- Use diagnostic prompting (find the problems), not rewrite prompting (fix them for me).
- AI is good at flagging contradictions, dropped threads, and timeline conflicts.
- Ask for a list of issues with locations, not a revised manuscript.
- Every flag is a candidate to verify, not an automatic fix.
- You keep authorship of every solution; AI only points at the gaps.
Use diagnostic prompting rather than rewrite prompting. Feed AI your manuscript or synopsis and ask it to list specific problems — contradictions, setups that never pay off, character knowledge that appears too early, timeline conflicts — with the location of each. Then you decide which are real and how to fix them. Asking AI to rewrite the story hands it authorship; asking it to diagnose keeps the work yours while using its tirelessness at cross-checking detail.
Chapter i·Why it matters
Plot holes are the errors authors are worst at catching in their own work because they know what they meant to write. AI does not share your assumptions, so it catches the gap between intent and page. But if you let it fix the holes, it papers them over with generic solutions that may break other threads. Diagnosis preserves the value — fresh eyes on continuity — without surrendering the creative decisions that make the repair fit your story.
Chapter ii·What to include
- A diagnostic prompt asking for a numbered list of issues with locations.
- Specific categories: contradictions, unresolved setups, timeline conflicts, motivation gaps.
- A request for evidence — the text that triggered each flag.
- A triage step where you confirm which flags are genuine.
- Your own fix for each real hole, not an AI rewrite.
- A re-check after revising to confirm the fix did not create a new gap.
Chapter iii·Example
A thriller writer pastes her synopsis and asks AI to list every place a character acts on information they should not yet have. It returns six flags. Four are real — including a detective who references a clue from a scene that happens later. She fixes the order herself. The two false flags she dismisses. AI found in minutes what three read-throughs had missed.
Chapter iv·Related questions
WriteLoom’s Edit studio runs diagnostic passes that flag contradictions and dropped threads with their locations — and leaves every fix to you.
Diagnose in Edit