How do I hide Chekhov's Gun?
If there is a gun on the mantelpiece in the Act 1, then in Act 2, that gun must be fired.
Background
I'm a big believer in Chekhov's Gun. I try not to do anything or introduce any new plot point without first foreshadowing it, no matter how subtly.
This is easy in film. A lazy way to do it is to have some object appear in the background, or perhaps briefly show it on TV. A watcher who's paying attention gets the reference, a watcher who isn't, doesn't.
It's harder in writing. Every single thing that you mention, for at least a moment, is right in front of the reader's eyes. There's no such thing as background text here - everything is in the foreground.
Sometimes, I want to show the reader that there's a gun on the mantelpiece, without saying "Hello! This is a gun!" - because if I do that, the reader will think "hey, the writer wouldn't do that unless that gun is going to be fired." Sometimes I don't want the reader to know that there's going to be a gunshot in Act 2 - but I also don't want my character to pick up a gun that the reader didn't know was there.
Specifics
In my specific case, MC's house has a basement, and late in the story he gets locked within it by his housemate. The basement door is locked with a coded padlock to which only the housemate knows the code. MC is not, and has never been, allowed to go inside the basement.
I need to foreshadow the existence of the basement (and the padlock) before this scene.
However, before this point in the story, MC and the housemate do not actually meet beyond letters written to each other. I can't image the housemate would explicitly write "Remember, you're not allowed into the basement!", not least because that would be whacking the reader over the head with an obvious Gun. So MC should probably notice the basement of his own observation.
The story is written 1st-person, from MC's perspective, in a train-of-thought fashion - that is, everything he thinks is there on the page. So I can't have him suddenly jumping to think about some random basement door. And I'm trying really, really hard not to bash the reader over the head with obvious foreshadowing.
Question
What should I do here? How do I hide a Chekhov's Gun such that it's obscured under the bedsheet but, upon later reflection by the reader, was obviously a Gun?
The padlock is easy - have the housemate ride a bike and have them chain it up for security when they go somewhere. In t …
6y ago
As others have explained, Chekhov's gun is a bit of a red herring in this context. I think what you want is to be fair t …
6y ago
The way to foreshadow something without giving it away is to use it to tell something else. If you tell there is a gun, …
6y ago
Chekhov's Gun takes many forms... I use Chekhov's Gun CONSTANTLY in my writing too. It has sort of gotten to a point of …
6y ago
I would hide the basement but not the locked door. A coded padlock on a door inside a house is really weird, and the s …
6y ago
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5 answers
The padlock is easy - have the housemate ride a bike and have them chain it up for security when they go somewhere. In this case you don't even need to mention the padlock - having the roommate be commute by bicycle will be enough to imply that they may have things like a bike chain, a padlock, a helmet, a tire pump, etc.
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As others have explained, Chekhov's gun is a bit of a red herring in this context. I think what you want is to be fair to the reader, not to make it seem as though you pulled a convenient basement out of your ass late in the day to get you out of a plot hole.
What I would suggests is to scatter the information about the basement and padlocks throughout the narrative, rather than lumping it all in at one go. In this instance you could break it does into elements such as
- if the house isn't remote, a character might be in a neighbouring house of similar design, which has a basement. It only needs to get mentioned in passing, someone says somehting like, 'excuse me I just need to pop down to the basement to empty the dryer'.
- the padlock could be foreshadowed with comments about the losability of keys, someone gets their bike stolen because they dropped the lock key and Housemate remarks that's why he never relies on keys for anything really important to him.
- The forbidding of access can be established as part of the housemates character not to let people have ready access to his spaces. You could even have him making a point about locking his own room with a key, which might lead an attentive reader to wonder what the housemate really values if he trusts his room to a key-lock.... leading to a satisfied 'Ahhh, I see moment for those readers when he locks the MC in with a combination padlock.
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The way to foreshadow something without giving it away is to use it to tell something else. If you tell there is a gun, people think it might be used to shoot someone. If you tell that a person is a police officer who takes his gun off when he comes home? Well, somebody is still probably going to get shot and you are foreshadowing it. But what if the reason you mention him taking the gun off is because years ago he accidentally shot an innocent man in the line of duty and every single time he takes the gun off he remembers that. And you can see that going thru his mind.
