writing, so you produce the highest quality, consistent story possible.
Key knowledge you will acquire in this episode:
For more information on related content check out my website at www.TheRealGaryKhan.com
Music Credits:
Is it fine if i kiss you? by Barradeen | https://soundcloud.com/barradeen
Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en_US
Hello Kryptic fans. Welcome back to another episode of the Author's Journey with your boy, Gary Khan. In this episode we explore my five worst plot gap tropes in literature with the power to tank your hard work. We explore what a plot gap is and how to avoid or corrected it in your own writing, so you produce the highest quality story possible. I'm trying something different in this episode, so we keeping it short and we keeping it sweet. Let's get straight into it. In fiction, a plot hole or a plot gap, or plot error is a gap or inconsistency in a storyline that goes against the flow of logic established by the story's plot. Such inconsistencies include things as illogical, unlikely or impossible events and statements or events that contradict earlier events in the storyline. The term can also be loosely applied to loose ends in a plot, side-line stories, or elements that remain unresolved by the end of the plot. Now that's Wikipedia's definition and for once they got it spot on and hella, right. So there was no need to reinvent the wheel. With that said, and that understood, let's jump into my top five worst tropes in literature. Please do not do these things. Let's start with number five. Why did this even happen? Ever watched the movie where a whole series of events unfold because of something the main character did in the beginning. And you realize without that, there would be absolutely nothing in the story worth your time. The plot was all it had going for it and even that got screwed up. There are too many movies to count where this happens. Please make your plots matter. Make the world and characters interesting so that everything doesn't hinge on an inadequate narrative riddled with inconsistencies and contradictions. Well, that was a mouthful. Please don't do it. But that was number five. Let's jump into number four. The secret identity. Now here's a story for you. An alien pod falls out of the sky and lands on a farm in Kansas. The family raise the alien with good country values. To protect his loved ones, he takes on the name Clark Kent. But really, he is Superman! Now Superman and most comic characters were original in their day when they first launched this whole trope. So we let it slide where they are concerned. But I swear to all that is holy on the grave of my great grandfather. If someone else writes about a hero who has to keep their identity secret from their loved ones to protect them, inverted commas, I will hunt you down, and I will kill you. Why not tell your loved ones? They accept you for who you are? People who love other people are better than that. If I find out my friend was a gay leprechaun, my opinion of him wouldn't change. He's my friend. I love him. And now do the writers of these characters think so little of them? Come on people. Where is the love? Please give your characters some depth. Some character, some moral fiber, some backbone make it interesting. Marvel Studios started to do this when they launched Iron Man, Tony Stark coming out boldly professing who he was. Think about it this way. FBI agents hunt down bad people all the time. We know who they are. We know where they work. And yet their loved ones are not in jeopardy. They compartmentalize. You keep your work one side and your loved ones on the other side. How insecure are your villains If they have to go and kill your loved ones? I mean, what kind of thing does a villain have to prove by killing a baby? If I was a villain? I'd only want to kick your ass, not your kids'. Because by kicking your kids ass I prove nothing, right? Only a weak, scared, pathetic villain has to go and harm women and children to prove his worth. A true badass villain does not need to harm children and kids. A true badass filling is confident in himself. He will kick ass all on his own without the need to revert to such childish and pathetic schemes. So come on now. Not every villain is out for your loved ones. It's an old cliche, and it's left best to the comics. So move on and and upgrade your storytelling for goodness sakes. Number three, the chosen one. Oh my gosh. Here's an example. Tell me if you heard this one before. Long, long ago, prophecy tells of a warrior that would rise in the darkest hour, the chosen one, who will set humanity free. Come on, not another prophecy and another chosen one. Neo from the matrix was the last Chosen One allowed people? It's too far cliched now, thanks to tacky writers. Yes, great literature has chosen ones and they are in every narrative if you look really deeply, but what you won't notice is the word chosen one. In Wheel of Time, it's the dragon reborn. Yes, he's a chosen one trope being used, but in a fresh and novel way. And that's funny because that was back in the day, Robert Jordan precedes all of us. So if he could do it back then you can do it right now. Come up with something original, or quirky to call the chosen one and don't use those words, ever. Or better yet, how about you evolve into the 21st century writing style, and you don't use chosen ones at all? Anyone can be the hero, or everyone can be the hero. Go meta with that shit. Number two, Can't Touch This. Your characters have to have real skin in the game. The stakes need to be high. They need to get hurt badly. They need to die if they do stupid shit. You try to go skinny dipping in Iceland in winter and see what happens. Especially if you're not from around there. You jump, you die. Why does the hero's stupidity not cost him or her anything? Just don't. You could see this in all the old school Hollywood movies. Bullets are flying around by henchmen who can't aim straight. They must have had a heavy hangover if they're shooting like that. And yet the bullets don't hit the the bad guy