I finally found a plot hole fix that saved my whole story

Spent 3 weeks stuck on a time travel paradox in my sci-fi novel. The character went back and changed something that should have erased their own birth. I tried deleting scenes, rewriting timelines, nothing worked. Then I remembered a post about splitting the timeline into branches instead of one straight line. That fix took me 10 minutes once I knew what to look for. Has anyone else had a plot hole stall them out for days?

3 comments

3 Comments

matthew_owens91mo ago

My buddy had the same problem with his fantasy novel, spent two months stuck before he realized the villain was just lying about the prophecy the whole time. Sometimes the simplest fix is right there staring at you.

caseyw121mo ago

Nah @matthew_owens9, I kinda see it the other way. A villain lying about a prophecy can feel like a cheat if it's not set up right, almost like the writer just hit a wall and took the easy way out.

the_zara1mo ago

Hit a wall, huh? Or just wrote yourself into a corner.