Lies, Damned Lies, and Anton Chekhov

I watched  Imagine on the BBC the other night, Alan Yentob's reflective programme about the new memoir Salman Rushdie has written about the time he spent in enforced hiding following the Ayatollah's fatwa. The book is called Joseph Anton -- this was the pseudonym Rushdie adopted at the request of the security services who were protecting him, a fusion of the first names of Joseph Conrad and Anton Chekhov. Which brings me, by indirect means,  to my thought for the day – a quotation from said Anton Chekhov,

"My own experience is that once a story has been written, one has to cross out the beginning and the end. It is there that we authors do most of our lying."

I love the idea of writers lying, given that fiction is nothing but an extended, intricate, beautifully crafted lie. What interested me about this pearl of wisdom was the notion that most of the lying – I'm taking this to mean dishonesty, rather than invention – occurs at the beginning and end of a story, and I wondered why this might be?

I think fiction doesn't ring true, or as Chekhov would have it lies, if it loses its integrity. This happens when you include something that is expedient, or sloppy, or inconsistent, and I can see that these traps might snap shut on you more easily when you are busy with your exposition, setting things up, because it's a period of great contrivance. Once you have your story in motion everything moves more seamlessly along and I think you are less likely to make ill-advised, rash editorial decisions.

Similarly at the end of your tale, some narrative threads need tying up with a tight knot in order to get them to hold, and this can strain credibility, or disappoint, or confound - more lies, in fact.

Whatever the truth of the matter, Chekhov was right about the need to cross out beginnings and endings – they present some of the greatest challenges in creative writing, and if he found himself re-writing on occasion, you shouldn't be dismayed if you find you need to as well.

Have a great weekend...