How do I get from point A to point B?

[Squeakybat]

I see a lot of stories and ideas from the creative community here and I was wondering how you guys handled gaps in your stories where you can't quite work out how the plot or characters are gonna get from point A in the comic to point B. It always bothered me when I'm reading a story and the characters just...."magic plot hole" their way to the next part. I just breaks the immersion and leaves me a little confused.

[nathankschulz]

If I really know my characters, then they usually tell me. Yes, that is hair's breadth from hearing voices, but tis the life of a writer.
I actually once had a hell of a time figuring out how to get to the last part of a story and had like a ten page gap that was killing me! ...till I wrote the scene BACKWARDS. I'm not gonna say that's always going to work, but it saved me. Sometimes find a point that you want to end up at, and then reverse engineer a way to get there.

[SethJH]

I'm having a similar issue. I've established point A and B, and what happens between is very important to the progression of the story and especially for the development of the characters. However, I'm very concerned because the events that happen from A to B aren't necessarily huge world-changing events, and I'm afraid of it dragging on and seeming boring to an audience. I'm still not quite sure how I want to handle it yet.

[mariusthered]

try thinking about it as stepping stones and work backwards

start and the guy thrown in jail and work back to the "hey guys it would be cool if we robbed the first national bank" the steps in between are easy. then write in a second plot from the point of the cops and intersect them. now you have your plot line you can work it the correct direction for the dialogue.

[joannekwan]

@nathankschulz Yeah! It's like solving a maze, sometimes it's easier for me to start from the end. xD

As for how characters get from point A to B, it can vary depending on their situation. Are they getting out of trouble? Make sure you have rules set for your world, we don't need a deus ex machina. Don't write yourself into a corner. Are the characters just starting on an adventure? What sparks it and what do they think about it? Also don't be afraid to take your time introducing a new situation or character that will lead the others into something. Because if you don't it will feel abrupt.

[mariusthered]

this is why i always write more than one plot at a time and intersect them, taking the focus off one and on the other and switching back creates interesting situations and when it all come together in the same scene its wonderful

[SethJH]

this is why i always write more than one plot at a time and intersect them

I've definitely got some "flashback" and "backstory" scenes planned to fill in this A-B transition, but I don't want them to feel "trope-y" and definitely don't want them to substitute for a lack of engaging story 'in the moment'. My plan might be to use them to trigger character decisions in the present time of the story.

[AnnaLandin]

I have a basic outline for the entire plot of my comic, so I always know in what direction I'm headed, which helps a lot. I also work on the scripts/thumbnails for entire chapters at the time, which means I get to figure out the plot in bigger chunks.

Knowing where I'm at currently, and knowing where I'm going, means that if I get stuck I can always work my way backwards from the end-point of a chapter in case working forwards doesn't work out. However, I rarely get stuck, because I keep my eyes on the end-point at all times, which means I can avoid the pitfalls of writing myself into a corner.

Say I need a bunch of characters investigating a crime to figure out which direction to go from where they are. I can give them that direction by a.) letting them find a clue at a crime-scene that points them in the right direction. b.) talking to a suspect or an eyewitness who says something that gives them a lead. c.) establish in which direction the criminal they're looking for didn't go, limiting the number of possible options for forward motion.

It's also possible to simply move a character from point A to point B, and open with a scene at point B in which they mention something about how they got there - though that one's best for minor plot-points, like maybe travelling to a new town, and not for the major ones. Skipping from "We have to fight the Dark Lord!" to the cast standing in the Dark Lord's throne room without anything inbetween is going to be weird.

[jacintawibowo]

I think avoiding the "magic plot hole" is through planning your story out in advance so you don't have to make up a reason for them to get to point B. Others have mentioned working backwards, I like having an outline to work from. Then plot out the events that happen, up until the climax and resolve the conflict.

[shazzbaa]

Some are saying "I have my story planned in advance" but I feel like this is an issue that can come up during that planning process? Like, this can be a question you're asking while trying to put together your outline, too!

Something I look at a lot is a sort of cause and effect? Like, in addition to "how do I get from A to B" I also think about how A might cause B. Things in A have to push the story towards B so that B doesn't feel like "Well, I checked the script and it said this is the next place we need to be, so let's wander over there."
And like, the story can conspire for them to go over to, I dunno, The Enchanted Forest and just, have the king order them to go over there or whatever, but it's really cool if, instead, the things they learn or do in the previous scene make heading for the Enchanted Forest look like their best or only option, like getting to the next scene is a consequence of choices they made.

However, I'm very concerned because the events that happen from A to B aren't necessarily huge world-changing events, and I'm afraid of it dragging on and seeming boring to an audience.

