I can't stand plot holes. It doesn't matter if it's book or movie, if I see a plot hole, it will drive me crazy.
I recently read a mystery where the main character was reading the memoir that a man had written before his sudden death. There is a line with some very specific information that wasn't later used in solving his death. It was brought up again at the end of the story, but as an afterthought. Almost as if the editor pointed out the evidence to the author, but the author didn't want to re-write and so just tacked it on at the end, in retrospect after the murder was solved. Drove me nuts.
I try to be aware of these things when I write. On many occasions, I've filled out calendars for the story, just to make sure that I give sufficient or realistic time for my characters to do something. It's kind of a pain, and in the end, I have to take out a lot of things that say, "On Monday, she went out." Or "It was Wednesday before..." No one really needs to know the specific day of the week something was happening.
I've been re-reading a book I wrote a few years ago. I liked it, but after I finished the first draft, I went on to work on other projects. Now I'm rereading it and it's not a bad story, but they went from Thanksgiving to Christmas in about one weeks' time.
Hello major plot hole!
I am now working on a second draft of that story and while I will not account for every day between the two holidays, there will be four weeks that pass, not one.
Have you come across a plot hole that was just unforgivable in a book or movie? Share it with me in the comments.
So, last time I asked, what is your most favorite book of all time? It's really unfair of me to ask that when I can hardly answer it myself. I mean, I'm a librarian! We can't choose just one. But, I suppose, if I had to, I would choose the Chronicles of Narnia - all in one big book, because I can't choose among the seven. Is that cheating?