Stumbled across this article on Wikipedia recently, got me thinking about different ways to create a plot twist. I'm sure there's plenty of other literary techniques to use when it comes to creating impact in a story, so I thought I'd start with this one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chekhov's_gun
Richard Caldecourt
Yes: Shaw says something similar somewhere -- that if you open your play with somebody banging a nail into the wall, then by Act III somebody else needs to hang themselves from that nail.
ReplyDeleteI'm not so sure myself: as with many over-used devices, it can become stale -- you can (for instance) create more genuine shock in your readership by setting something up and then, ostentatiously not using it.
The best website I know for these sorts of tropes and conventions is TV Tropes -- worth a browse:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HomePage