How to Find Plot Holes in Your Novel: A Step-by-Step Guide

Before we can find and attack the plot holes we must know what they are. Basically, plot holes are mistakes in the logic of the story. When you have established something as true, known, or possible, then later characters or the world act differently, you have a hole.

These can be massive. Like time turners in Harry Potter, which could stop Voldemort from ever existing and needed to be fixed later in the books. Or small, like when a character is holding something in a movie, and in the next clip it is gone.

Doing a plot hole revision should come fairly early in your drafts. Here’s how to spot them, and how to conquer them.

For more guides like this check out the writer hub.

Quick answer: To find plot holes, read your manuscript twice. On the first pass, record the facts, knowledge, conclusions, abilities, rules and constraints the book has established. On the second pass, test later events against those notes for contradictions, impossible knowledge, missing causes, forgotten solutions, timeline problems, geography problems and broken world rules, plus any threads you started and never finished.

Jump to:

• What Counts as a Plot Hole?
• Plot Hole or Mystery?
• Pass One: Write Down What the Book Has Established
• Pass Two: Run the Nine Plot-Hole Tests
• How to Fix a Plot Hole
• Beta Reader Questions

What Is a Plot Hole in a Novel?

A plot hole is usually a contradiction, impossible gap or missing piece of logic that affects how the plot works. Although the term has become somewhat of a catch-all online, with people assigning it to character choice or continuity errors.

For example, a pacifist killing someone is not necessarily a plot hole even when readers are mad. It might be the climax of their character arc, and not done well, or setting up something later. Now if your supposedly expert assassin stands in the middle of a crowded ballroom and performs the one murder they have spent the entire book trying to hide out in the open…. you may have a character-logic problem serious enough to break the plot.

Some examples to help you understand this are:

• The world breaks its own rule. Magic has required blood for 300 pages, then suddenly works without it. Think The Vampire Diaries where vampires suddenly become weaker because it allows the plot to happen.
• A character knows something they cannot know. Two people have a private conversation, then a third character acts on it when the reader has not been shown that character knows this secret.
• A needed object or ability appears after the story removed it. The only sword fell down a mineshaft. Three chapters later it’s in the character’s hand. Oops.
• The plot ignores an established solution. The heroine has teleported through locked doors twice already, but now spends six chapters imprisoned and wailing behind one.
• The timeline or geography makes the event impossible. The journey takes three weeks in one direction and two days on the return with nothing else established.
• Cause and effect has a missing bridge. The story moves from A to C, but there is no believable B that gets it there.

A smaller continuity mistake can still be annoying for you as the writer, and the reader will absolutely catch it, but I would separate those from the holes that damage the plot. Hence…PLOT holes.

A character’s eyes changing from green to brown is a continuity error. If eye color is how your protagonist identifies a magical impostor, now it affects the plot. Tuesday accidentally becoming Wednesday is messy. Tuesday becoming Sunday is a much bigger problem if the murderer could not possibly have reached the city until Sunday.

So ask what the contradiction changes. Does it affect what somebody could know, what somebody would choose, what they are capable of doing, where they could physically be, when they could get there, whether a solution was already available, or whether the next event could happen at all? The more load-bearing the answer, the faster you need to fix it.

Plot Hole or Mystery?

An unanswered question is not the same as a plot hole. An unanswered question can create mystery or suspense when the existing story still makes sense. A plot hole appears when the reader has to ignore an established fact, goal or rule to accept what happens.

How Do You Find Plot Holes in Your Own Writing?

It’s time to grab your notebook and pen. Or a spreadsheet. Or a fresh document beside your manuscript. Use whatever won’t make you abandon the exercise halfway through, even if it means sparkly gel pens….because you’re going to read/skim the book twice.

The first read is evidence gathering. The second is where you hunt the plot holes.

Rereading is critical because we often think we said something, or added a clue, and didn’t, or we added something that contradicts another fact later.

Pass One: Write Down What the Book Has Established

If you have heard writers talk about a reverse outline, this is it. If not, basically a reverse outline is an outline built from the draft you wrote, not the one you planned.

Start at Chapter One and read through the manuscript, as you go, make a note whenever the book establishes something that could affect the plot later, and put the chapter beside it. Easy.

Here is an example of how your spreadsheet might look with all of the following instructions:

You could also give every scene its own row instead, with columns for chapter, POV, day, what happens, what it establishes, and any threads it opens or closes.

Facts and rules

Write down facts later events may rely on, like cities burning down, or Gods making choices, or something a character says is true, secrets told and to whom.

If the reader learns a worldbuilding rule that affects what can happen later, write that down too. This includes magic, politics, and anything else the plot may eventually rely on. Write the rule as simply as possible with its chapter. Ch. 11: Magic cannot cross running water.

