Plot Twist Story Prompts: Chekhov’s Gun

Plot twist story prompts aren't meant for the beginning or the end of stories. Rather, they're for forcing big and small turns in the anticipated trajectory of a story. This is to make it more interesting for the readers and writers alike.

Each week, I'll provide a new prompt to help twist your story. Find last week's prompt, Unexpected Clue, here.

For today's prompt, insert a Chekhov's gun into your story. So what, you might ask, is a Chekhov's gun? Well, it's a detail revealed that everyone expects will play a bigger role in the future. I'm paraphrasing, but Anton Chekhov basically said if you hang a gun on the wall in the beginning of the story, it better come off the wall in the near future.

(What Is a MacGuffin?)

So, does a Chekhov's gun have to be an actual gun? Well, no, not exactly. It could be a knife. Or something that's not violent at all. For instance, I recently watched a show in which one of the characters is all excited to go to the opera and is wearing his nicest suit all day at work as a result. But at lunch, a Chekhov's gun is introduced in the form of a red wine. As soon as it enters the picture (and set on the table in front of the character), everyone knows it's just a matter of time before...whoops! It spilled all over his bright, white shirt.

The main concern with a Chekhov's gun plot twist is that you usually want to deliver on the promise of the plot twist. That's because your readers want you to deliver on it too. They don't know how you're going to deliver, but they know (once they see that metaphorical Chekhov's gun) that it's only a matter of time before something happens.

So insert a Chekhov's gun into your story, and see what happens next.

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Have you hit a wall on your work-in-progress? Maybe you know where you want your characters to end up, but don’t know how to get them there. Or, the story feels a little stale but you still believe in it. Adding a plot twist might be just the solution.

Click to continue.