How to Identify Plot Holes, Weak Characters, and Pacing Problems in Your Screenplay

A character arrives with information they never learned. A major decision makes sense only because you know the backstory. Three entertaining scenes leave the story in almost the same place.

These problems can survive several rounds of dialogue polishing because the cause sits beneath the sentences.

To find screenplay weaknesses, examine the draft in separate passes for story logic, character decisions, and scene progression. Record evidence before choosing a fix. Then check how that fix affects the rest of the script.

The method below gives you a practical way to do that without rewriting everything at once.

Begin with a scene map

Create a compact record of the screenplay.

For every scene, note its location, viewpoint or central character, immediate objective, obstacle, outcome, and new information.

Scene	Objective	Obstacle	Outcome	New information
12	Get the witness to talk	Witness fears exposure	Witness refuses but leaves a clue	Someone is watching the building
13	Reach the clue’s location	Access is controlled	Protagonist borrows a colleague’s credentials	The colleague can be implicated
14	Recover the evidence	Evidence has moved	Protagonist must bargain	A former ally has it

This map should describe what the screenplay currently communicates.

Keep intentions and possible improvements in a separate column. Otherwise, it becomes easy to summarize a better version of the story than the pages contain.

Pass one: Check the story’s logic

A useful working definition of a plot hole is a consequential gap or contradiction in the rules and information established by the story.

A character making a reckless choice may still behave plausibly. A mystery can withhold an answer. The question is whether the screenplay gives the audience enough consistent information to follow the events.

John August and Craig Mazin’s Scriptnotes discussion examines how perceived plot holes interact with audience acceptance and storytelling choices. It is a useful reminder to investigate what actually disrupts the film’s experience before adding explanations. Scriptnotes episode 384

Track who knows what

For each major reveal, list who knows the information, when they learn it, and how.

Suppose a detective confronts a suspect about a hidden bank account. Earlier scenes establish the account for the audience through a private conversation between two criminals.

The audience’s knowledge does not explain the detective’s knowledge.

Possible repairs include dramatizing an investigation, changing who conducts the confrontation, or replacing the accusation with a bluff.

Choose the solution that preserves tension and fits the character’s resources.

Check causes and enabling conditions

Look at each major development and ask what makes it possible.

How does the protagonist enter the building? Why does the witness agree to meet? What allows the antagonist to identify the informant?

An enabling condition can be brief. A meaningful glance, an earlier use of an access card, or an established relationship may be enough.

Avoid solving every question with dialogue. Establish information through action when that action also serves the scene.

Audit the rules of the world

Write down important constraints.

These might include a character’s injury, a supernatural limitation, surveillance coverage, access restrictions, or the time required to travel.

When the screenplay later changes a constraint, examine what justifies the change.

If a locked facility becomes easy to enter at the climax, the audience needs a credible basis for that access. Establishing a vulnerability earlier can also create anticipation about whether it will remain available.

Check timing and geography

Build a simple timeline for sequences that depend on simultaneity, travel, deadlines, or recovery.

Include the time each task takes and what the characters can realistically observe.

You do not need to dramatize every journey. You do need enough consistency for the audience to understand the pressure.

Pass two: Test the characters’ decisions

A weak character often has plenty of description and too few consequential choices.

Begin with the protagonist’s immediate objective. Then examine what they do when that objective becomes difficult.

Separate desire from action

“She wants freedom” describes a broad desire.

“She steals the passport before her father returns” gives that desire a dramatic form.

For each sequence, identify the action the character chooses and the consequence that follows.

If another character repeatedly makes the important decisions, ask whether the screenplay has placed its dramatic center with the wrong person.

Make hesitation consequential

A character can resist acting and still drive the story.

Consider a son who suspects his mother is hiding evidence. His hesitation becomes active if he secretly moves the evidence to protect her, causing someone else to be accused.

The story now has a consequence to explore.

If hesitation produces several scenes of the same discussion, look for a choice inside the avoidance.

Test the cost of the decision

For each major choice, ask what the character gives up.

Risk may involve status, money, safety, belonging, a relationship, or a belief about themselves.

A decision can feel weak when the screenplay presents an obvious solution with little meaningful cost.

Strengthen the competing pressures before making the character explain their feelings.

Follow supporting characters through their own interests

Supporting characters become thin when they appear only to supply information or assistance.

Give each important supporting character a reason to participate and something they want from the interaction.

A friend who lends a car may want reconciliation. A witness may want protection for a sibling. An official may cooperate while trying to conceal a previous mistake.

