The Fish in the Glove Compartment

[secretme]

New Game!

Obvious and not so obvious plot holes...

Okay, so I had a writing class once. The prof was a pulp mystery writer and he told the class this story. He once received a fan letter in which the fan wanted to know whatever happened to "the fish in the glove compartment". He had written a novel in which the detective helped out a local fish monger and in return was paid with a fish wrapped in newspaper. When the detective was driving home he received a phone call and never made it home that night. He put the fish in the glove compartment of his car when he went to deal with whatever the phone call was about. Then he (the author) forgot it was there and never bothered to write it out of the glove compartment. This one fan noticed and wanted to know what happened with it, for whatever reason.

We all do it. Famous authors do it. In Robinson Crusoe he strips naked and swims out to the pirate ship, where he then proceeds to stuff his pockets full of gold before swimming back.

So, here's the game. Name any instance, in your own published work or in famous stuff out there, where someone "left a fish in the glove compartment"...


And go!

 

[Guest]

I'm too drunk.

But I'll do it tomorrow.

 

[secretme]

I'm too drunk.

But I'll do it tomorrow.

We all know how much you like your rum.

 

[TE999]

I'm befogged with drowsiness, but I'll give this a shot tomorow.

Interesting topic.

 

[3113]

In Robinson Crusoe he strips naked and swims out to the pirate ship, where he then proceeds to stuff his pockets full of gold before swimming back.

See, everyone on this forum would just assume that Crusoe meant that he filled some, well, deeper pocket of his anatomy with the gold, hence, no mistake at all

 

[Gizzmotick]

See, everyone on this forum would just assume that Crusoe meant that he filled some, well, deeper pocket of his anatomy with the gold, hence, no mistake at all

Owwwwww

I think that when I read the book, I assumed that he had taken clothes from somewhere in the ship....

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Owwwwww

I think that when I read the book, I assumed that he had taken clothes from somewhere in the ship....

Since I was only a kid when I read it, I didn't even notice the error. I'm not sure I would now . . .

 

[Weird Harold]

Owwwwww

I think that when I read the book, I assumed that he had taken clothes from somewhere in the ship....

That's the problem for me, I can't think of any details like a fish in th golve box that I accidently left out of any of my stories or that stand out as glaring errors in mainstream literature. I generally assume that, like the individual steps of making a cup of tea the fate of the fish in the glove compartment wasn't germaine to the story.

The late Robert Jordan always told fans of his Wheel of Time series that there were several plotlines and details that would NOT be resolved at the end of the series because in real-life, there often is no resolution to "plotlines" -- the simply end without resolution.

Jordan's death before the series was finished kind of proves his point. (Luckily, he changed his wish that any manuscripts and notes be destroyed if he died before finisishing the series and TOR books and Jordan's widow have found an author to finish the last book of the series.)

 

[Boxlicker101]

A while ago, I wrote a story in which the man gets a condom out of his desk drawer and sets it on the sofa where the fucking will take place. At the end of the story, I describe him removing the condom, but I never said anything about putting it on. One of my readers pointed this out to me. I don't know if you would call that a loose end or not, because it had never been attached in the first part.

I'm always careful to avoid gaps such as that. That's one of the things I look for when I edit. I want to make sure that the man does not remove the woman's panties twice but, also, that he does not forget and leave them on her.

 

[oggbashan]

Turn again Whittington

One of my internet friends had a habit of making the main character turn to speak.

"He turned to her and said..."

The poor man was turning like a top. Almost every time he spoke he turned first, even if the reader could assume that he was still facing her from his last turn.

In one of his books, John Buchan described how he had plotted a novel "The Three Hostages". He took three apparently unconnected scenes such as a blind woman at a spinning wheel and wrote the plot to link those three scenes together.

Dennis Wheatley and Edgar Wallace seem to have used the same idea but with more scenes, some of which never went anywhere except to confuse the reader.

One of my stories, Hard and Soft, when first posted, changed the names of the principal characters several times. That wasn't deliberate. Sometimes I start writing with vanilla names such as John and Jane and change the names once the characters start to develop. When I was halfway through the first draft I decided their names should be different and changed them.

I used Word's Search and Replace feature to replace the old names. But that time I started Search and Replace part way through the draft and only changed half the occurences of each name. Then I changed the names again from the second choices to a third set. Search and Replace changed the second choices in the earlier part of the story to the third names but not the remaining first choices. So the hero and heroine had three names and few clues that I wasn't writing about six people instead of two. Several AH members pointed out my errors by feedback and PCs. I was able to edit the names so that they are consistent.

BUT then I did it again on another story...

Og

 

[Liar]

We all do it. Famous authors do it. In Robinson Crusoe he strips naked and swims out to the pirate ship, where he then proceeds to stuff his pockets full of gold before swimming back.

See, everyone on this forum would just assume that Crusoe meant that he filled some, well, deeper pocket of his anatomy with the gold, hence, no mistake at all

Indeed. We're sophisticated fellas here, well aquainted with the concept of euphemism.

 

[starrkers]

I recently read Hannibal Rising, by Thomas Harris. It it is essentially the backstory of the Hannibal Lecter character from Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs. It tells of his life from the age of about six until young adulthood, with much emphasis on the war years.

