Chekhov's gun

For those familiar with the concept of Chekhov's gun, it might be hard to imagine it as an actual object. It's more of a principle really, an idea that no detail should ever go unexplained. Every aspect of a story should contribute to the narrative in some way.

As opposed to the real world every detail should, according to Anton Chekhov, play a part in a story in some way. While we in everyday life see a million details and things all around, most are pretty inconsequential to our own story. The doctor that stands out to you as you drive to work one day is still just a doctor that you'll likely never encounter again, nor will he have any effect on you.

In a story where the doctor is mentioned however it is expected, according to the Chekhov's gun concept, that he play a role of sorts in the plot. Perhaps not directly, he could very well be a symbolic gesture. Perhaps he foreshadows an illness that is to befall a character of significance.

But Chekhov's gun is still just a principle to follow for aspiring writers, right? That would be true if there hadn't been a certain ..event.

Some time ago, never mind how long precisely there was a student deep in thought as he was writing a play. He'd heard about the principle of Chekhov's gun and found it ridiculous. There's a million inconsequential details in everyday life, a million things for one to notice that will never have an impact. Yet in writing one is supposed to believe that every detail matters? In a scene featuring nothing but to parties and a gun, one may become too fixated on the gun itself and the potential role it will play as things progress. For a viewer or reader to become so preoccupied with the prospect of there being a gun, the focus is drawn away from the actual scene. The blood, sweat and tears that went into writing the dialogue and complex emotion that each character feels.

What if one were to sprinkle needless details into every scene? In every description, some insignificant elements to overstimulate the reader or viewer. If there's a surplus or plethora of details that may or may not have an impact on the story, one might simply disregard them entirely and focus on the real important things which are the plot and dialogue. At least that's what our student writer was thinking as he added copious amounts of needles details all throughout his play. It was mostly in spite, a jab at Anton Chekhov himself, who at the time was long dead.

There was a scene is this very play that featured a gun. A gun that actually played a role in the narrative as it was used to kill of a character. What wasn't a necessary detail however was the vase of flowers featured on the otherwise barren stage. There were no props, nothing. During the final showdown of the play the hero was meant to kill off the villain with a gun handed down to him by his deceased father.

In the original script, the gun was to be fired true and strike the villain down in what was the climax of the play. During the exam however the gun was fired, yes. But as it was, the actors portraying the villain didn't follow suite. He didn't play his **** as according to the script. He instead claimed the gun had missed, and reached for the supposedly redundant vase of flowers of which he retrieved a handful of flowers.

"I've always loved you" He said, going completely off the manuscript and into uncharted territory.

The villain approached the puzzled actor who'd fired the gun. He went on one knee and handed the hero the impromptu bouquet, ending the play.

The playwriter was furious. Under no circumstances had he made the slightest implication that improvisation was allowed, not to mention it was his exam with his whole arts degree on the line. He'd stormed the scene after the curtain fall and tossed the gun away from the hero and given both actors a mouth full. The poor hero-actor had no part in the supposed mutiny, but took the stern talking to regardless. As it turns out, the actor who played the villain had no recollection of having gone off script.

Unbeknownst to any of them, it wasn't the actors who'd messed up. Nor was the script wrong. The gun itself had been cursed by the spirit of Chekhov himself so to speak. Even after ****, one is never truly gone. The ideas and principles following Anton's influence on the world remained after him. That very idea of Chekhov's gun combined with the excess magic of some nearby nexus-level event had lead to the gun in question gaining some rather formidable properties. Most specifically the ability to combine and two objects, or details if you will. In this particular case it had been the vase of flowers and the villain being fired upon.

The true nature of the gun was never discovered by neither the actors, the playwriter nor the school of which the prop-gun belonged to. It still lies in some long forgotten box of props to this day, waiting to be discovered once more by aspiring playwriters or actors alike.

Hey! This is simply the introduction to my newest story that's a Patreon exclusive. If you find the concept interesting there's more chapters already available there, with more on the way! The nature of the story is pretty similar to that of "chicken out" and "feelings of inadequacy". It will eventually drip down here as well, though much later than usual as it'll first be concluded in it's entirety.