1
00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:10,400
A good short story

2
00:00:10,400 --> 00:00:14,160
is a magic trick. It's close-up magic.

3
00:00:14,160 --> 00:00:17,840
It's not a giant grand illusion where

4
00:00:17,840 --> 00:00:20,320
five people go into a box and the box is

5
00:00:20,320 --> 00:00:21,840
hauled up and then there are fireworks

6
00:00:21,840 --> 00:00:24,720
and then they're gone. It's that thing

7
00:00:24,720 --> 00:00:26,240
where somebody shows you that their

8
00:00:26,240 --> 00:00:28,320
hands are empty and then they cover it

9
00:00:28,320 --> 00:00:29,679
and then when they reveal it again,

10
00:00:29,679 --> 00:00:32,399
there's a rose there. You go, "How did

11
00:00:32,399 --> 00:00:35,360
they do that? Was the rose always there?

12
00:00:35,360 --> 00:00:38,879
The rose must have been there."

13
00:00:38,879 --> 00:00:42,160
I once wrote

14
00:00:42,160 --> 00:00:46,879
a book of short stories for children.

15
00:00:46,879 --> 00:00:49,920
Um, I'm just going to read you my very

16
00:00:49,920 --> 00:00:53,239
short introduction.

17
00:01:03,199 --> 00:01:05,600
When I was young, and it doesn't really

18
00:01:05,600 --> 00:01:07,680
seem that long ago, I loved books of

19
00:01:07,680 --> 00:01:09,439
short stories.

20
00:01:09,439 --> 00:01:11,119
Short stories could be read from start

21
00:01:11,119 --> 00:01:13,040
to finish in the kinds of times I had

22
00:01:13,040 --> 00:01:15,439
available for reading, morning break, or

23
00:01:15,439 --> 00:01:18,799
after lunch nap or on trains.

24
00:01:18,799 --> 00:01:20,799
They'd set up, they'd roll, and they'd

25
00:01:20,799 --> 00:01:23,200
take you to a new world and deliver you

26
00:01:23,200 --> 00:01:25,920
safely back to school or back home in

27
00:01:25,920 --> 00:01:28,799
half an hour or so. Stories you read

28
00:01:28,799 --> 00:01:30,560
when you're the right age never quite

29
00:01:30,560 --> 00:01:33,759
leave you. You may forget who wrote them

30
00:01:33,759 --> 00:01:36,400
or what the story was called. Sometimes

31
00:01:36,400 --> 00:01:38,479
you'll forget precisely what happened,

32
00:01:38,479 --> 00:01:40,479
but if a story touches you, it will stay

33
00:01:40,479 --> 00:01:42,640
with you, haunting the places in your

34
00:01:42,640 --> 00:01:45,600
mind that you rarely ever visit.

35
00:01:45,600 --> 00:01:48,240
Horror stays with you hardest. If it

36
00:01:48,240 --> 00:01:49,920
brings a real chill to the back of your

37
00:01:49,920 --> 00:01:52,159
neck, if once the story is done, you

38
00:01:52,159 --> 00:01:53,920
find yourself closing the book slowly

39
00:01:53,920 --> 00:01:56,479
for fear of disturbing something and

40
00:01:56,479 --> 00:01:58,880
creeping away, then it's there for the

41
00:01:58,880 --> 00:02:01,360
rest of time. There was a story I read

42
00:02:01,360 --> 00:02:03,840
when I was nine that ended with a room

43
00:02:03,840 --> 00:02:06,079
covered with snails. I think they were

44
00:02:06,079 --> 00:02:08,160
probably man-eating snails, and they

45
00:02:08,160 --> 00:02:10,399
were crawling slowly towards someone to

46
00:02:10,399 --> 00:02:13,520
eat him. I get the same creeps

47
00:02:13,520 --> 00:02:15,599
remembering it now that I did when I

48
00:02:15,599 --> 00:02:17,360
read it.

