Sent to our free AI. Guests get a limited free tier. Log in to save drafts.
Save this result: a free account brings you back to it later.
About this tool
Writers search for a plot hole checker, a continuity checker, and a way to see if Chekhov’s gun ever fires. Those are different jobs. Eye color, a misspelled name, and a broken weekday are continuity. A dropped thread is a promise the draft made and then skipped: the gun on the wall, the Friday deadline, the person who was supposed to come back. This ledger quotes the sentence that opened the promise and, when the paste has one, the sentence that closed it. Status is paid off, dropped, or unclear. “Dropped” is only used when the paste keeps going and the promised action never happens. A fact that is still true is not a hole. If your paste ends before a payoff was possible, the thread stays unclear.
What you can do
- Each thread starts from a sentence in your paste, not a general “the plot is thin” note
- Paid off only when a later quotation in the paste resolves it
- Dropped only when the draft keeps going and the promise never comes back
- Unclear when the quote is missing, the payoff is missing, or the paste ends too soon
- Quotes that are not in the text are flagged and cannot be marked paid off
- Separate from Story X-ray, which tracks cast, tense, and phrasing without this promise ledger
Continuity checks across long manuscripts
Series bibles, name-variant lists, and POV slip detectors address the main failure mode of AI long-form writing: drift. Names change spelling, timelines compress, and point of view wobbles. Log facts as you write and re-scan after every major revision pass.
How to use it
- Paste a long stretch: the chapter that makes the promise and the chapters that should have kept it. Headings help.
- Generate. Read the quote first. If you do not remember writing it, the tag is wrong.
- For anything marked dropped, search your full draft before you rewrite. The payoff may be in a chapter this paste did not include.
- For anything marked unclear, either add the payoff or cut the promise.
- Re-run after you revise. A fixed thread should move to paid off, or disappear.
Tips for fiction authors
- A thread the paste never had time to close is not a plot hole. It is a book that is not finished. The unclear label is for that.
- Do not paste one chapter and expect dropped threads. There is no “later” yet.
- The tool does not flag grammar, repeated words, or point of view. Those have their own tools.
- A payoff quote that does not appear in the paste cannot count as paid off. That stops a model from inventing a resolution.
- Very long manuscripts are cut at the tool’s limit. A payoff after the cut would look dropped. The result tells you when that happened. Paste the ending in a second run.
Related guides
Common questions
What counts as a dropped thread?
A specific promise in the text — Chekhov’s gun, a deadline, a person who must return, a secret someone was about to tell — that the later pages never act on. A fact that remains true, such as an object that is still hidden, is not dropped. Mood and “this scene feels slow” are not threads. If the paste ends before a payoff was possible, the status stays unclear.
Is this a continuity checker for eye color and timelines?
No. Continuity errors are a different list: eye color, name spelling, weekdays that do not add up. Use the name-variant detector, the day extractor, and Story X-ray for that census. This page is the promise ledger — what the draft said would happen, and whether a later sentence did it.
How is this different from a plot summary or chapter recap?
A recap records what happened. This list records what was set up and whether it was answered. A clean recap can still hide a dropped subplot, because the subplot never became an event to summarize.
How is this different from Story X-ray?
Story X-ray runs in the browser and reports cast, point of view, tense, contradictions in phrasing, and story health. It does not pair an early sentence with a later payoff. Use X-ray for the census. Use this when you want the promise ledger.
Will it invent a plot hole that is not in the book?
It can misread a sentence. That is why every item has a quote, and why a quote that is not in your paste is forced to “unclear” instead of “dropped” or “paid off.” If the quote is real and the label is wrong, ignore the label.
Can I check a whole novel at once?
Paste as much as the box allows. Beyond that limit the end of the file is not read, and the result says so. For a long book, run the first half and the second half separately, and do not treat a first-half “drop” as final until you have checked the second half.
Does this fix the plot hole for me?
No. It shows the sentence that opened the thread and the status. You decide whether to pay it off or cut the setup. Rewriting the chapter is a different job.
What about continuity errors like eye color?
Those are contradictions, not dropped threads. Story X-ray and the name and day tools are closer to that job. This finder is for promises the plot made.
Is the plot hole finder free?
Yes. It uses Entangled Text’s included AI, with a free-use limit per device. You do not need your own API key.
Comments (0)
Share a tip, question, or experience — keep it useful for other writers.
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.