Taking another week for story-writing related posts. 🙂
For a while now, my husband and I have enjoyed watching a series of Youtube shorts called “How It Should Have Ended” ( http://www.youtube.com/user/HISHEdotcom ). The premise is that they take a popular movie (For example, the Star Wars movies, Hunger Games, Star Trek: Into Darkness, Iron Man, etc…) and look for those little ridiculous plot holes that like to throw a wrench in the whole plot. These are usually simple things, (like the Emperor asking very specifically that there is not a hole large enough for a spaceship to fly through on the second Death Star) that we generally overlook for the sake of the story.
However, keeping this kind of premise in mind when plotting for your own stories can be a useful tool (and a fun procrastination device, while you’reat it). Having watched several of the How It Should Have Ended episodes, my husband had quite a bit of fun finding numerous points where our current manuscript series could have ended quickly. A place where a villain looked back and considers, why didn’t they beef up security if they were trying to capture a high profile target? and etc. While we enjoyed coming up with the ideas, it made me think of how using this technique could help in writing. For one– you look for plot holes. Then you can address them. You can make sure that there’s a logical reason something happened, not just for the sake of the plot.
If you haven’t already, check out the episodes. They’re typically quite humorous. 🙂 In the meantime, have you ever run into any plot holes in your writing that you realized needed to be fixed (or otherwise might have thrown a kink in your story?)
Stephanie Flint - Author and Artist 