49
00:02:17,360 --> 00:02:20,080
Fantasy gets into your bones. There's a

50
00:02:20,080 --> 00:02:22,640
curve in a road I sometimes pass. A view

51
00:02:22,640 --> 00:02:25,040
of a village on rolling green hills and

52
00:02:25,040 --> 00:02:27,680
behind it huger, craggier, grayer hills

53
00:02:27,680 --> 00:02:29,760
and in the distance mountains and mist

54
00:02:29,760 --> 00:02:31,680
that I cannot see without remembering

55
00:02:31,680 --> 00:02:34,239
reading the Lord of the Rings. The book

56
00:02:34,239 --> 00:02:36,959
is somewhere inside me and that view

57
00:02:36,959 --> 00:02:39,200
brings it to the surface. And science

58
00:02:39,200 --> 00:02:41,599
fiction takes you across the stars and

59
00:02:41,599 --> 00:02:43,760
into other times and minds. There's

60
00:02:43,760 --> 00:02:45,599
nothing like spending some time inside

61
00:02:45,599 --> 00:02:48,800
an alien head to remind us how little

62
00:02:48,800 --> 00:02:53,120
divides us person from person.

63
00:02:53,120 --> 00:02:55,120
Short stories are tiny windows into

64
00:02:55,120 --> 00:02:56,879
other worlds and other minds and other

65
00:02:56,879 --> 00:02:58,879
dreams. They're journeys you can make to

66
00:02:58,879 --> 00:03:00,560
the far side of the universe and still

67
00:03:00,560 --> 00:03:03,440
be back in time for dinner. I've been

68
00:03:03,440 --> 00:03:04,959
writing short stories for almost a

69
00:03:04,959 --> 00:03:06,879
quarter of a century now. In the

70
00:03:06,879 --> 00:03:08,480
beginning, they were a great way to

71
00:03:08,480 --> 00:03:10,879
begin to learn my craft as a writer. The

72
00:03:10,879 --> 00:03:12,640
hardest thing to do as a young writer is

73
00:03:12,640 --> 00:03:14,400
to finish something. And that was what I

74
00:03:14,400 --> 00:03:16,959
was learning how to do. These days, most

75
00:03:16,959 --> 00:03:18,640
of the things I write are long, long

76
00:03:18,640 --> 00:03:21,200
comics or long books or long films. And

77
00:03:21,200 --> 00:03:23,200
a short story, something that's finished

78
00:03:23,200 --> 00:03:25,760
and over in a weekend or a week. It's

79
00:03:25,760 --> 00:03:27,920
pure fun.

80
00:03:27,920 --> 00:03:30,720
My favorite short story writers as a boy

81
00:03:30,720 --> 00:03:32,640
are many of them my favorite short story

82
00:03:32,640 --> 00:03:35,040
writers now. People like Saki or Harlon

83
00:03:35,040 --> 00:03:37,680
Allison, like John Collier or Shirley

84
00:03:37,680 --> 00:03:39,920
Jackson or Ray Bradbury. close-up

85
00:03:39,920 --> 00:03:44,239
conjurers who with just 26 letters and a

86
00:03:44,239 --> 00:03:46,720
handful of punctuation marks could make

87
00:03:46,720 --> 00:03:50,480
you laugh and break your heart all in a

88
00:03:50,480 --> 00:03:52,799
handful of pages. There's another good

89
00:03:52,799 --> 00:03:54,640
thing about a book of short stories. You

90
00:03:54,640 --> 00:03:56,400
don't have to like them all. If there's

91
00:03:56,400 --> 00:03:58,400
one you don't enjoy, well, there'll be

92
00:03:58,400 --> 00:04:02,120
another one along soon.

