Annoying loopholes.

[Wawona Girl]

No, not wormholes, loopholes in a story. The kind that pop up when you've edited your books to pieces, others have read them, you've converted them for amazon kindle and then discover a loophole. Is it me or is that really annoying? Does a gremlin tinker with your work on the computer during the long hours of the night? Or in my case, does one of my cats walk across the keyboard while I am in the kitchen getting a coffee? One such case was in my first book when I was describing a music festival and said there were six thousand people in attendance. A page later, yes only a page later, I mentioned there were ten thousand people at the festival. Has anyone else found loopholes in their stories at a crucial period of time?

 

[Jo Zebedee]

They always get in but rarely get past my writing group, beta readers, editor and copy editor... What astounds me is that Sam (my copy editor) still finds ones no one else does. But that's why she's so amazing.

I'm actually doing final edits on book 3 of my trilogy (180 pages today, officially braindead but I've been let off easily so am making good progress) and there are a few things it turns out weren't built just as well as I hoped in book one and two, so there is a little bit of hole-plugging going on.

 

[Wawona Girl]

Admittedly, the longer the book is the more likely loopholes are going to occur. But I'm still going to blame my ones on either the gremlins or the cats.

 

[The Judge]

Not wishing to be pedantic (though why should I change the habit of a lifetime) a loophole is an omission or ambiguity which can be exploited to someone's benefit, so a loophole in a statute might allow a criminal to escape conviction.

What you're talking about is a mistake, pure and simple -- probably what in TV/films would be called a continuity error -- usually arising from a failure to read properly, ie to read the things that are actually written instead of what you (ie one, not you personally) think is written. In my current WiP I have two characters respectively called Yahn and Yvon, and far too often the wrong name gets typed, and my Writing Group buddies have to red pen them. As Jo mentions, editing by someone who knows what she is doing is the best way of avoiding egregious mistakes such as those.

Separately, there are plot holes, when what appears to make sense in the plot speedily unravels when it's properly questioned. Those are far worse, and if you (ie one) only realise you have some of them after you've published, then you need to think seriously about your writing.

 

[crystal haven]

I rember leaving a horse tied up to a tree, the same horse which the character was riding later on. One of my betas pointed out that the poor animal was still tied up in chapter four. Oops!

 

[Wawona Girl]

Not wishing to be pedantic (though why should I change the habit of a lifetime) a loophole is an omission or ambiguity which can be exploited to someone's benefit, so a loophole in a statute might allow a criminal to escape conviction.

What you're talking about is a mistake, pure and simple -- probably what in TV/films would be called a continuity error -- usually arising from a failure to read properly, ie to read the things that are actually written instead of what you (ie one, not you personally) think is written. In my current WiP I have two characters respectively called Yahn and Yvon, and far too often the wrong name gets typed, and my Writing Group buddies have to red pen them. As Jo mentions, editing by someone who knows what she is doing is the best way of avoiding egregious mistakes such as those.

Separately, there are plot holes, when what appears to make sense in the plot speedily unravels when it's properly questioned. Those are far worse, and if you (ie one) only realise you have some of them after you've published, then you need to think seriously about your writing.

I beg to differ. To my mind, loopholes are failures of a system, or person, to account for all conditions or variables. Yes, I guess you could call them mistakes. But where's the fun in that? No author is perfect and like all of us, mistakes occasionally get overlooked. In my case, the mistake was picked up and rectified. But it happens. As for me taking my writing seriously, well, I guess not all of us can be perfect.

 

[The Judge]

Do you have a reputable dictionary supporting you in your definition, because I don't know of one. And even on your own definition, what you've described isn't a failure of a system or person to account for a variable, it's a failure to spot an error.

In any event, I'm not sure why you balk at calling it a mistake. As you say, we all make them, as we've admitted, so I really don't think there's a need to become defensive about it.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

The department in charge of that sort of thing in filmmaking is called Continuity, and clearly it is a big enough thing to warrant a whole department. So it's not just you. I can't count how many of those things I've caught for people, and (because I missed them) I also can't count how many things I've missed for them. We do our best and leave the rest for people who take joy in catching us out.

 

[CWScott]

I spent 5 years working on my first book, and rewrote and edited it so many times, that I had to take a step back and spend weeks fixing all the continuity errors. Even then, after I got it back from my editor, found a couple of little issues.

It's difficult getting every single thing fixed. I had to create a spreadsheet with an equipment list for all my characters, and in which chapter they lost an item or gave it to someone else, what they were wearing etc. Even time of day.

 

[Droflet]

Never had a single problem. My first drafts were perfect beyond imagining. Wrote my first book in a couple of months, found a publish and bathed in the applause. And if you believe that you'll believe politicians.

 

[Phyrebrat]

If we're talking about 'loopholes', I think they're kinda crucial in some genres; certainly I rely on red-herrings in my writing which are the nearest things I can think of as actual 'loopholes'. We probably have a confusion in definition here though, and as TJ says, I think it's more mistakes and holes that dog us and our manuscripts.

Just reading what others have posted above gives me even more trepidation in my wip as it needs (or, rather, I'd prefer) a certain level of historical accuracy. I see this writing process on this wip as far more comprehensive than anything else I have done or want to do: lots of research which kills the creative muse, writing material, tweaking, letting someone I respect read it, rewriting it as the basic premise is anachronistic, move on to next research topic, repeat till the story's finished.

I'm sadly expecting to need a lot of rewrites even after what should be a 'final draft'.

pH

 

[Brian G Turner]

Nothing causes mistakes as much as changing a subplot.

 

[prizzley]

Nothing causes mistakes as much as changing a subplot.

I'm not sure I'd agree with that. Changing the main plot, especially altering the order of events, leads to all sort of continuity errors. I've done it once and don't ever want to go through that again. It makes planning in advance seem much more appealing.

 

[SpacePixie]

That's when you write a sequel to explain all to the continuity errors. Perhaps the main character time-traveled and accidentally created a parallel universe in which one character drove and Audi instead of a Jeep and another character was a redhead instead of a blonde. You could also explain away the error using magic some strange invention. Or it was all a diabolical plot on the part of an evil villain. Okay, yes, I'm just kidding.

I usually keep a separate word document for notes about characters, places, or important technical information. Sometimes, I add notes into the manuscript in Track Changes, so that they stand out during an on-screen read-through. On hard copies, I write in the margins notes such as (they have 4 horses, or red car, etc.) so that I can flip back and to the notes later on. If I think I might need to change a detail later and I want to remember it, then I will highlight it. I sue different colors for different types of notes. The important thing is to figure out what memory tricks or notes will help you the most. My first book was a nightmare, because I had so many changes that I actually had to go back and create a plot outline after it was done, complete with post-it notes, in order to fix all of the continuity issues created by changing the story around. I am still angry with that book, and haven't gotten back to it. But I learned a lot from it, and went on to write my second, and now third book. And I'm really good at spotting errors in other people's work, now.