This is one of those literary devices that can really ruin the element of surprise once you get used to spotting it. Based on a writing philosophy observed and often practiced by Russian author Anton Chekhov, the law of “Chekhov’s Gun” states that a storyteller should never introduce a gun in Act One of the…
It seems like the most basic piece of advice for a writer, but I think it’s the one a lot of us have the most trouble with. Artists tend to be perfectionists, and if something doesn’t come out exactly the way we want it to right from the beginning, we tend to get discouraged. I…
We’ve said it often enough before that sometimes a change of view is the best remedy for a lack of inspiration. But for many writers there is more to this advice than just having an excuse to get out of the house every once in a while. Different places can awaken the imagination in different…