If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise don't put it there.
Anton ChekhovRead
[Six principles that make for a good story:] 1. Absence of lengthy verbiage of a political-social-economic nature; 2. total objectivity; 3. truthful descriptions of persons and objects; 4. extreme brevity; 5. audacity and originality: flee the stereotype; 6. compassion.
Interpretation
What this quote means
A good story relies on clarity, originality, and emotional depth while avoiding unnecessary complexities.
In this quote, Anton Chekhov outlines six essential principles that he believes contribute to crafting a compelling story. He emphasizes the importance of clear and concise language, objectivity, truthful representation, brevity, and original thought, all while fostering a sense of compassion for the characters involved. These principles highlight the balance between aesthetics and emotional truth, suggesting that meaningful storytelling must resonate with both the intellect and the heart.
Themes
StorytellingOriginalityBrevityEmpathyObjectivity
In practice
Example use cases
In a writing workshop, when discussing how to enhance narrative clarity, this quote could be referenced.
More from Anton Chekhov
All quotes →There are still many more days of failure ahead, whole seasons of failure, things will go terribly wrong, you will have huge disappointments , but you have to prepare for that, you have to expect it and be resolute and follow your own path.
Anton ChekhovRead
Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.
Anton ChekhovRead
To a chemist, nothing on earth is unclean. A writer must be as objective as a chemist; he must abandon the subjective line; he must know that dungheaps play a very respectable part in a landscape, and that evil passions are as inherent in life as good ones.
Anton ChekhovRead
When you want to touch the reader's heart, try to be colder. It gives their grief as it were, a background, against which it stands out in greater relief.
Anton ChekhovRead
Why are we worn out? Why do we, who start out so passionate, brave, noble, believing, become totally bankrupt by the age of thirty or thirty-five? Why is it that one is extinguished by consumption, another puts a bullet in his head, a third seeks oblivion in vodka, cards, a fourth, in order to stifle fear and anguish, cynically tramples underfoot the portrait of his pure, beautiful youth? Why is it that, once fallen, we do not try to rise, and, having lost one thing, we do not seek another? Why?
Anton ChekhovRead
Similar quotes
Writers really live in the mind and in hotels of the soul.
Edna O'BrienRead
I feel a lot of pressure when I'm writing because I know, you know, if they looked at a synopsis of the book, what they read could only confirm all the stereotypes that they have about us and about people like us.
Jesmyn WardRead
It is shameful that dancing should renounce the empire it might assert over the mind and only endeavor to please the sight.
Jean-Georges NoverreRead
Out of all the guitars in the whole world, the Fender Mustang is my favorite. They're cheap and totally inefficient, and they sound like crap and are very small.
Kurt CobainRead
Geniuses can be scintillating and geniuses can be somber, but it's that inescapable sorrowful depth that shines through-originality.
Jack KerouacRead
More than anything else, though, to anyone who would write about it, golf offers a four-hour drama in two acts, which becomes memorable even in the tape-recorded reminiscenses of old champs, and which - in the hands of someone like Herb Wind - can become a piece of war correspondence as artfully controlled as Alan Morehead's account of Gallipoli.
Alistair CookeRead