Andrew Michael Miller's Thought Backlog
Writer and working Agile professional. Author of Pancho's Fall.
Have you heard the term "Chekhov's gun" before, when talking about a scene from a story? Maybe it was in the context of a negative review of a movie or show you just watched, or maybe someone critiquing your work suggested there's a case of "Chekhov's gun" that you should address. So what is it, exactly, and how can you spot it from now on?
We've all been there before. We get into our creative place, set aside plenty of time for ourselves, and then we freeze. Often times this leads to distraction, and then before we know it we lose track of time and ultimately end up with nothing to show for it. We walk away frustrated, knowing we floundered when we could have been focusing for all that time. We get too caught up in our own head and then we have nothing to show for it. We begin to doubt ourselves and end up worse for the wear. So, what can we do to avoid falling into this trap? For starters, it helps to be prepared before ever getting into our creative space. Here's a few tips on how you can prepare yourself with plenty of sources of inspiration when there are just none to be found.
Christmas time has come again. As you wrap your gifts and prepare for a little Christmas of your own, you sip on some delicious egg nog and realize you want to commit to writing a book, script or short story. But where to begin? What story can you possibly write that hasn't been told before? How do you know if your story will be truly original, or if people will accuse you of stealing your idea from something else? The solution is simple. Don't stress about it. Go ahead and write your story and embrace the similarities with another story. Every story ever told is both a unique creation personal to the writer and a blend of elements found in other stories that the writer has consumed at some point in his or her life. You probably will not write a truly original story in your lifetime, but that doesn't mean you can't write many truly great stories.
Think about a book, movie or television show that has stuck with you over the years, but not for good reasons. What story left you speechless in a bad way when it was all told? Did the lighthearted book you picked up have a sudden graphic sex scene in it that made you uncomfortable? Did you go into the movie theater expecting Luke Skywalker to solve all of the main character's problems? Did your heroic dragon queen go insane and burn everyone alive at the end of the final season of your show? Let's talk about the modern trend of subverting expectations in storytelling, and why you, as a writer, should really consider the dangers of it before attempting to do so in your work.
The term antihero (or anti-hero) gets thrown around fairly often nowadays, sometimes incorrectly. The concept of an anti-hero is not technically new, but it certainly is prevalent in modern story-telling. The term itself was coined in the 18th Century, but examples of such a type of character are there in Greek drama, Roman satire and Renaissance literature. So what is an anti-hero, exactly? Simply put, an anti-hero is a main character of a story that does not have the typical qualities that are expected of a hero. This does not mean all antiheroes are bad people, just that they do not fit the traditional description of a hero.