7 WORST Types of Plot Holes (Writing Advice)

get ready because today we're going to talk about the worst types of plot holes and how to avoid them by the way my name is Brandon McNulty I'm the author of bad parts also the author of Entry wounds and welcomed my riding channel one of my subscribers requested a video on the topic of plot holes and I thought this was a good idea because I've never actually discussed them on the channel before so we're going to focus on them today I'm going to explain what a plot hole is why you should avoid them and I'm going to give you seven different types of plot holes that you should avoid in your stories but let's start off by defining what a plot hole is and it's an inconsistency or contradiction in a story that is never explained or resolved it's something that violates the established story rules it breaks the story's reality it may include things like illogical actions choices events it might also include things like unfinished story threads or timeline issues incorrect details misused facts and so on and so on all right now that we've got that established let's talk about about why you should avoid plot holes in your stories and the first reason is very simply that plot holes are errors and oversights usually they happen when writers Rush their stories they make careless mistakes or they fail to properly plan out the story another reason to avoid plot holes is that they disrupt the magic of the story they make the story less immersive and when we have to think about errors that takes us out of the experience and one more reason to avoid plot holes is that they may cause audiences to distrust or abandon the story some audiences just outright hate these things they're always on the lookout for them and when they spot them it just ruins the story in their opinion now keep in mind that most audiences will forgive plot holes as long as the story itself is engaging in fact some audiences out there will even look for evidence or they'll come up with reasonable explanations that completely excuse the existence of a plot hole so you might have a situation where you point out a plot hole in a story and somebody else tells you no actually that could work within the context of the story because of this reason or that reason or whatever but ideally if you're a writer you want to avoid these errors altogether and the best way to avoid them is to be aware of the different types of plot holes out there that's what we're going to focus on now I have seven different types that I want to share with you I'll explain what each one is and I'll give examples to illustrate what I mean first type of plot hole is the obvious solution that characters ignore and this is where you have situations when characters have a clear and easy solution that's in plain sight but for some reason they choose a difficult or illogical alternative an example of this comes from the movie Saw and this is a popular horror movie that came out in 2004 it's about two strangers who wake up in a room with no recollection of how they got there they're Shackled up and they're forced to play a Sinister game together and later on one guy has to grab a cell phone that's barely out of his reach and in a desperate attempt to get closer he decides to cut off his foot in order to escape his shackles it's a bold dramatic move but it's also a silly one because the guy could have simply used the hacksaw to reach out to the cell phone and pull it closer toward him the second type of plot hole is the off-screen solution that characters ignore and this is similar to the previous type I just mentioned but instead of the solution waiting in plain sight it's off screen for instance a character might have special knowledge or skills that can solve a problem or the setting might offer potential advantages or Escape Routes or there might be systems in place that could easily rescue the heroes whatever it is the heroes and the writers ignore these options and some audienced members will notice this oversight and be disappointed for an example let's look at die hard 2. and if you remember this is the one where John McLean has to stop terrorists from seizing control of an airport near Washington DC his wife Holly is flying into town but her plane can't land because the terrorists shut down the runway lights and thus all planes have to remain in the air and this is supposed to be a tense situation because the planes are circling the airport for hours while running low on fuel but anyone familiar with the DC area would know that there are other nearby airports where the planes could easily land any pilot flight attendant or air traffic controller would know this yet the solution gets ignored for the sake of the plot third type of plot hole is continuity issues and these are simple breaks in the consistency of a story you might have a situation where character doesn't recognize someone that they should recognize or you might have a character firing 10 bullets from a gun that only holds six things like that and these are typically caused by careless riding and sloppy editing but luckily most audiences won't pick up on these they tend to be very minor errors that often get ignored one example comes from Game of Thrones with the character Melisandre she's the red woman the red sorceress and she's an important side character with a mysterious past and in season six we learned that she's much older than she looks when she removes her special necklace it reveals her true form as a lady who's hundreds of years old and it's a surprising Revelation but it also also creates a plot hole because in season four she had been shown without her necklace and yet she maintained her younger form next type is inconsistent magic and technology and anytime you introduce magic sci-fi technology alien life forms or super powers into a story you need to establish rules and limits you also