93
00:04:03,519 --> 00:04:06,959
And I named the book this book

94
00:04:06,959 --> 00:04:10,000
after a Ray Bradbury book. When I was a

95
00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:12,159
boy, Ray Bradbury picked stories from

96
00:04:12,159 --> 00:04:14,000
his books of short stories. He thought

97
00:04:14,000 --> 00:04:15,680
younger readers might like and he

98
00:04:15,680 --> 00:04:18,000
published them as R is for rocket and S

99
00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:20,320
is for space. Now I was doing the same

100
00:04:20,320 --> 00:04:21,840
sort of thing and I asked Ry if he'd

101
00:04:21,840 --> 00:04:23,680
mind if I called this book M is for

102
00:04:23,680 --> 00:04:25,840
magic. He didn't.

103
00:04:25,840 --> 00:04:29,600
M is for magic. All the letters are, if

104
00:04:29,600 --> 00:04:31,759
you put them together properly, you can

105
00:04:31,759 --> 00:04:34,560
make magic with them and dreams and I

106
00:04:34,560 --> 00:04:39,160
hope even a few surprises.

107
00:04:43,840 --> 00:04:46,639
One of my favorite short story writers

108
00:04:46,639 --> 00:04:49,520
is the late Roger Zelasni.

109
00:04:49,520 --> 00:04:52,080
I encountered Zaznney's short stories

110
00:04:52,080 --> 00:04:56,960
first as a 9-year-old, a 10year-old,

111
00:04:56,960 --> 00:04:59,680
and I loved them. I loved his books. I

112
00:04:59,680 --> 00:05:01,919
loved his stories. I loved his

113
00:05:01,919 --> 00:05:04,639
characters. These these

114
00:05:04,639 --> 00:05:07,759
angstridden people or super competent

115
00:05:07,759 --> 00:05:11,759
people or just people in situations that

116
00:05:11,759 --> 00:05:14,080
had them at the end of their tether. I

117
00:05:14,080 --> 00:05:16,960
loved his use of language. He could

118
00:05:16,960 --> 00:05:22,000
really deploy words beautifully. Salazy

119
00:05:22,000 --> 00:05:25,440
was a poet and he wrote his fiction and

120
00:05:25,440 --> 00:05:28,000
he wrote a short story writing like a

121
00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:30,960
poet with the poet's eye and ear for the

122
00:05:30,960 --> 00:05:34,000
precision of the right word in the right

123
00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:36,160
place.

124
00:05:36,160 --> 00:05:39,759
And I didn't get to meet Roger until I

125
00:05:39,759 --> 00:05:44,639
was in my late 20s writing Sandman.

126
00:05:44,639 --> 00:05:47,759
And uh we didn't really get to talk

127
00:05:47,759 --> 00:05:51,440
until I was 30. And

128
00:05:51,440 --> 00:05:54,560
I was at the World Fantasy Convention in

129
00:05:54,560 --> 00:05:58,639
Tucson, Arizona, and I ran into Roger

130
00:05:58,639 --> 00:06:03,680
and sat down with him and said, "Roger,

131
00:06:03,680 --> 00:06:05,440
will you talk to me about writing short

132
00:06:05,440 --> 00:06:07,360
stories?

133
00:06:07,360 --> 00:06:10,080
Cuz you do it better than anyone I

134
00:06:10,080 --> 00:06:12,479
know."

135
00:06:12,479 --> 00:06:14,880
and just tell me about writing short

136
00:06:14,880 --> 00:06:17,280
stories.

137
00:06:17,280 --> 00:06:20,720
And he stopped for a bit and he thought

138
00:06:20,720 --> 00:06:23,680
and then he said, you know, really, he

139
00:06:23,680 --> 00:06:26,880
said, all my best short stories are the

140
00:06:26,880 --> 00:06:29,440
last chapter

141
00:06:29,440 --> 00:06:34,600
of a novel I didn't write.

