Chekhov’s gun is a dramatic principle suggesting that every element you add to a story must contribute to the whole. It was introduced by Russian playwright and short story master Anton Chekhov, who said:
“Remove everything that has no relevance to the story. If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it’s not going to be fired, it shouldn’t be hanging there.”
Apart from making sure that all of your story details have a purpose, Chekhov’s gun also encourages you not to overpromise or give false hopes that won’t pay off in the last act. When used right, Chekhov’s gun can build the tension and anticipation your readers need to become more and more absorbed in your story.
What Is Chekhov’s Gun?
Simply put, Chekhov’s gun is a guiding principle that tells you to give purpose to all the details you provide in your story. If it serves no purpose, it shouldn’t be there in the first place.
It’s not a plot element you employ to create a better story; rather, it’s a way of thinking that guides you into creating a tightly woven narrative, with no wasted words.
Chekhov’s Gun in Popular Culture
Chekhov’s gun can be hard to understand until you experience it in practice, whether by watching or reading a story. To better illustrate what it is, here are a few examples of Chekhov’s gun in action, taken from popular media.
Spoiler Alert! We’re giving away some of the endings, so read with caution.
Mad Max: Fury Road – IV tubing
At the start of the film, Max is taken captive. He’s identified with O-type blood (making him a universal donor) and used as a blood bank, with an IV tube being used to siphon blood from him. This IV tubing comes into play later on in the film as Max tries to save another character who lost too much blood.
Iron Man – Arc Reactor
In Iron Man, while testing out his suit’s flight capabilities, Tony Stark discovers that ice begins to form and interfere with the suit when he’s in high altitudes. This becomes important later on when he’s fighting against Obadiah Stane and they both end up at high altitude. Stane’s suit begins to ice up, providing Stark (who was losing) with a chance to retaliate.
Pan’s Labyrinth – Sleeping medicine
In Pan’s Labyrinth, Ofelia’s mother is shown early on to have trouble sleeping, and needs medicine to sleep. The sleeping pills turn out to be important when Ofelia uses it to drug her stepfather and escape with her brother.
A Series of Unfortunate Events – Aunt Josephine’s fears
In this series, when the orphans are transferred to Aunt Josephine’s care, she explains to them the many and improbable things she fears—like the doorknob shattering into a thousand pieces, the fridge falling on someone, and the radiator exploding. All of these things happen in the latter part of the story.
The Shawshank Redemption – Rita Hayworth poster
In The Shawshank Redemption, Andy requests a poster of Rita Hayworth to decorate his cell. The poster turns out to be Andy’s means of hiding an escape tunnel that he’s been digging out.
How to use Chekhov’s Gun in Your Writing
When you correctly employ Chekhov’s gun, your readers will experience a revelation as the details you’ve added suddenly make sense during the apex of your narrative. Not only will they appreciate your cleverness, but also look forward to continuing the story.
Here are a few tips on how you can effectively incorporate this dramatic principle in your stories:
1. Put emphasis on important details.
Writing about a character who lives in the city and complains about traffic doesn’t make the traffic important. It’s the city, so of course, there’s traffic. It’s just common sense playing into your story.
If you stop at this level, the readers won’t be able to recognize that there’s something special about the traffic. The resulting payoff when you do the big reveal won’t be impactful too.
But if you make the character rant about it frequently, or if you write in such a way that dramatizes the situation such as: “The cars were like a link of chrome sausages entering the mouth of the beast that is the underground parking entrance”— your readers will take note of the traffic.
This signals to your readers that the traffic situation is significant to your story. This makes the payoff satisfying and justified when you finally reveal why the traffic situation is important to the story.
Always remember to write your Chekhov’s gun in a way that garners attention—but not so much that it becomes glaringly obvious that you’re doing a setup for later. Inject it into a scenario or dialogue that fits its context.
Example:
In a lot of Bond films, Bond is always given a set of gadgets by Q before he sets off on his mission. One by one, all of these gadgets prove to be the perfect thing to break Bond out of sticky situations. It’s as if Q can see into the future.
2. Use strong symbols.
Readers take note of story elements that evoke strong feelings in them. What they feel may be personal, or universal due to the symbolic meaning that’s been attached to the said elements.
