Today we’re going to talk about 3 faults of narrative that are closely related but distinct, and how to avoid them. These are ones that reviewers often get mixed up. By examining each one in detail, hopefully you too will be able to tell them apart and recognize them in your own writing (as well as the proper steps to take care of them).
Since everyone likes to bring up story “plot holes”, we’ll save those for last and examine two faults that are often confused as plot holes.
First up, what I like to call the loose end. A loose end is not a fault in the plot per se, but is a plot thread that has vanished with no resolution. No, it is not a thread that has a poor, disappointing, or nonsensical resolution—the key to being a “loose end” is that no resolution exist. This is the chief fault of Michael Bay films. See: Transformers. At one point during the film, the magical McGuffin box brings to life several human machines (part of a car, a Mountain Dew vending machine and an Xbox). Well what happens to all these newborn Transformers? The movie never tells us. You should also note that loose ends only apply to side plots; the main plot can never be a loose end. Instead, a central plot left unresolved is a cliffhanger, or a Bolivian Army Ending, or plain shit. Remember: loose ends are side plots which are never resolved.
Next up: the asspull. At first glance, this may appear to be a plot hole—it’s a moment that seems to come from nowhere. However, upon reflection you can kind of see where it came from and the path the plot took to get there. The problems are often a result of timing. Examples abound, but my favorite has to be:
The “summers’ blood” that closed the rift between dimensions in The Gift. After spending much time establishing Dawn (Buffy’s sister by way of energy ball) as being the single, special, only creature who can open or close the door between dimensions, at the last minute, faced with imminent apocalypse, Buffy decided her blood would probably work just as well.
If you’re going to suddenly introduce magic into your sci-fi story (or visa versa) – or add psychic ability to anything – put in a little extra effort to clue the reader in that such mixing is allowed.
Finally, we finish with, the true plot hole. Defined generally as “things happening without a logical reason”, I think a better description is from Ken: “a viewer is forced to construct (or attempt to construct) an elaborate framework of suppositions in order to cover over some hole in a film’s plot”. That’s the key difference between a plot hole in respect for the audience: how complicated of a supposition does the reader have to create? Sure, you may have put hints and clues as to how X occurred. But if the reader is going to have to assume a great deal to reach X, then you have a plot hole. By far the best example remains Jurassic Park 2: The Lost World when the ship runs into the dock with a dead crew. The suppositions the viewer has to create (T-Rex escaped then went back in, Raptors sneaked on board and then drowned, etc) to explain the scene pushes it straight into plot hole territory. So if you’re ever in doubt over whether you have a plot hole or not, sit down and make a list of all the stuff the reader has to assume to get there (ignoring the most basic common sense, such as: people breathe). If your list runs very long (say… over 3), then you have a plot hole.
Aquanaut on 18 February 2009, 00:49 said:
Nicely done !
But I didn’t get the Asspull thing yet. And worse : The trope which explained it wasn’t clear enough for me. Such a brainless morron am I, sometimes. >_<
Ari on 18 February 2009, 08:14 said:
I remember the Buffy thing..didn’t catch i until now. Nice job! I didn’t know there were different subspecies of this…
OverlordDan on 19 February 2009, 00:01 said:
Grr! Now I’m gonna be up all night reading that site. It starts with one, then BAM!, its 3 in the morning and you know more about eye tropes than you ever needed to.
Where was I… oh ya. Great article, as always!
SlyShy on 19 February 2009, 00:08 said:
TVTropes’ addictiveness is somewhat disturbing to me. Which is why I’ve stayed away. Willpower, yes.
Nate Winchester on 19 February 2009, 00:17 said:
Grr! Now I’m gonna be up all night reading that site. It starts with one, then BAM!, its 3 in the morning and you know more about eye tropes than you ever needed to.
Bwahahahaha I’m evil!
I love spreading the addiction of TV Tropes. “First one’s free…”
Someday we’ll get you SlyShy. Someday…
Nate Winchester on 19 February 2009, 10:48 said:
But I didn’t get the Asspull thing yet. And worse : The trope which explained it wasn’t clear enough for me. Such a brainless morron am I, sometimes. >_<
No problem Aquanaut. Let’s use…
AN EXAMPLE!!!
Say you’re writing a sci-fi ensemble story. Twice in the story you have little side discussions where characters debate whether magic might exist or not.
Then, at the 11th hour, where your protagonists are getting in trouble, one of the steps forward and reveals: THEY ARE A 12TH LEVEL MASTER WIZARD!!!! Who then proceeds to use magic to aid his/her friends.
Now from a technical standpoint, there isn’t a plot hole, people can comb through your work and see the clues that this could have happened. But its very poorly set up. So poor that people at first think it was a plot hole because nobody could remember the earlier establishing info.
It’s the opposite extreme of broadcasting your ending and/or over-explaining everything.
Juniper on 26 February 2009, 14:36 said:
The Illusionist is another example. The big IMADETHEWHOLETHINGUP “twist” at the end was inadequately foreshadowed.
Snow White Queen on 27 February 2009, 20:04 said:
Jurassic Park Two was a lame movie.
Great article though, Nate.