142
00:06:34,880 --> 00:06:38,160
And I loved that. I really took that to

143
00:06:38,160 --> 00:06:40,160
heart

144
00:06:40,160 --> 00:06:42,160
because when you're writing short

145
00:06:42,160 --> 00:06:44,160
fiction,

146
00:06:44,160 --> 00:06:47,280
what you want, whether it's true or not,

147
00:06:47,280 --> 00:06:49,600
is to feel like these characters didn't

148
00:06:49,600 --> 00:06:53,280
just start to exist the moment the story

149
00:06:53,280 --> 00:06:55,120
began.

150
00:06:55,120 --> 00:06:56,800
You want to know they've all been in

151
00:06:56,800 --> 00:06:58,319
existence

152
00:06:58,319 --> 00:07:00,400
all along.

153
00:07:00,400 --> 00:07:03,280
You want to know that things have

154
00:07:03,280 --> 00:07:05,680
happened to them. things have taken them

155
00:07:05,680 --> 00:07:09,199
to this point and now we are at the

156
00:07:09,199 --> 00:07:13,199
point of heightened emotion. We're at

157
00:07:13,199 --> 00:07:15,520
the point where the plot is actually

158
00:07:15,520 --> 00:07:17,919
kicking in. This is the thing you've

159
00:07:17,919 --> 00:07:20,479
been waiting all of that time for. This

160
00:07:20,479 --> 00:07:23,120
is the day numon. This is the unraveling

161
00:07:23,120 --> 00:07:25,599
time. This is the time when we're all

162
00:07:25,599 --> 00:07:28,720
going to understand everything.

163
00:07:28,720 --> 00:07:32,080
And it's the last chapter. It's the

164
00:07:32,080 --> 00:07:35,759
final chunk of a novel that you haven't

165
00:07:35,759 --> 00:07:37,840
had to write. And I always thought that

166
00:07:37,840 --> 00:07:42,479
was such a wonderful way in

167
00:07:42,479 --> 00:07:45,520
to short story writing. And also

168
00:07:45,520 --> 00:07:48,400
because I am fundamentally lazy.

169
00:07:48,400 --> 00:07:52,319
Um it's a lovely sort of headway into a

170
00:07:52,319 --> 00:07:55,199
short story. You go, well look, if I

171
00:07:55,199 --> 00:07:58,639
write this short story, there's 130,000

172
00:07:58,639 --> 00:08:01,280
words I don't have to write. I can just

173
00:08:01,280 --> 00:08:05,919
write this 8,000 words and that puts it

174
00:08:05,919 --> 00:08:08,000
all into place.

175
00:08:08,000 --> 00:08:12,039
So, I like doing that, too.

176
00:08:16,160 --> 00:08:18,479
One of the fun things to do when you're

177
00:08:18,479 --> 00:08:21,039
a young writer and you are just writing

178
00:08:21,039 --> 00:08:23,360
a short story and frankly any writer

179
00:08:23,360 --> 00:08:26,000
writing a short story. The first place

180
00:08:26,000 --> 00:08:28,960
that I start is just with the idea that

181
00:08:28,960 --> 00:08:31,919
instead of being paid by the word, I am

182
00:08:31,919 --> 00:08:35,200
paying by the word.

183
00:08:35,200 --> 00:08:39,839
that the fewer words I can use to tell

184
00:08:39,839 --> 00:08:44,560
my story, the better. That compression,

185
00:08:44,560 --> 00:08:46,560
that economy,

186
00:08:46,560 --> 00:08:49,680
all of these things are good.

187
00:08:49,680 --> 00:08:52,880
You know, I've written stories

188
00:08:52,880 --> 00:08:57,200
as short as 100 words.

189
00:08:57,200 --> 00:08:59,120
In fact, technically,

190
00:08:59,120 --> 00:09:01,920
I've written one exactly 100word short

191
00:09:01,920 --> 00:09:07,120
story called Nicholas Was. Um,

192
00:09:07,120 --> 00:09:08,560
let's see. Do we have a smoke and

193
00:09:08,560 --> 00:09:11,880
mirrors here?

