Are you a Swiss cheese storyteller?

Swiss cheese is delicious and has featured in many hilarious cartoon sketches involving clever mice and mouse traps. How do I know it was Swiss cheese in those cartoons? Simple, all the holes. Unfortunately, many speakers are Swiss cheese storytellers. That is, they produce Swiss cheese stories and speeches—not because they are rich or delicious or attract mice—but because they are just so full of holes — plot holes.

In this article, we’ll find and fill those holes so your story does it’s job and you rock the stage!

Let us begin.

Storyteller = Argument-maker

A story is usually used to make a point—often a point that is intended to persuade. You see, stories have a magical persuasiveness because they present a fluent form of logic that makes change easier to accept for the listener.

In this sense, your story really is a subtle form of argument. Not the kind that involves yelling and fisticuffs (hopefully), but the kind that leads your audience through logic and emotional engagement to a conclusion or action.

Because of this argument element, as a storyteller, the story you share needs to have strong internal consistency. And few things weaken this in a story more than plot holes.

Story Plot holes are persuasion pot holes

A plot hole, in storyteller speak, is a logical inconsistency or an event in the story that contradicts another event.

Plot holes in your stories, especially obvious ones, make for a bumpy ride for your audience and even when they happen unintentionally, they affect your credibility because you might be seen as (gulp) lying.

Like when your toddler who is just learning to lie tells you his story about how he could not possibly have eaten the cookies you accuse him of.

Why? Well, because he was upstairs watching TV all morning. Just one problem—you don’t have a TV upstairs. In fact, you live in a bungalow.

Source: https://pixabay.com/photos/boy-facepalm-child-youth-666803/

A plot hole, in storyteller speak, is a logical inconsistency or an event in the story that contradicts another event.

But plot holes do not show up only with inept toddlers, they rear their heads even in multi-million-dollar movie productions. In fact, there are sites dedicated to exposing (and hilariously mocking) plot holes on a blockbuster-scale.

Some of the gaps these site-contributors uncover are forgivable. And others just leave you wondering how the producers managed to miss them. Check them out if you ever get a chance. Be careful though—after all, you might not want to ruin your favourite movie with all this logic and common sense.

All this to say that plot holes are especially furtive, and even trained teams of professional storytellers can miss them.

That said though, we verbal storytellers do not have the big-budget production pyrotechnics of Hollywood that can distract from storytelling gaps. For us, it is really important that we get it right.

So, let us look at some reasons plot holes might arise in your story and how to catch them.

Not providing enough set-up in your story

Have you heard the saying that goes, when you assume (ass-u-me), you make an ass of you and me? I really like that quote—it just works! Only one problem though—when a speaker/storyteller makes assumptions, they make an ass of only one party. I assume you can easily guess which one 😊

Whether you are telling a personal story or re-telling a popular story, always approach the story as if the audience was hearing it for the first time and be sure to supply the essential information they need to relate to the story.

Whether you are telling a personal story or re-telling a popular story, always approach the story as if the audience was hearing it for the first time

Of course, you don’t have to supply every minute detail. But the essential information is, well, essential.

For example, say you are telling a story about a math protegee. In this story, the character’s age will greatly impact the impact of your story. There is a big difference between mastering calculus at 6 and mastering it at 16. In this example, the child’s age would be essential. This is a form of character introduction that may play into your scene setting.

I have a few articles that talk about some techniques touched on in this section. To read more about scene setting for storytelling success, read this article. And for more on character development in your stories, read this one.

Now on to the point!

The point?

To avoid plot holes (and their consequences), look objectively at your story and determine what information is essential for the audience to know for them to enjoy and engage with the story—then be sure to include it.

On that note, having added it in, be sure it stays. How on earth could it not? Well, that is exactly what we discuss next.

Commence Editing

I once worked with a client who was preparing to give a commencement speech at a prestigious university. We decided on a story that we agreed would communicate an important life lesson.

So, we got to work on it. To keep the story tight and within time, we had edited out a lot of fluff that tends to make its way into a story when you first tell it from memory. By the time we were done, the story looked very good. It had all the elements we needed—a plot, some humour, interesting characters, a relatable setting and that rare oddness that all real things have.

But as we sounded it out , even though we knew we had a good story, we found a hole…

You see, this client is a politician and, in the story, she had done something that seemed like a bit of a rookie mistake for someone of her experience. Well, that was because she had been a rookie when she did it—a detail we had edited out in an earlier iteration because, at the time, we hadn’t wanted the story to go in that direction and that detail would have been a distraction.

So, we put the detail back in, smoothed out the edges, and on game-day, she donned her robe, nailed the delivery, and got a standing ovation.

Ruthless, but thoughtful

Sometimes, while editing your story to ensure it is tight, lean and effective - something I strongly recommend – it is a common mistake to cut out a bit of information that is important for another part of your story to make sense.

For example, in your story about climbing Everest – a veritable motivational speaking trope – you mention how your only satellite phone fell out of your backpack and tumbled down the side of the mountain. A few hours later, you are making a distress call from, you guessed it, a satellite phone. Now the audience is suspiciously stroking their real or imaginary beards.

If only you had mentioned that your buddy had a sat phone of her own. Or simply said, you placed a distress from “Sandy’s sat phone” instead of from “the” sat phone, this hole would have filled.

The point?

Edit ruthlessly but thoughtfully. And after editing, give some time in between and revisit the story assuming you were hearing it for the first time. Does anything seem odd? If it does, you might be staring at a plot hole.

Holes, dots and lines

The first reason for plot holes here comes from not preparing enough at the start. The second comes from not preparing all the way to the end. Overall, plot holes are easier to uncover by looking at your story through the lens of the audience. Your audience members are likely smart enough to draw the connecting lines—but you still have to provide the dots.

Until the next article, speak with skill!