Plot holes

[morhamza]

It was pretty minor, but I went and changed something and forgot about it, so I had characters like ten chapters later referencing a conversation that never happened. Oops. You need a ledger or something to keep track of everything sometimes.

I feel this in my bone. Readers are basically reading my first draft, and I am a discovery writer, trying to keep the story consistent is so hard. I have to constantly check what I wrote previously to make sure it meshes well with what I'm writing.

A simple example, I keep forgetting whether I called the place my MC and his friends hang out a pub or a tavern. It's a fantasy novel, so tavern works better, but I called it a pub and now I'm stuck with pub lol.

The other big thing is character traits. I don't describe much, but on the rare occasions I do, I need to check back to see height, hair color and whatnot.

All these things could be solved with a decent story outline, but I'm that type of person that writes an outline then completely loses interest in the story, so I make outlines as I go, but procrastination has all but ensured I outline as little as I can get away with.

As for plot holes, I caught it while editing so my readers were saved, but a character I said was dead was alive teaching my MC how to use an axe. That would've been really embarrassing had I uploaded that part without editing.

 

[Deleted member 45782]

Tbh I had no comments about plot holes on Mirakee when I started to write Shrouded in Darkness. I guess bc that platform people aren't really into telling you what grammars or plot holes, they just love the content. Sometimes wish would like grammar to be pointed out bc after look through several times, many likes but no mention of grammar had for long while so had to go back and edit and double check make sure.

Plot holes though are what prevent me from continuing on with that story besides stressful and busy time. Too many plot holes or at least big ones that will determine how plot continues on. Made me realized writing on go completely isn't a good to go for me, need some planning beforehand. Considering how it's been bout two yrs since stopped it has stopped me pretty good.

I don't have much readers commenting on plot holes yet since I haven't been writing much, but plot holes are something I internally antagonize myself over all time and stops me from continuing writing.

 

[Ral]

Look, I get that you are trying to help but you're really not. Without knowing the story in question, you're just guessing blindly here and that's not going to work. Half of what you're saying isn't even applicable to my story. To be able to really try and give advice, you would need to either have read the story or need a much more detailed explanation which I didn't give because I was really just intending to share a short anecdote of "this kinda thing happened to me".
I am not looking for help because it's not a problem for me. The part in question makes sense in the story and I have enough checks in place for it to not be troubling to pretty much all readers except for maybe one or two. And I'm not worried about one or two people being confused by something because there are a multitude of reasons as to why that might be the case: They might be prone to overthinking (which is actually lovely because those people come up with the wildest shit which I love seeing!), maybe they skipped some stuff (readers do and if they don't get stuff because of that, that's on them, not me), or perhaps they are part of that group that doesn't actually read the English version I put up but a version in their language that they get out of a machine translation (had a reader like that berate me before for misusing pronouns which is an issue with MTL and not on my part but they were so sure I didn't know my pronoun game). Looking at the demographic reading online, it could even be that they are just lacking the language skills to get some of the intricacies so some parts of the story might stump them no matter what I do.
So yeah, I'm happy with the story as it is, I don't need advice, and if I needed it, I would make a new thread about it with a much more detailed explanation so that people would be in a position to give that advice in the first place. Thanks for trying anyway but it's really not needed in this case.

I was not really giving any advice. We are just discussing things. Topics come and we talk about them. That is it.

The thing is that those comments usually come in when at least several volumes have been posted and the answer is long given, not while I am serializing the specific part they are troubled by. Also, even with a serial they could, like, wait for the explanation to come out instead of just assuming the author doesn't know shit? Alternatively, you can always ask why instead of making that assumption.
The assumption in question being their first (public) reaction is what I have a problem with. Not getting something (yet) is obviously okay and it's no shame to question the part and wonder why. Like, I also have readers who are like "I wasn't sure about x, is that going to come up later?" or something. It only becomes a problem when (and I've unfortunately had to see that happen as well) a reader doesn't understand something and then starts ... well, trying to shame the author for not doing their job or trying to make factual statements like "This is a plothole" when it's really not because there are several logical explanations readily available to them even if they can't think of the actual one that will be given later on.
I've legit had a reader who made the statement "No effort was put into this story" about a short story I spent hours researching for, two weeks drafting, that I revised and edited several times, poured hours into making the cover, days into translating and again editing it and remaking the cover for the edition in that language. So making a statement like "no effort was put into this" as if that's a fact is kinda rude, doubly so if you have the author right there and could ask but don't bother doing so but will bother telling them they weren't doing their job. And it's usually this kind of rudeness the readers pointing out "plotholes" display. At the very least, it is in my experience. Could be you have made different ones, that's valid but this is how I've experienced these things and that is the point where it becomes a problem to me. I just want people to think for a moment, then ask, and not outright accuse.

How rude of them.

But, yeah. Things can really get horrible. Just think of J.K.Rowling or George Lucas. Actually, now that I think of it, I see it happen all the time.

The readers can sometimes be really disrespectful. But then again, this is the internet. I already stop trying to make sense of it. The only thing I could say is that I have a love-hate relationship with it.

I'm more of an artist and I have posted some digital art here. I'm planning on doing digital art and posting here again. My experience with posting digital art works is pretty much the same as yours.

 

[The_Everdistant_Utopia]

In general, I don't think I've ever stepped into large plot hole territory since I'm pretty expedient in making sure to keep consistency on the broad strokes. Though, if you look at anything I do write closely, it's probably bound to have minor holes because my memory isn't the best so I'll forget the occasional detail.