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Wednesday 3 October 2007

I say, there's a huge hole in that chapter...


Oh. Didn't notice that. Rats.

Have you ever had someone point out a huge improbability in your plot? Small ones are okay, you can usually put them right by a sentence or two deftly inserted before the dodgy bit.

Something like, Alice mused that she had been fortunate indeed, having a father who'd insisted she take Tae Kwon Do classes to black belt standard, so that, should she ever be attacked by three men, she would win. Phew. So much for the doubter who said a girl would never have been able to defeat the baddies single-handed in Chapter Ten.

But what about the ones that wipe out your plot? In Lord of the Flies, Piggy's spectacles become crucially important as the only means of making fire. However, and isn't it lucky that no-one pointed this out to William Golding, Piggy is short-sighted. His lenses would have been concave, and useless for focusing the sun's rays.

Similar thing in the film Casablanca. The 'letters of transit' that guarantee the holder free travel anywhere in German-occupied Europe, that everyone is desperate to get their hands on? No such thing ever existed.

As for the plot holes that have been drawn to my attention in my two novels...you didn't think I was going to tell you what they were, did you?

14 comments:

  1. Having read all of Rising Fire, I'm keen to know what I missed.

    I'm currently worrying over a corner I've written myself into. I've got my hero between Scylla and Charybdis and I can't get him through. If only he were farsighted....

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  2. Can't you make use of the trusty old 'with one bound he was free'?

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  3. I think I've got a portion of it. I still don't know quite what to do with the bomb under the driver's seat....

    "The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon."

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  4. Yeah, I can't think of any big holes in Trav. You're making me feel a bit of a dolt.

    A dolt of lightning!

    Zap!

    Ouch. Bad aim.

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  5. Alan, you haven't by any chance got your hands on a jar of Marmite, have you?

    Remember we in England were brought up on the stuff, and can handle it.

    By the way, are those flamingos in your latest sketch?

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  6. Cranes. That is the little Japanese corner of our yard. Bamboo and whatnot, you know.

    Wait a sec. I just looked at them again (the originals) and by golly they do have more than a passing resemblance to flamingos.

    Now what scoundrel put those in my backyard?

    Harumph.

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  7. Hi there! I think that every novel should have something dodgy about it - after all, without it the read wouldn't be half so human! None of us is perfect indeed!

    Hugs

    A
    xxx

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  8. Hi Anne,

    Thanks for dropping by. I popped in to your blog, and envied your Page Rank - not sure I know any other 3s.

    I never manage more than four minutes in my doctor's surgery...and he either says I should have come sooner, or that there's nothing wrong with me.

    How should I know? I'm a jeweller. He's the doctor.

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  9. Alan, I feel a haiku coming on...

    Cranes among bamboo
    Or could they be flamigos?
    The sound of leaves.

    Let us all pause to ponder these lines.

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  10. I have a rank?? Apart from rank outsider of course ...! I envy you your 4 min doctor appointments for sure, tee hee!

    :))

    A
    xxx

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  11. Anne, on my Google toolbar between Bookmarks and No popups I have Page Rank, with a horizontal bar with a green bit to show how you rate (I don't have a green bit, though on my jewellery website I'm a 2).

    I know some people don't have this, and I can't tell you how to get it to display on your computer as my IT expert (my daughter) is away.

    But 3 is really good!

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  12. It sounds wonderful! I am so impressed with your techno-knowledge! It remains, I fear, a complete mystery to me - I can't even work out how to get a photo up anywhere!! But I'm so glad it's green. I like green.

    :))

    A
    xxx

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  13. Hi Lexi! Thanks for commenting on our new blog :) This looks really good! I'm quite impressed...now if only there was an element of illegality to it (like at Amazon), then it would be full of excitement and danger!

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  14. Hi Beth,

    That's an idea. I may run up the Jolly Roger and declare this a pirate blog.

    Yo ho ho. Pieces of eight. Pass the rum me hearties!

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