Not so much a plot hole as an omission - in the later books there is quite a deal made of Hannibal polycadty (sp) - he has a six fingers, the extra being a replica of his middle finger, on one hand.

In Hannibal Rising it is never mentioned at all. Yet, you'd think, it would be some cause for conjecture as a child, at least with other children.

 

[Salvor-Hardon]

I wrote this one play called "Hamlet" where this guy has issues, cause his uncle killed his father and married his mother to take over the kingdom, and the ghost of the father is feeding him information, and his two friends Rosencrantz and Gildenstern take him to England, and his girlfriend goes nuts when he kills her father, and there's this bitchin sword fight at the end but I never said where the swords came from. I mean c'mon its not like swords were just hanging on the walls in 15th century Denmark.

 

[secretme]

See, everyone on this forum would just assume that Crusoe meant that he filled some, well, deeper pocket of his anatomy with the gold, hence, no mistake at all

Ouch... The pictures that brings to mind are disturbing.

That's the problem for me, I can't think of any details like a fish in th golve box that I accidently left out of any of my stories or that stand out as glaring errors in mainstream literature. I generally assume that, like the individual steps of making a cup of tea the fate of the fish in the glove compartment wasn't germaine to the story.

The late Robert Jordan always told fans of his Wheel of Time series that there were several plotlines and details that would NOT be resolved at the end of the series because in real-life, there often is no resolution to "plotlines" -- the simply end without resolution.

Jordan's death before the series was finished kind of proves his point. (Luckily, he changed his wish that any manuscripts and notes be destroyed if he died before finisishing the series and TOR books and Jordan's widow have found an author to finish the last book of the series.)

I never got into Jordan. The minutiae drove me nuts...

One of my internet friends had a habit of making the main character turn to speak.

"He turned to her and said..."

The poor man was turning like a top. Almost every time he spoke he turned first, even if the reader could assume that he was still facing her from his last turn.

In one of his books, John Buchan described how he had plotted a novel "The Three Hostages". He took three apparently unconnected scenes such as a blind woman at a spinning wheel and wrote the plot to link those three scenes together.

Dennis Wheatley and Edgar Wallace seem to have used the same idea but with more scenes, some of which never went anywhere except to confuse the reader.

One of my stories, Hard and Soft, when first posted, changed the names of the principal characters several times. That wasn't deliberate. Sometimes I start writing with vanilla names such as John and Jane and change the names once the characters start to develop. When I was halfway through the first draft I decided their names should be different and changed them.

I used Word's Search and Replace feature to replace the old names. But that time I started Search and Replace part way through the draft and only changed half the occurences of each name. Then I changed the names again from the second choices to a third set. Search and Replace changed the second choices in the earlier part of the story to the third names but not the remaining first choices. So the hero and heroine had three names and few clues that I wasn't writing about six people instead of two. Several AH members pointed out my errors by feedback and PCs. I was able to edit the names so that they are consistent.

BUT then I did it again on another story...

Og

LOL I had a bad experience with search and replace recently. I didn't check the find whole word box and ended up with it replacing the middle of a bunch of words. I didn't find the error until an edit much later. Drove me crazy having to go back and fix it. I've been leery of mass search and replace ever since.

I recently read Hannibal Rising, by Thomas Harris. It it is essentially the backstory of the Hannibal Lecter character from Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs. It tells of his life from the age of about six until young adulthood, with much emphasis on the war years.

Not so much a plot hole as an omission - in the later books there is quite a deal made of Hannibal polycadty (sp) - he has a six fingers, the extra being a replica of his middle finger, on one hand.

In Hannibal Rising it is never mentioned at all. Yet, you'd think, it would be some cause for conjecture as a child, at least with other children.

I have to admit that I never read or saw Silence of the Lambs. Just the previews gave me the heeby jeebies.

I wrote this one play called "Hamlet" where this guy has issues, cause his uncle killed his father and married his mother to take over the kingdom, and the ghost of the father is feeding him information, and his two friends Rosencrantz and Gildenstern take him to England, and his girlfriend goes nuts when he kills her father, and there's this bitchin sword fight at the end but I never said where the swords came from. I mean c'mon its not like swords were just hanging on the walls in 15th century Denmark.

LOL... uh... yeah...

 

[rengadeirishman]

hamlet, its hard to believe that whiny bitch came from viking stock.

 

[Guest]

hamlet, its hard to believe that whiny bitch came from viking stock.

No wonder Gilligan's Island made a musical out of it.

 

[Boxlicker101]

Quote:
Originally Posted by rengadeirishman
hamlet, its hard to believe that whiny bitch came from viking stock.

No wonder Gilligan's Island made a musical out of it.

I didn't see it on Gilligan's Island. I did see a musical of Hamlet on "The Carol Burnett Show".

 

[oggbashan]

Shakespeare had a clock strike in Julius Caesar.

The Romans were advanced for their time but they didn't have striking clocks.

Og

 

[glynndah]

A friend of mine caught a snapping turtle and stashed it in the trunk of his brother's car. Weeks later...