In your particular case since they communicate by letters, the easiest way is to link it to something communicated in those letters. Not that you need to specifically describe or even mention the letter.
So there is some reason that door is locked. And the other person does not want the MC to know that reason. And he does not want the MC to think about it and try to find out. So he will provide a perfectly reasonable reason why he needs a locked basement and why it would be a problem if the MC went in.
The supplied reason would almost have to be related to work, so that it is serious enough to justify the locks and the MC thinks the other person is stuck with it and cannot make exceptions. And it is perfectly normal and totally non-suspicious to mention what people do for a living when you first mention it. And it would be natural to mention what silly things are involved with that work. I mean, a perfectly secure work room in the basement you cannot let anyone else in? This guy sure is committed to his work.
Some hobbies might also justify the locks. Say if you have a valuable collection of some sorts in there. This is not always a good choice because people will expect you to show off the collection when you have the chance. But what if there never was such a chance before things start happening and the other character knew that in advance?
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Chekhov's Gun takes many forms...
I use Chekhov's Gun CONSTANTLY in my writing too. It has sort of gotten to a point of being excessive, actually. That said, I've learned quite quickly that Chekhov's Gun doesn't need to be fired inherently.
Using the classic parable's example: the gun on the mantel can be "fired" in multiple ways.
- It could be actually fired like the gun it is.
- It could be an heirloom representing an older generation (akin to using ashes or a gravestone)
- It could be a symbol for a brewing conflict.
If you want to make the Gun blend in, mention in the same paragraph between 2-4 other Chekhov's Guns. They don't need to be fired in the traditional sense, but just that each of them is a symbol for something, so when people read your story, they just see the intended gun as being "useless junk" unless they've caught on to your use of symbolism thus far in the novel.
Keep in mind that Chekhov's Gun is NOT an infallible law of writing. I am a firm believer in it, but it can be broken periodically specifically to subvert the reader's expectations. Feel free to do so by occasionally not mentioning the gun until it is needed (unless it would come across as an ass-pull), mention the gun (or other guns) and just don't use it (leading your audience to believe they can't be sure when an item will be important, throwing them off), or prepare the gun and attempt to use it only to have it not work and not matter (zigzagging expectations).
Chekhov's Gun is just a trope. Don't assume you have to always play it straight. Play with it a little to fit your desired situation. Sometimes, you need to play with other guns so people won't see when you're ready to fire this one.
As for your specific gun, though, you can solve this situation simply by having him pass by the door to the basement with an aged piece of paper still taped to the basement door saying "Do Not Enter!" or "Keep Out!" It really doesn't have to be anything major. It can be an organic moment like he sits down in the kitchen and that door is visible across the way. He can't help but to notice it, but by dismissing it immediately and not mentioning it at all for a while, the reader will forget it if you let them.
PSA: Don't play with guns, kids!
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/43489. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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I would hide the basement but not the locked door.
A coded padlock on a door inside a house is really weird, and the sort of thing someone would notice and probably comment on. If the MC has a guest, the guest could ask about it and the MC might reply "I don't know. He only opens it when I'm not around."
Mentioning the existence of this door will not lead your readers to think "oh that's a basement and the MC will get trapped there." Not most readers anyway. It would make me think "the housemate has a secret."
In this case, you're foreshadowing the secret, in the sense that we expect to find out what it is. You can drop other hints as to what the secret is and also throw in some red herrings. For example, if the MC knows or suspects the housemate sells drugs, the reader (or MC) might think the locked door could be to a room where drugs are stored or packaged/made. You don't have to make that connection obvious, but a couple hints like that will allow the reader to speculate.
At some point, the MC discovers what's behind the mystery door. And boom is trapped there. It may or may not take more time to discover the secret (in part that depends on how dark the basement is or how obvious the stuff in there is).
A basement is a common feature in a house (mostly in areas with cold winters) and in retrospect the fact that the locked door led to a basement will be fairly obvious, even if it wasn't considered beforehand (it could be a closet or pantry or spare bedroom).
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