Moderator Musings

[rolanni]

Of the two panels I'm moderating at WorldCon, one seems to have, on inspection, something of an odd kick in its assumptions.

The panel is title "Mind the Plot Holes, Dear," and the panelists are charged with giving examples of plot hole problems from "any piece of SF/F," categorize them, and offer suggestions on how the story could be saved/rewritten so as to seal the perceived hole.

We've got an able crew, easily capable of talking entertainingly for an hour about anything at all, but I'd like to at least come within shouting distance of the topic, preferably without bloodshed or tears.

I've thrown the question of how best to play it out to the rest of the panelists. One feels that it really wouldn't be fair to ding Classic SF/F (i.e. Dead Authors) for, say, science "mistakes" when the author was playing with the rules as known at the time, and I have to agree that this would be Bad Form.

There might be a couple of worthy targets among Pulpdom -- thinking here in terms of major secondary characters abruptly going missing and never mentioned again; or of loving preparations made for our hero's journey to Cleveland so he can save the girl, only to find him in New York after the scene break, on the cause of saving the world, and he doesn't notice the difference -- but I'm not sufficiently well-read to locate them, nor do I think they'd have a lot of relevance to our audience.

Another panelist offers the suggestion that we come prepared with errors from our own works. At first glance, this seems the most reasonable way to go, but the more I look on it, the uneasier I get. Do we really want to tell a room full of people that they can't trust us to be careful craftspeople?

I feel like there's some Really Obvious way to discuss the material -- which is interesting and useful in a What are Plot Holes? How to Recognize and Repair Them sort of way -- without either self-immolation or humiliating a fellow writer.

Wish I could figure out what it is, though...

Comments

[mat-t.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm. Maybe plot holes that you found before it got to publication?

[adina-atl.livejournal.com]

What you really need is someone with vast experience in reading slush piles. Failing that, you might give the plot hole and the analysis without naming the book or author. Not sure how easy that would be, however.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Yeah...if I were in your shoes I wouldn't want the panel to turn into a big trash session on various books; defining plot holes and whether everyone agrees with the definition might be a good idea. The obvious ones you covered--science glitches, or continuity glitches--but there are the dicier ones that reviewers will scorn that could become a runaway chariot. Like those who will insist the economics of this book would never work, or the customs of that world are nothing but Japan without the Shinto, or naming the books that seem to end with deus ex machinas to the rescue.

If the audience is full of writers, it seems to me if the panelists come armed with some stories about their own first drafts that ran into plot problems, and how they worked around it, or you panelists posed some scenarios and asked how audience members might fix them, it might be a useful dialogue.

[djonn]

The really easy dodge would be to focus on TV/film genre material -- say, Enterprise and Spider-Man 2, both of which have been criticized by fandom for Egregious Plot-Hole Syndrome.

Hmmm....

You know, that might actually work, if adapted, thusly: see if the panelists can get hold of the relevant novelizations -- two or three of the aired Enterprise episodes have in fact been novelized. Then talk about how the plot holes in the material as shown onscreen have been addressed by the novelizers as they expand and fill out the screen stories for print.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Bearing in mind that living authors might be in the audience, I'd think genuine plot holes in classic works would be a good way to go.

For that matter, you could probably get a whole hour out of what's wrong with the plotting in Friday.

[herefox.livejournal.com]

My suggestion would be to take popular genre movies and point out plot holes in them as most people would probably be familar with the material and you wouldn't risk humiliating or offending any current authors. And you could even use humourous examples of fan explanations of plot holes to soften the blow.

[sraun]

Whatever you run with - be ready for the audience to pop up with illustrations you may not like.

For instance, my all time most memorable plot hole is from Dragonflight, the first Pern novel. Lessa jumps back about 400 years in one big jump, and then jumps forward with the assembled Weyrs in (I think) 25 year hops. Unfortunately, she seriously blew the math - they only jumped forward something over 200 years, nowhere near 400.

This leaped out and hit me when I first read the book back in high school. The last time I checked a new edition (about five years ago), it was still there. And she only needs to change one or two words to fix it. As it is, there's this two page chapter that I've always skipped on re-read.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Oh, sure. The audience is supposed to throw from left field. What would be the fun of being on a panel, elsewise?

For instance, my all time most memorable plot hole is from Dragonflight, the first Pern novel. Lessa jumps back about 400 years in one big jump, and then jumps forward with the assembled Weyrs in (I think) 25 year hops. Unfortunately, she seriously blew the math - they only jumped forward something over 200 years, nowhere near 400.

Now, see? To me, that's an arithmetic problem, not a plot hole. A plot hole would be something like: Lessa jumps back 400 years in one swell foop, but has to take a taxi -- or find and activate a macguffin -- in order to return.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Lots of good ideas here -- thanks, all!