Those interests create friction and consequences.

Pass three: Diagnose pacing at the scene and sequence level

Pacing concerns how the audience experiences progression, anticipation, tension, and release.

A quiet scene can change the story profoundly. An action scene can repeat a development the audience already understands.

Look for repeated outcomes

Compare neighboring scenes.

If each scene confirms that the antagonist is dangerous, ask whether the later scenes reveal a new method, increase the cost, or force a different response.

When the answer is unclear, consider combining the scenes or changing the outcome.

Identify information delivered too late

A sequence may feel slow because the audience does not understand what matters.

Perhaps a character searches an apartment for several pages, but the screenplay reveals the deadline only after the search ends.

Moving a small amount of information earlier could create pressure without shortening the sequence.

Allow consequences to register

A screenplay can also move too quickly.

If a death, betrayal, or revelation immediately gives way to a new objective, the audience may have little opportunity to understand its effect on the characters.

A reaction can be brief and visual. The important question is whether the event changes behavior.

Test whether the scene belongs

John August’s scene-writing guide recommends examining what needs to happen in a scene and what would change if it were omitted. Use that test to identify necessary story work before deciding how much space the scene deserves. How to Write a Scene

Use Professional Script Coverage to organize another perspective

A thorough manual audit takes concentration. You are tracing information, judging decisions, checking repeated outcomes, and trying to recognize material you have become accustomed to reading.

Narratora’s Professional Script Coverage workflow generates a structured first-pass evaluation with story and character assessments, strengths and weaknesses, a scorecard, and revision priorities.

Use those observations to direct your investigation. Verify scene details and decide whether the recommendations serve the film you intend to make. Professional Script Coverage

1. Upload the screenplay and identify its draft.

2. Select Professional Script Coverage.

3. Generate the report.

4. Compare major observations with your scene map.

5. Investigate discrepancies before choosing a revision.

6. Use or export the report alongside your working notes.

See how screenplay observations become development recommendations in a downloadable example. Explore Narratora’s Samples Library

One problem can create all three symptoms

Imagine a thriller in which a journalist suddenly enters a secure archive.

The scene may contain three connected weaknesses.

Symptom	Underlying question
Access feels implausible	What established resource makes entry possible?
The protagonist seems passive	Whose decision creates the opportunity?
The sequence feels flat	What makes using that opportunity difficult or costly?

You could solve them together.

Earlier, establish that the journalist still has a former colleague’s access credentials. Entering the archive now requires a choice that endangers that colleague. Inside, the journalist discovers that using the credentials alerts security.

The revised sequence has setup, agency, and escalating pressure.

This is a hypothetical example. It illustrates how a single causal repair can affect several areas of the script.

Turn the diagnosis into three rewrite goals

Write down the most consequential changes you intend to accomplish.

For example, establish the witness’s reason for cooperating, make the protagonist responsible for the midpoint reversal, and allow the betrayal to affect the final relationship.

Find every scene each goal touches.

John August’s rewrite guidance recommends working from goals and locating the scenes that need to change. This helps prevent a revision from becoming an unfocused pass through the same pages. How to Rewrite

After changing those scenes, reread the surrounding sequences. A repair may alter who knows a fact, when a clue becomes available, or why another character acts.

Frequently asked questions

Is every unanswered question a plot hole?

An unanswered question becomes a problem when the missing information undermines a necessary causal connection or contradicts established facts. Deliberate uncertainty can serve the intended experience.

How do I know whether a character is passive?

Track who makes the choices that change the situation. Also examine whether the character’s avoidance or resistance produces meaningful consequences.

Should I shorten every slow scene?

First identify why it feels slow. The issue may be repetition, unclear stakes, or a delayed objective. A clearer sequence can sometimes work at the same length.

Can AI find every screenplay problem?

Review any report as a set of observations to test. Verify details, seek appropriate human feedback, and retain responsibility for the writing decisions.

Find your next revision priorities

Try Narratora’s Professional Script Coverage with your own screenplay and use the report to organize a focused story review.

The $5 five-day trial includes 40 credits and two premium outputs of your choice. It converts to a paid plan on day six unless canceled beforehand, with Max at $69 per month as the default. Start your five-day trial

Sources

• Scriptnotes episode 384 — Plot Holes

• John August — How to Write a Scene

• John August — How to Rewrite

• Narratora Professional Script Coverage

• Narratora Samples Library

• Narratora trial terms