Character knowledge and conclusions

For your major characters, note important information when they learn it. So, if Mara learns in Chapter Four that the king ordered the attack, write it as Ch. 4: Mara knows the king ordered the attack. Easy.

Characters also make decisions about what something means, which then forces their choices later in the story. In early drafts you might have a character concluding they are angry with someone and ready to investigate them. Then two chapters later they say the same thing, or worse, the opposite. Write these down even when the character is wrong. Ch. 9: Elara believes Fred is the killer. So later, if the reveal comes as John, and Elara is not surprised, this is a hole. And if Elara doesn’t change her mind on the page but starts watching a different character, also a hole, even if the plot makes sense on paper.

Reveals, clues and open threads

If something is revealed to the reader, such as who has the magical moon stone, write it down. You can also note who might not know this fact. As you build your list you may see clashing reveals.

Do your characters or scenes hint at any of these rules, reveals, red herrings, and so on? If so, write down any clues you have sprinkled throughout that a keen eye could catch.

Then start a separate threads list. Every time the book raises a question, plants a setup or starts a subplot, write it down with the chapter and leave a blank for the chapter where it pays off. Ch. 3: Why does the sister flinch at the name Corvin? Pays off: ___. Give each subplot its own color and mark every chapter it appears in. Test 9 checks this list, so leave the blanks empty for now.

Abilities, objects and resources

Track anything a character can use to solve a problem later: powers, weapons, money, authority, contacts, vehicles, healing, communication methods, artifacts, keys, secret passages and favors owed.

Also track when those things disappear. If the sword breaks, the horse dies, the magic is exhausted or the queen takes the key, note that too. Pass Two is going to ask whether the character already had an easier solution, and this list is how you answer without relying on memory.

Timeline and locations

Build the bare-bones timeline now, while you are already moving through the book in order. You only need the dates and durations that could affect whether something is possible later. Track travel time, deadlines, injuries, healing, pregnancies, seasons, battle dates, how long spells take, communication delays and anything else where elapsed time is a factor. Keep it very simple. Day 1: Mara leaves the capital. Established travel time to Greyhaven: six days.

For locations that affect the plot, note access, distance and physical restrictions. Which doors are locked? Where are the stairs? How far apart are the cities? Who can enter the temple? Which road is blocked? If a location is complicated enough that movement is part of the plot, sketch it now. Ugly is fine. You are not submitting architectural plans; you are giving yourself something to check later when somebody overhears a conversation through three walls and a courtyard.

Checkpoint snapshots

If your novel is reasonably straightforward, stop around the 25%, 50%, 75% and ending marks and write down everything that is true, all the facts revealed to the reader (or main character you are tracking). If your plot is really complex you will likely have to do this for each chapter. Write a quick snapshot of the story state:

• Mara knows X but does not know Y.
• Tomas believes Z.
• The eastern gate is inaccessible.
• Ren is injured.
• The queen has the key.
• Blood magic requires physical contact.
• Nobody except Tomas knows the prince is alive.

You are giving Future You a way to see the current state of the story, so if you are editing scene 30 and the character solves it with a solution not yet established you know at a glance.

This is basically your story bible

A story bible can be quite simple or very complex. Its job is to answer one question. What has this book already made canon?

Track	Record
Characters	age, appearance, abilities, important history and relationships
Knowledge	major information each character knows and when they learn it
Conclusions	important beliefs or assumptions characters are acting on
Timeline	dates, travel time, injuries, deadlines and major events
Locations	geography, distance, access and physical restrictions
World rules	magic, politics, religion, technology and other established systems
Objects/resources	weapons, letters, keys, money, artifacts and who has them
Limitations	things characters or systems explicitly cannot do

I’ll do a separate guide on building a story bible properly because that deserves more info.

Before you start the second pass, look over what you collected as some contradictions may already jump off the page. Flag them, but do not disappear into a rewrite yet. We need everything gathered first.

If you outlined, put your outline beside these notes now. Any major beat in the outline that does not appear in your notes needs a flag. This happens far more often than writers expect.

Pass Two: Run the Nine Plot-Hole Tests

Now go through the manuscript again, scene by scene, with your first-pass notes beside you. Each test gives you the notes to check against, the question to ask, the red flag to look for, and the smallest fix. Start with the smallest fix every time for your own sanity.

1. Established Facts: Does This Still Match What the Book Already Told Me?

Check against: your facts and rules notes.

Ask: For every major event, finish this sentence in the margin or your notes. This scene only works if ____ is true. Then check that sentence against your first-pass notes.

Red flag: the sentence depends on something your notes contradict, or something that was never established at all even though it was in your head.