194
00:09:15,279 --> 00:09:18,560
Nicholas was older than sin, and his

195
00:09:18,560 --> 00:09:21,440
beard could grow no whiter.

196
00:09:21,440 --> 00:09:23,920
He wanted to die.

197
00:09:23,920 --> 00:09:26,320
The dwarfish natives of the Arctic

198
00:09:26,320 --> 00:09:29,839
caverns did not speak his language, but

199
00:09:29,839 --> 00:09:32,080
conversed in their own twittering

200
00:09:32,080 --> 00:09:34,720
tongue, conducted incomprehensible

201
00:09:34,720 --> 00:09:37,200
rituals when they were not actually

202
00:09:37,200 --> 00:09:40,480
working in the factories. Once every

203
00:09:40,480 --> 00:09:42,640
year they forced him, sobbing and

204
00:09:42,640 --> 00:09:46,240
protesting, into endless night.

205
00:09:46,240 --> 00:09:48,560
During the journey, he would stand near

206
00:09:48,560 --> 00:09:50,880
every child in the world, leave one of

207
00:09:50,880 --> 00:09:53,120
the dwarves invisible gifts by its

208
00:09:53,120 --> 00:09:54,640
bedside.

209
00:09:54,640 --> 00:09:59,120
The children slept, frozen into time.

210
00:09:59,120 --> 00:10:03,040
He envied Prometheus and Loki, Cephus,

211
00:10:03,040 --> 00:10:04,880
and Judas.

212
00:10:04,880 --> 00:10:07,839
His punishment was harsher.

213
00:10:07,839 --> 00:10:13,560
Ho ho ho.

214
00:10:14,320 --> 00:10:18,600
It's a very, very short story,

215
00:10:20,000 --> 00:10:22,480
but I learned things from it. I learned

216
00:10:22,480 --> 00:10:24,399
about compression.

217
00:10:24,399 --> 00:10:27,040
I learned how

218
00:10:27,040 --> 00:10:30,480
to make the penny drop.

219
00:10:30,480 --> 00:10:33,200
Part of the fun of that story is where

220
00:10:33,200 --> 00:10:36,240
in the story do you figure that Nicholas

221
00:10:36,240 --> 00:10:39,360
was Santa Claus? Where do you figure

222
00:10:39,360 --> 00:10:41,440
where do you learn

223
00:10:41,440 --> 00:10:43,920
that this is the punishment of Father

224
00:10:43,920 --> 00:10:46,880
Christmas?

225
00:10:46,880 --> 00:10:49,760
And so it's it's just a small thing. The

226
00:10:49,760 --> 00:10:52,000
glory of a short story too is just one

227
00:10:52,000 --> 00:10:54,959
thing has to happen. In novels, lots of

228
00:10:54,959 --> 00:10:56,880
things happen. A novel has to be about

229
00:10:56,880 --> 00:10:58,399
lots and lots of different things. A

230
00:10:58,399 --> 00:11:00,560
story, a short story really only has to

231
00:11:00,560 --> 00:11:02,959
be about one thing. You can say that one

232
00:11:02,959 --> 00:11:05,200
thing. Then you can stop, get on to

233
00:11:05,200 --> 00:11:08,440
something else.

234
00:11:12,880 --> 00:11:16,480
Short fiction is a fantastic place to

235
00:11:16,480 --> 00:11:20,160
learn your craft as a writer.

236
00:11:20,160 --> 00:11:24,240
Um, a lot of writers when they think

237
00:11:24,240 --> 00:11:27,920
that they want to set out and sail their

238
00:11:27,920 --> 00:11:34,000
first craft out under the seas of story.