at all. Even if they get shot, they always get shot in convenient places and don't ever bleed out. Have you ever gotten shot? Even if you get shot in the foot, you are out for the count. If you thought man flu is bad, you go get yourself shot. Have your arm hacked off and then still try to save the girl. Not gonna happen. It doesn't happen. Even the toughest Navy SEALs go down. So make sure your characters go down too. Just don't. And number one. The example I use here is a movie I love to hate, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Rey, a nobody from somewhere far far away in the galaxy, who's only ever fought bandits with a staff, picks up a light saber and kicks Kylo Ren's ass, chopping off his arm. Let me explain who Kylo Ren is. He is a badass Sith Lord, once Jedi, trained by Luke Skywalker, son of Leila Skywalker and Han Solo, grandson of Darth Vader. So powerful he stops laser blast bullets in mid-air, just with his mind and the power of the force. He is the one in the same. This guy's been kicking ass and taking names and kicked Luke Skywalker's ass in his sleep people - in his sleep! And how do you go and get Rey kicking his ass? Now let me put it to you a different way. George 'Rush' St-Pierre is harolded as one of the greatest MMA fighters to have ever lived. You walk into a bar, and he's trying to pick on your girl and you tell him to leave you alone and he picks a fight with you. Go ahead, do it. Let's see, how well you fair when you've never punched a thing in your life. This guy punches people's faces in for his living. What are you going to do? And to add to this, don't pull that James Bond shit, and have a villain plot and scheme for years, come up with a really masterful plan, be far exceedingly intelligent than the hero only to have the hero unravel all those plans without lifting a finger in a very convenient way. That is some complete bullshit. She who plans better than her opponents go whip those opponents asses. Now you can see this in Harry Potter. This whole trope of the convenient, the power of love is the one thing that will conquer all. No people! Don't give people mystical, secret powers that are not explained throughout the narrative that conveniently allow an untrained, unqualified hero to kick a villains ass. Voldemort should have won in Harry Potter, because there was no way Harry Potter had the skills to do the job. If you told me Hermione Granger will go kick, Voldemort's ass, I would believe you. I would believe you. Hermoine Granger. She was the real hero of Harry Potter. Where my females at? So how do you fix the plot gaps? There are three awesome techniques. Technique number one Plan Properly, create detailed plot summaries in the correct plot structure for both your main plot and your subplots. Then you create cheat sheets which include the following: character sketches, which include every detail of the characters traits, personality types and backgrounds. Setting descriptions which include detailed drawings, descriptions, pictures of your settings in your novel, especially if they're built in the real world. And you can get pictures from Instagram or wherever. Timelines: create logical timelines for all occurrences including things like weather, where the characters were when something was happening in the novel, dates and times. What they were wearing, all the little details. And technical notes, which are details about technical aspects of your novel based on your research. For example, if you're writing about characters who are gun experts, you should be a gun expert too. Don't get caught with your pants around your ankles on that one. All of these things can be used to make sure that you're keeping your narratives logical and consistent as you write them. Go back to these cheat sheets and use them as you go throughout your plotting process and creating your overarching plot summary. Technique number two, Edit Meticulously. Now that you have detailed cheat sheets, you can proceed to writing the damn thing once you have created sufficient distance from the story. After you finish that first draft, you can start the writers review and edit. Check your plot against your cheat sheet to eliminate any plot gaps that crop up. Before you get going with the Edit. You're going to want to research around self editing quite a bit. What's your methodology? What are you looking for? What do you need to look at? There's a lot of things that you need to consider. And here are some helpful resources that I always have used in my editing process. The first book is Self Editing for Fiction Writers Second Edition: How to Edit Yourself into Print by Renni Browne and Dave King. The second is Outlining Your Novel by K.M. Weiland. Beautiful books. Do yourself a favor and grab them right now! Technique number three: Get a Second, Third or Fourth Opinion Because Your Sure Doesn't Count. Firstly, get your early drafts professionally edited. This is the professional review. Secondly, make sure you join a critique group and send them your revised manuscript. This is the peer review. Lastly, send the almost finished novel to your trusted beta readers for input. This is your reader review. There's a higher probability that three layers of reviews (or four if you consider yourself) will identify all plot gaps that any one layer may have missed. That's all I have for you. But boy, is this episode action packed with the best information you can possibly get to fix your gaps in your writing. Please do it because ain't nobody want to read about the chosen one in your story ever again. Eliminate that chosen one. If you've enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to join the Kryptic community, the most awesome people on the planet. Yes, we are. Stay tuned for more episodes like this and definitely check out my website therealgarykhan.com where you can find my blog and my podcast episodes, all in one convenient location and details about any books or projects that I'm working on. Anyway, goodbye. And see you next week. Or, as the Albanian say, lamtumirë Transcribed by https://otter.ai