Smallest fix: decide which version of the fact the book needs for the story to make sense. If the earlier fact is expendable, revise it where it was first established, basically, cut it. If you need the fact for something else to work, it’s time to come up with a reason that this is no longer true. Did someone die? Did a law get passed? Throw this in somewhere in dialogue, or a poster, or *insert clever idea here* so scenes make sense later.

2. Knowledge: Could They Know This?

Check against: your knowledge, conclusions, reveals and clues notes.

Ask: Every time a character makes a decision, accusation, plan or deduction that depends on important information, write the source beside it. They know this because ____ in Chapter ____. Then go find that source and re-read it side by side with the current scene.

Run the test in reverse too. If somebody reacts to a major reveal, check your notes to make sure it is new information to them. Major reveals are great checkpoints because once a new fact becomes true, you can look backward and test whether everyone’s earlier knowledge and decisions still make sense.

Then check your clues. Is any clue too obvious? Would a character be especially stupid if they missed it? If so, the reveal is too forced. It’s too convenient. And the reader may feel cheated. Boo.

Red flag: you cannot point to the moment that gave them the information. You may have known the answer in your head for so long that you accidentally gave the character access to your own brain instead of information inside the story.

Smallest fix: give the character a real way to learn the information before they use it, remove that knowledge from the later scene, or change the earlier scene so they could plausibly have learned it there. If they already knew the fact they are now “discovering,” either go back and have them misunderstand it or not have time to process it yet, or have them already know it and finally look at it properly in this scene.

3. Cause: Why Did This Happen?

Check against: only what is on the page in your notes, because you may have forgotten to add that info.

Ask: For each major event, write a three-part cause chain. Because ____ happened, the character does ____, which causes ____. Then check the other direction. What changes because this event happened?

Red flag: you can remove or move the event and nothing downstream changes. It may not be doing much causal work at all and you might have a passive character.

Smallest fix: have the character act in some way that causes the next problem. For example, if something gets stolen at work, then their house burns down, then they are dumped….these are major events, but they are happening TO the character, not because of them. So, we have to write in little clues. Maybe they decided to put their food in a different container because they really didn’t want to wash the dishes, and it got mixed up at work, and their coworker asks how they didn’t notice it looked the same? Then because they clearly don’t pay attention to small details, like a candle left lit, their house burns down. And with all that stress they forgot about their boyfriend’s birthday and now they’re getting dumped. There should always be a reason, even if unfair, that things are happening to the character.

4. Capability: Could They Solve This Another Way?

Check against: your abilities, objects and resources list.

Ask: Every time a character hits or solves a major problem, compare the obstacle against what they currently have available. Did you already establish something that would have solved this faster or made the current solution unnecessary? Can you think of anything obvious someone would do instead? Like use a gun instead of a light saber.

Some of the most irritating plot holes are not direct contradictions but forgotten solutions. Your protagonist hits a terrible problem. Everyone panics. They spend four chapters building an elaborate plan. Meanwhile the reader is sitting there thinking, didn’t she learn how to teleport in Chapter Twelve?

Red flag: you, or a reader, would ask “well, why didn’t they just___?”

Smallest fix: don’t panic. Quite often the better fix is to explain why using that “why didn’t they” method would be worse. Maybe teleportation leaves a trace. Or light sabers are sacred, and it’s barbaric to kill another way. One quick line of dialogue or internal thought should do it. Constraints usually make these scenes better anyway because the character has to choose between costs instead of temporarily forgetting what they are capable of. If the hole is much bigger, like they could have fixed this way quicker using another magical solution, consider cutting that from the story altogether….or pull a Rowling and have the solution destroyed halfway through the story.

5. Character Choice: Would This Person Choose This?

Check against: your knowledge and conclusions notes, plus the nearest checkpoint snapshot.

Ask: For every decision that changes the direction of the plot, make a quick decision snapshot and line them up together.

• Knows: What information does the character have right now?
• Believes: What do they think that information means?
• Wants: What are they trying to achieve?
• Fears: What outcome are they trying to avoid?
• Options: What choices do they know are available?
• Chooses: What do they do?

Red flag: the choice only makes sense once you add information, motivation or a change of belief that is not in the manuscript.

Smallest fix: give the character a believable reason for the choice on the page. If no reason fits who they are, change the choice.

6. Time: Could This Happen When It Does?

Check against: the timeline you built in Pass One.

Ask: Every time somebody arrives, heals, ages, receives a message or finishes a task, does the scene obey the dates and durations you already wrote down?

When	Event	Time constraint
Day 1	Mara leaves the capital	Journey to Greyhaven previously established as 6 days
Day 3	Mara arrives in Greyhaven	Impossible without faster transport

Red flag: a scene beats its own clock. If the journey took three weeks on the way there and five days on the way back, give me a reason before I start measuring your fictional roads with spite.

