Finding plot holes is such a mess. A main character in Life’s rules has a birthday including family party. Except it never happened. Oops.
This is where a good plot outline would help, I suppose. Or maybe not. Sarah’s birthday wasn’t really part of the plot originally.
Finding Plot Holes
I write from a list of bullet points. These are a rough idea of what the plot looks like, but doesn’t really add any details.
None of these points is definite. Some get ignored. Others get added as the plot takes shape in the rough draft.
In Life’s Rules, there are several subplots. Some of these are being eliminated. Others are being expanded on. Keeping track of them is complicated especially as spring brings so many other activities fragmenting my writing time.
My method to keep track of them and find problems is to make an outline as I rewrite the rough draft. It’s not a formal outline, just a list of day events as the novel unfolds in days.
Another Outline
There are many characters in Life’s Rules. Some are families. Parents, spouses, children, grandchildren all need names and an outline of relationships.
Each also needs a few details about each character. The ages, grades and interests of the grandchildren are important.
I didn’t do this outline once. One of the characters changed names over the course of the novel. Catching this mistake luckily happened before the final draft.

After Finding Plot Holes
Once a plot hole is spotted, the rewrite begins. Since this particular hole is a major problem, the rewrite is like writing a new rough draft at this point until the other events can be placed on new days.
The frustrating part of this is how I keep rambling on with text full of goings on. Each has a bearing on the main plot, but one goal of this rewrite was to cut the word count, not add to it.
So, I now get to do another rewrite after finishing this one to try again to shorten this massive story.