I don't think it's the global impact of an event that makes it interesting! A war can be boring if we have no connection; a conversation between two characters can be a BIG DEAL if there's a lot going on emotionally that we can see and understand. I barely cared about Alexander Hamilton's life-ending duel in history class, but I got a billion emotions from a song about him writing treatises in the Hamilton musical. It's not the content of what's happening -- it's how you connect with it.

Something I've started trying to pay attention to in my writing is, in scenes that are important but low-key, to see if those scenes can reveal something about the characters -- even if that's just the way they interact with each other. Your chars can be walking through a mildly inconvenient forest or just shopping for tampons and yet we'll be totally invested if we're watching a friendship grow between two people we like and care about -- or heartbroken if we're watching a friendship fall apart.
It's just important for us to have enough information to be able to see and understand that development!

[KSlinger]

Devising all the details leading from one thing to another is kind of hard to explain. I just tried to write a breakdown of how I do it using some random plot pulled from the air but it's way too hard to answer your question using one specific example.

Generally, I agree with @nathankschulz.

If I really know my characters, then they usually tell me.

It takes knowing what your characters can and can't do, what their world contains, and what is not possible to get yourself out of muddles like this, and personally I'm a fan of keeping things really, really straight forward.

You ever see those scenes in films where a main character looks at a nice car or something on their way into a building and later nicks it in a blaze of glory, queue the end of the scene? In my book that'll do fine. All it takes is a passing look of appreciation and you've got yourself an out for later. It's the acknowledgement of minor details that make them usable in future. You can drawn as much or as little attention to them as you like, so long as readers are aware of their presence.

I reckon if you're a lateral thinker this kind of thing will come quite easily to you, but most of it is down to awareness. It can be hard to think outside the box when you don't what you have to work with, so try to have a vivid picture of your world in your mind- it'll help you think your way out of these problems.

[Kayke]

For me it really helps to talk it out. Yesterday I was having an issue with my writing where I needed a character to be at a certain location but couldn't figure out WHY she would be there. So I just started talking about it to my boyfriend. He didn't even need to say anything and before long I had a good reason for the character to be where she needed to be!

I don't know why, but my ideas seem to flow better when I'm bouncing them off of another person. I think it's because it gets me out of any loops going in my head and forces me to explain my reasoning for things.

[KSlinger]

Is your boyfriend a rubber duck?

[Kayke]

Hahah well, basically
But nah, he is a really good writer and gives input on stuff when he needs to.

[Doubtcent]

I believe there's two kinds of writing: no plan and planned.

For most of my works, at least the more creative ones, I usually have no idea what's going to happen next. And with that freedom I can allow my characters to breathe and be, well, characters. That's why whenever I do outlines because I often feel like I'm constricted and I really never get anywhere since I'm so concerned with where I need to go rather than allow the characters get there in their own way. The most I plan is the concept, how the characters interact, and a foggy idea of what the ending should be like. But otherwise I just go for it.

And if I let myself go, I'll write. A lot. And my worries of what will happen next are not usually a problem. However, there's a downside to this sort of storytelling. If you hit a wall and you have no idea where it can go, you're REALLY stuck.

But then there's the planned route of story. You make an outline, you know what the characters are like, and you have most of the details written down. Now you just got to get started. Because you have an outline, it's like a map. You have a destination. An idea of where you need to go. In this manner, you can get to the end of the story and move on to something else.

But once again, there's a problem with this too. There are stories that I've read or even written that followed an exact outline, and in the midst of reading, I felt that the writing was a bit too calculated, almost robotic. The writer (including myself) had a constraint to their words and their worlds. This seems to happen a lot in movies as well.

So, I say there should be a happy medium between the two. Have a plan of action (an outline), but don't be afraid to change that plan of action if the characters or situation are out of character or situation. That way you can avoid those "deus ex machina" moments that everyone gets stuck on. And, you have both freedom and a more defined goal.

[SethJH]

While stepping back and letting the characters tell the story is great for character development, in agreement with @vincentprendick, you as the writer need to impose some framework for the story and keep the characters on track. In my particular case, I'm worried that if I let the characters go off together and grow their relationship leading up to scene B, it'll spiral into pages upon pages of unimportant drivel (not to mention I feel like my story is already progressing slowly and people aren't interested because of that). This is the case where I'd have to really sit down and figure it out.

also, me writing this post works like the Rubber Ducky technique lol.

[R.n.P]

Juz wing any plot holes I come across and save for surprising any of my readers then find a way to connect it to very important events that'll happen in the future.
But so far in my comic THE LAST SAMURAI http://tapastic.com/series/THE-LAST-SAMURAI http://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/the-last-samurai/list?title_no=15779 I haven't reached most of my plot holes so der aren't much mysteries yet only my character background stories