Smallest fix: establish the faster transport, shortcut or time skip earlier, or move the scene. If a new time constraint appears during this pass, add it to the timeline and immediately check what it affects later.

7. Space: Could Everybody Physically Be Where They Are?

Check against: your location notes or maps.

Ask: For travel between locations, write the route and established travel time beside the scene. Capital to Greyhaven, six days by horse. For eavesdropping, attacks, rescues and reveals, check sight and sound too. Could this person hear that conversation? Could they see the signal from here?

Smallest fix: move the character, add the open window or second staircase earlier, put the object back.

8. Rules: Does the World Still Obey Itself?

Check against: your rules notes, turned into a quick comparison ledger.

Rule	Established	Later use or exception
Only blood descendants can enter the temple	Chapter 5	Heroine enters in Chapter 30
Healing cannot replace lost blood	Chapter 8	Ren fully restores a drained character in Chapter 24

Ask: Every time something affects the plot, check it against the ledger. If the scene appears to break a rule, write down the explanation beside it and find where the manuscript establishes that explanation, or where the rules are changed. Read them side by side.

Red flag: the exception first appears at the exact moment the plot needs it. Once you establish the rules of your world, the story has to use them, obviously, or deliberately revise them earlier on. Your readers will feel cheated otherwise.

Smallest fix: if the world rule needs to be changed for something to work either plant the exception earlier, or let the rule break cost something important. Or create a new rule to make something possible, but have it cost something.

If you are still creating these systems use the Fantasy Worldbuilding Tool first. Plot-hole editing is easier when you know what the rules are supposed to be.

9. Threads: Did Everything You Started Get Finished?

Check against: your threads list from Pass One and the chapters you marked for each subplot color.

Ask: Go down your threads list and fill in every blank with the chapter where that thread pays off.

Red flag: a thread with no payoff chapter. The sword gets a whole scene of loving description and is never drawn. The sister’s secret gets hinted at three times and never comes up again. Readers notice what you promised as much as what you contradicted.

Smallest fix: pay it off, or cut the setup. If you are deliberately saving a thread for book two, make sure the reader can tell it is open on purpose, so it reads as a hook instead of something you forgot.

How Do You Fix a Plot Hole Without Breaking the Rest of the Book?

Does every plot hole need a rewrite? Not always. It could be as simple as adding an extra line or scene. A true structural contradiction could use the following steps.

1. Clarify things. The explanation already exists, but the reader cannot see it.
2. Plant ideas. Add the information, object, limitation or decision earlier.
3. Constrain more. Close an easy solution with an established cost or rule.
4. Motivation. Give the character a believable reason for the choice.
5. Alter the consequence. Let the event change goals, relationships or options the way it logically should.
6. Change the action. Replace the choice or event that no longer fits.
7. Restructure. Move, combine or rebuild scenes only when the smaller fixes cannot restore the chain.

Keep in mind that one fix can open a new hole somewhere else so make the repair as early in the book as you can, then update your notes and rerun the tests on every scene downstream of the change.

It’s a lot of work, but it’s worth it.

This is also where the distinction between developmental editing and line editing comes in! If the logic itself is broken, grammar is not the repair. My guide to Developmental Editing vs Line Editing for Fantasy explains that difference in much more detail for when you’re ready for an editor to help. And if the whole causal chain has gotten really messy and you’re starting to panic STOP: the Novel Plot & Beat Planner can help you lay out the events so you can see them clearly. Maybe from there you will only need to re-write a few scenes.

How Can Beta Readers Help Find Plot Holes?

Do not ask, “Did you see any plot holes?” Most readers don’t know how to do that. Ask this instead:

• Where did you stop understanding why something happened?
• Did anyone know something you could not remember them learning?
• Was there a point where you thought, “Why didn’t they just ___?”
• Did anyone’s decision feel made for the plot rather than for themselves?
• Did any solution feel too easy?
• Did any rule seem to change?
• Was there an event you expected to have bigger consequences?

That gives you reader data you can revise from. If you are not sure where beta feedback ends and professional diagnosis starts, read Beta Readers vs a Developmental Editor for Fantasy.

More Writer Guides Like This

If the draft is busy but stale somehow, go to Why Your Fantasy Novel Feels Slow Even When Things Are Happening. And if the problem is how much information the reader has to hold at once, Cognitive Load in Fiction is the companion piece.

You can browse the rest by the problem you are trying to solve in the Writing Craft Guides for Fantasy & Romantasy Writers hub.

If you have run these passes and the manuscript still feels like every fix creates another problem somewhere else, a Fantasy Manuscript Critique is the smaller whole-book option I use to identify the biggest visible structural issue and give you a revision priority before you commit to a full developmental edit. It’s inexpensive and can save you hours of work and many-a-headache.

Frequently Asked Questions