No problem there really. You are writing fiction, after all. But then, have you ever gone out of your way to pretend that lapse never happened? Because if you never acknowledge it, then maybe readers won’t even pick up on it, right?
I’ll venture we’ve all done this from time to time. Fiction is complicated. Sometimes it’s not only difficult to get everything to make perfect sense, but sometimes it’s downright impossible.
In situations like this, you face two possible courses of action.
1. Just Pretend Everything Makes Sense
To begin with, you can do what we talked about already and ignore the elephant in the room. Depending on how blatant the lapse or how knowledgeable readers are about your subject matter, readers may never even notice that you’ve fudged reality.
However, that can be a dangerous gamble. Readers aren’t dumb. (After all, what kind of authors want to attract a dumb audience?) Chances are good your readers will see your elephant whether you acknowledge it or not.
2. Have Characters Voice Readers’ Doubts About the Little Plot Holes
So here’s where the second possible course of action comes into play. More often than not, you will appear much smarter if you’re simply honest with readers. If you can acknowledge up front that something doesn’t quite make sense—letting characters verbalize what readers are probably already thinking—you can further suspension of disbelief, very possibly come up with an explanation that smoothes that lapse of logic altogether, and, most importantly, keep readers from thinking you totally missed a gaping plot hole.
For Example:
Imagine you’re writing a thriller set in a high-security government facility. Your protagonist needs to sneak into a restricted area, but you’ve already established that this facility is virtually impenetrable, with top-notch security measures in place. The problem? You need your character to get in, or the story can’t move forward.
To make this happen, you have your character discover a conveniently unguarded, secret passage that leads straight to the heart of the restricted zone—one no one else has ever found. It’s a little too easy, and you know it. But you need it for the story to work, so you hope readers won’t question it too much.
However, instead of pretending this implausible detail doesn’t exist, you can have your character acknowledge it. Maybe he’s skeptical about the passage’s existence or nervous about why it’s so unprotected. He might even comment on the improbability: “This is too easy. There’s no way this place has gone unnoticed for so long. Something’s off.” By having your character voice the readers’ likely thoughts, you turn a potential plot hole into a plot point, deepening the tension and making the narrative feel more honest and engaging.
This approach not only keeps readers from getting pulled out of the story but also makes them feel more connected to your characters, who are grappling with the same questions they are. So here’s to being honest and looking smart
Wordplayers, tell me your opinions! Have you ever been tempted to just ignore little plot holes or lapses of logic in one of your stories? Tell me in the comments!
