Writing Tips
How to Use Chekhov’s Gun to Craft a Compelling Plot
Looking to Anton Chekhov to convey significance in our stories
At the beginning of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Ginny Weasley realizes she has forgotten her diary as she rushes to board the Hogwarts Express.
Any reader of the series knows that if Ginny had forgotten her diary, The Chamber of Secrets, nevermind the whole Harry Potter series, wouldn’t have much of a plot.
Throughout her beloved book series, J.K Rowling masterfully introduces plot devices that seem to be minor details in passing, but upon further reading, turn out to be significantly major to the story’s narrative arc.
This dramatic principle is called Chekhov’s Gun, defined by Anton Chekhov himself, who advises:
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 — Anton Chekhov (From S. Shchukin, Memoirs. 1911)
In other words, every element introduced in a story must have a function within it.
