Anton Chekhov quite famously noted that a gun introduced in the first act must go off in the third; a succinct reminder to writers that you shouldn't add anything to the story that doesn't have literary value. Chekhov's Gun is one of the basic fundamentals of any writing class, and like the fundamentals of any craft, one abuses or ignores it at their peril.
It's been on my mind this weekend, brought on by an impulse ebook purchase. Although I have about ten books to read right now, I wanted something fluffy and thoughtless the other day to read, and so I downloaded a well-reviewed romance novel to my Nook the other day, by a Famous and Prolific author whom I had never read. It was actually pretty decent, and halfway through, I downloaded the next two books in the series. Book One was not great, but good, and since it was setting up an entire series, I didn't worry too much about the lack of depth; after all, it had fit my fluff requirement. Book Two had a little more meat on it's bones and was a better read, while also subtly setting up the following novel.
Book Three was an unholy mess. I have no idea how this got out of rough draft, let alone past an editor. Not only did the plot have holes you could drive a semi through, at one point the author actually had a character literally drive a semi through a plot hurdle.
Going into this story, we knew the protagionist was returning to his childhood home to rebuild his life there. His emotional baggage included an alcoholic, abusive father who had died when he was a teen, a mother who committed suicide prior to his father's death, two half-brothers he was not on good terms with, and regret over his failed relationship with his high school sweetheart, his One True Love, who has also coincidentally returned to town.
In true Chekhovian fashion, the author lays the following guns out on the table:
Our Hero had secretly married, and never told anyone in his family
His wife died recently in a tragic accident, but he didn't really love her, so it's no big deal
Our Heroine has also recently lost her spouse in a tragic accident
She also didn't really love him, but feels kind of guilty because he killed himself because of her
Our Hero cheated openly on Our Heroine throughout their high-school relationship
The result of which is a 13 year-old kid he has now randomly taken into his home
However, birth control is still not high on his list of priorites, since "he's clean"
He is also the greatest amateur singer/guitar player in the state, although he never seems to play his guitar or sing
Our Heroine has a six-year kid who is completely unaffected by the recent tragic death of her father, and openly campaigns for Our Hero to be her new daddy within two minutes of meeting him
Our Heroing also sees no need for birth control since she randomly became infertile after giving birth to her daughter
Which is somehow completely unrelated to her late husband's secret vasectomy
Our Hero's bastard child's baby mama has apparently killed one man, and attempted to kill another, and not only flees town, but comes back to town to visit her second victim while he is in JAIL for an unrelated crime, and the deputy forgets to arrest her
Guess which gun goes off in the third act? NONE of them. Not only do none of these plot elements play out, they are crammed into the front end of the story, and never referenced, or even discussed among the characters ever again. Even when the Hero proposes marriage to the Heroine, she never even thinks to say "Hey, what about all those times you cheated on me and had a baby with another woman and that kid is now living with you and I have a kid, too, and we should probably talk about this stuff and maybe lay out some fidelity ground rules and whatnot?" Nope.
So, long story short, I've spent the day frantically reworking my novel so far, and excising chunks of dialogue, exposition, and two complete scenes out of fear that I could be writing a book like this lady. Although the book itself wasn't worth what I paid for it, the lesson has turned out to be priceless, and I hope it's one I won't need to be reminded about in the future.
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