239
00:11:34,000 --> 00:11:37,279
immediately get the idea that you should

240
00:11:37,279 --> 00:11:41,519
go huge. You should write a

241
00:11:41,519 --> 00:11:46,399
series of 10 books and have a huge mega

242
00:11:46,399 --> 00:11:49,200
plot and you should have a cast of

243
00:11:49,200 --> 00:11:52,959
thousands and all of these things. And

244
00:11:52,959 --> 00:11:57,600
there's a lot of skills that you need to

245
00:11:57,600 --> 00:12:00,880
do that and to do it successfully. Even

246
00:12:00,880 --> 00:12:03,040
those writers who have done that have

247
00:12:03,040 --> 00:12:06,000
tended to have to learn their craft as

248
00:12:06,000 --> 00:12:11,120
they go, book by book in progression.

249
00:12:11,120 --> 00:12:12,959
What's lovely

250
00:12:12,959 --> 00:12:16,240
is taking short journeys, is taking your

251
00:12:16,240 --> 00:12:19,839
boat out and just going around the

252
00:12:19,839 --> 00:12:21,839
headland and coming back in time for

253
00:12:21,839 --> 00:12:23,839
tea,

254
00:12:23,839 --> 00:12:27,120
learning skills.

255
00:12:27,120 --> 00:12:28,800
So,

256
00:12:28,800 --> 00:12:30,959
a short story

257
00:12:30,959 --> 00:12:33,839
is lovely. It's

258
00:12:33,839 --> 00:12:37,519
3,000 words, 4,000 words, 2,000 words,

259
00:12:37,519 --> 00:12:40,000
5,000 words.

260
00:12:40,000 --> 00:12:42,399
You can do that

261
00:12:42,399 --> 00:12:45,680
in a day or a weekend or a week or two

262
00:12:45,680 --> 00:12:48,000
weeks.

263
00:12:48,000 --> 00:12:51,279
You can have an idea for something. You

264
00:12:51,279 --> 00:12:53,600
can take it out.

265
00:12:53,600 --> 00:12:57,200
You can succeed or you can fail.

266
00:12:57,200 --> 00:12:59,920
Well, you can learn things,

267
00:12:59,920 --> 00:13:02,000
but all of the things that you learn,

268
00:13:02,000 --> 00:13:04,480
whether you succeed or you fail, the

269
00:13:04,480 --> 00:13:06,399
important thing is that you just took

270
00:13:06,399 --> 00:13:09,360
the boat out. The important thing is

271
00:13:09,360 --> 00:13:12,160
that you wrote something. The important

272
00:13:12,160 --> 00:13:14,720
thing is that you learned. And that's

273
00:13:14,720 --> 00:13:17,920
the place where you get to master new

274
00:13:17,920 --> 00:13:20,720
skills. That's the place where you get

275
00:13:20,720 --> 00:13:24,240
to find out, okay, I have an idea. Can I

276
00:13:24,240 --> 00:13:26,320
can I make this thing happen? I have an

277
00:13:26,320 --> 00:13:28,720
idea for a tone of voice. Do I want to

278
00:13:28,720 --> 00:13:32,000
do that? Is this

279
00:13:32,000 --> 00:13:33,519
would this thing work? I have an idea

280
00:13:33,519 --> 00:13:36,480
here for something that's slightly mad.

281
00:13:36,480 --> 00:13:38,959
You can start a short story just with

282
00:13:38,959 --> 00:13:41,760
the setup. You can start a short story

283
00:13:41,760 --> 00:13:43,760
just with the end. You can start a short

284
00:13:43,760 --> 00:13:45,760
story just with something that happens

285
00:13:45,760 --> 00:13:47,519
in the middle and okay, well then start

286
00:13:47,519 --> 00:13:49,839
here. Go meet that thing that happens in

287
00:13:49,839 --> 00:13:51,680
the middle and then follow it on and see

288
00:13:51,680 --> 00:13:55,600
where it goes. If it fails, it fails.

289
00:13:55,600 --> 00:13:57,839
That's okay. You've lost three days.

290
00:13:57,839 --> 00:14:02,639
You've lost a week. No big deal.