For example, a gun symbolizes violence, a dove means peace, and so on. When you use highly symbolic elements such as these, you should make sure not to use them as filler information.
And any element you spend time describing adds to its importance in your narrative as well. For example, saying that an old character of yours is sitting in a rocking chair doesn’t draw attention to the chair, because it’s already a stereotype that old people sit in rocking chairs. But if you describe the chair at length and give it some history, your readers will think it’s important to your story.
So make sure that the details you’re adding to your story actually serve a purpose. Otherwise, you’re leading your readers to expectations that will never be addressed. When their expectations aren’t met, they’ll feel disappointed and frustrated.
Example:
In the Hunger Games series, the protagonist, Katniss, is established early on as a huntress who uses a bow (which is considered a universal symbol for hunting). The bow increases in importance as the story progresses: it’s what she uses during the competition, and it ultimately becomes her weapon of choice during the rebellion, despite conventional firearms being available.
3. Reveal something about your character.
Chekhov’s gun can be used to enhance your characters by revealing a specific element about them that will come into play later on.
For example, if you’re writing a thriller novel, you might reveal that your detective’s motivation for joining the police is because his sister was kidnapped when they were young and hasn’t been seen since.
Then, in the latter part of the narrative, you can reveal that the case that the detective is working on has a connection to his sister’s disappearance, or the sister herself makes an appearance in the story.
Or, it can be something more simple, like an engineer’s knowledge coming into play as they get stuck inside an out-of-control train. The engineer manages to fix the train and avert the disaster without straining the story’s logic. It’s not hard to imagine that an engineer has the prerequisite skills and knowledge to figure out how to fix a train.
Just remember, the details you reveal about a character must fit the character’s profile, otherwise it won’t make sense.
Example:
In The First Law trilogy, one of the main characters, Logen, has the power to speak with spirits. It’s a rare trait that isn’t mentioned again until Logen and his companions arrive at their destination. It turns out that to finish the quest, a spirit needs to be called—which Logen can conveniently do.
Questions to Ask Yourself
Chekhov’s Gun is all about the details and your economic use of them to create an excellent story. The biggest problem you’ll encounter is that it’s often difficult to decide on what details you should remove, keep, or add.
Here are a few questions you can ask yourself to determine whether one of your details is crucial enough to the story to keep, or unimportant enough to remove or replace.
- Will there be a massive change to my plot or character if I change/remove this detail?
- What can I use to reveal something about a character or the plot?
- Will adding this detail early on signify something to the reader?
- Does this detail fit my character’s profile or the plot’s direction?
- Would it seem odd to include this in the story? If so, can I use it to divert my reader’s attention to or from something?
- What will the readers suspect when I add this detail to the story? Can I subvert it to go against their expectations? Or enhance it to make the payoff more satisfying?
These are just basic questions to help you separate superfluous details from truly important ones. You can always add your own questions or make your own list that will fit your story better.
Is Chekhov’s Gun Necessary?
Great uses of Chekhov’s gun always leave audiences surprised. It gives them details that they either recognize as important but don’t know why, or, the details are seemingly unimportant but turn out to be significant later on.
These details suddenly hit your audience at the latter part of your narrative, where everything just clicks together and an “Aha!” moment makes them think: “How did I not catch that?”
Of course, Chekhov’s gun is not an absolute rule in storytelling. You don’t have to make every detail relevant or important. That would exhaust your readers and make the narrative needlessly complicated.
Instead, think of Chekhov’s gun as an exercise for making your words count and avoiding unnecessary details. Choose which details you want to develop in order to make the biggest impact on your story.
What are your favorite uses of Chekhov’s gun? Share it in the comments below!
If you enjoyed this post, then you might also like:
- Elements of Suspense that Will Keep Your Readers Hooked
- Understanding Plot: Key Elements and Examples
- 3 Types of Supporting Characters and How to Write Them Better
- 17 of the Most Common Literary Devices Every Reader and Writer Should Know
Cole is a blog writer and aspiring novelist. He has a degree in Communications and is an advocate of media and information literacy and responsible media practices. Aside from his interest in technology, crafts, and food, he’s also your typical science fiction and fantasy junkie, spending most of his free time reading through an ever-growing to-be-read list. It’s either that or procrastinating over actually writing his book. Wish him luck!