need to be aware of the impact these special abilities and items can have on your story world and if you don't it can lead to plot holes for example in Batman Begins the villains plan to destroy Gotham City by infecting the population with this special toxin that causes people to hallucinate horrifying images and the toxin only works when it's inhaled So the plan is to contaminate the city's water supply then vaporize that water by using a military-grade microwave emitter it's a clever combination of ideas but the nature of the toxin also raises some questions like what happens if people boil water in their homes or they take hot showers wouldn't that cause them to inhale Toxin and wouldn't that revealed the villain's Plan before they're ready to carry it out next type of plot hole is characters acting out of character for no good reason and this is when a character does or says something that is inconsistent with who they are they act like an imposter or an idiot for the sake of the plot and they might make unrealistic mistakes or they might conveniently forget how to use skills that they've mastered now keep in mind it wouldn't be a plot hole if a character made a stupid decision while facing immense pressure or facing great emotional turmoil if there's a legit reason for a character to make a huge mistake then that's fine but don't have a character acting like an idiot just for the sake of the plot for an example of this plot hole let's take a look at Rocky IV now if you follow this channel you know I love this movie to death it's a bizarre yet epic story about Rocky trying to avenge his best friend's Murder by fighting a roided up super villain named Ivan Drago and there are many ridiculous things that go on in this movie there's plenty of plot holes but one that has always bothered me is the way Rocky fights in the final battle and in the previous movie if you remember he trained with Apollo Creed and he learned to dodge punches instead of just absorbing them with his head this enabled Rocky to regain his title and you would think that he would once again use this defensive strategy when he fights Ivan Drago but no instead Rocky spends the first 14 rounds blocking punches with his face before he finally wises up and starts dodging blows in the 15th round now don't get me wrong I love watching this fight it's an amazing spectacle it never gets old but it always bothered me that Rocky fights like a complete idiot until the final round the next type of plot hole is the abandoned subplot and this happens when a seemingly important subplot is established but later on it fades away or outright disappears without proper exploration or resolution it leaves the story feeling awkwardly unfinished and it causes the audience to feel cheated this tends to be one of the more noticeable plot holes it's a sign of poor planning on the part of the rider and if you do have these types of subplots in your stories they need to be cut all together just get rid of them for examples of this look no further than the movie The Room the room is full of abandoned subplots it's an abandoned subplot Factory and two of the more memorable ones are when Lisa's mom announces that she's dying of cancer and then you have the situation where Danny has a partnership with a drug dealer both of these situations appear like they're going to contribute to the overall story but instead they end up as one-off moments that never get explored again and the final type of plot hole is large-scale stupidity and this is the most noticeable and unforgivable type it's usually a logical issue with the story's main concept or premise and since the entire story is built around something that doesn't make sense these errors create tons of questions and they can make an otherwise dramatic Story look silly for an example let's look at the 1998 movie Army get it in this story a massive asteroid is due to hit Earth in 18 days so NASA has to respond quickly and stop this threat after weighing their options they plan to drill a deep hole into the asteroid and insert a nuclear bomb that will destroy it that's the plan now you would expect NASA to train their astronauts in order to operate the necessary drills in Machinery but instead in this movie NASA trains a team of Drillers to become astronauts in the span of just 12 days and the problem here is that the whole concept is backwards keep in mind it takes about 10 years of schooling training and preparation in order to become an astronaut which is way more time than it would take to Simply teach and experienced astronaut how to operate a drill so I hope this helps question of the day what's the worst plot hole you've ever noticed in a movie let us know in the comments section below thank you for watching if you want to support the Channel please pick up a copy of either one of my books bad parts is great if you like small town horror it's about people trading away their sick and injured body parts in order to get healthy again and then entry wounds is great if you like Thrillers it's about a guy who picks up a Haunted Gun and he cannot put it down until he kills six people with it also be sure to check out my other videos like share and subscribe and as always remember to keep on writing

Channel: Writer Brandon McNulty

Views: 309,986

Keywords: Writing, Writing advice, Writing Tips, Fiction, Creative Writing, How to write a book, How to write a novel, novel, book, plot holes, plot, hole, plot hole, plot holes in game of thrones, game of thrones, melisandre, batman begins, rocky, rocky iv, armageddon, movie plot holes, the room, saw 2004, die hard 2, die hard 2 die harder, lord of the rings, shut up about plot holes, why plot holes matter, film, screenplay, script, worst plot holes, continuity errors, continuity issues, batman

Id: 6iU4BPN6pPE

Length: 10min 20sec (620 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 06 2023