Lecture #7: Short Stories — With Special Guest Instructor Mary Robinette Kowal

Welcome to the seventh lecture of my BYU 2020 creative writing class focused on writing science fiction and fantasy.

Today's class is focused on short stories. As you probably know, short story telling is not my forte. So I asked my dear friend—more importantly a brilliant writer—Mary Robinette Kowel to come in to help us hone our short story writing skills.

Mary Robinette's bio:
Mary Robinette Kowal is the author of the Lady Astronaut series and historical fantasy novels: The Glamourist Histories series and Ghost Talkers. She’s the President of SFWA, a member of the award-winning podcast Writing Excuses and has received the Astounding Award for Best New Writer, four Hugo awards, the RT Reviews award for Best Fantasy Novel, the Nebula, and Locus awards. Stories have appeared in Strange Horizons, Asimov’s, several Year’s Best anthologies and her collections Word Puppets and Scenting the Dark and Other Stories.

Her novel Calculating Stars is one of only eighteen novels to win the Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards in a single year.

As a professional puppeteer and voice actor (SAG/AFTRA), Mary Robinette has performed for LazyTown (CBS), the Center for Puppetry Arts, Jim Henson Pictures, and founded Other Hand Productions. Her designs have garnered two UNIMA-USA Citations of Excellence, the highest award an American puppeteer can achieve. She records fiction for authors such as Seanan McGuire, Cory Doctorow and John Scalzi.

[TheBibleisArt]

“Your job as a writer is to figure out what your character needs to do and then systematically prevent them from reaching the goal.”

[brianstanton]

Yep, the practice exercise in this video led to my first ever finished story. Ever. That altered my neurological wiring somehow, I've finished 10 short stories and I'm 65k words into my novel.

Thank you for making this free!

[rymdalkis]

Oh wow, I can read the writing on the whiteboard

[AlucardNoir]

The reason there are so few questions asked of her is because she did a very, very good job explaining things the first time.

[ArielBenichou]

250 Words Flash-Fiction Recipe:
0. Length of story = ( (characters + scenery) x 750 x MICE ) / 1.5
MEANING every time you add a character or a location your story becomes longer.
Hence, you have a limit of TWO characters and ONE location for one MICE bracket. TRY TO KEEP IT SHORT.
1. OPENING - Meet the Characters and Make Promises.
3 Sentences (Bonus Points if you do it in 2) - SHORT sentences, to the point:
- Who - Action / Reflection (Show POV, Attitude)
- Where - Sensory detail.
- Genre - Specific and Unique.
2. CONFLICT - Try/Fail Cycle (TFCs)
2 Sentences.
- What your character is trying to do and why (SETUP to TFC).
- What is stopping them? What the barrier?
- Tip: Imply several TFCs that happened beforehand.
3.1. IDENTIFY the MICE. What your character is trying to achieve? Does he want to go somewhere (Milieu)? Does he have a question to answer (Inquiry)? Does he is unhappy with himself (Character)? Are they trying to change the status quo of the world (Event)?
3.2. TRY TO STOP THEM.
Make them try new things (for each TFCs) to overcome their conflict.
Yes, But / No, And.
5 Sentences.
4. RESOLVE - Try/Succes Cycle.
Yes, And / No, But.
5 Sentences.
5. ENDING. Closing the MICE.
Mirroring the first 3 sentences to show how things have changed.
Make it satisfying.

[luciddreamer]

Who wouldn't want to read a high-impact character story about an asteroid's meteoric rise to fame and explosive popularity as it hurtles toward Earth in search of acceptance?

[danielb]

I think I speak for everyone when I say: "Brandon, please post the story in the comments"

[ladyveracity]

I took this class oh... 19 years ago. Even good old Dave Wolverton told me I couldn’t write short. His response to all my submissions was “Might want to expand on this...” Blargh. I’ve never understood short stories until TODAY. Just wrote a 308 word story. Thank you, Mary.

[faiththatseeksunderstanding]

My 3 sentences:

The young man’s palms reverberated with the force of the falderian coaster-ball slamming against his fingers. The sound of deafening victory rang in his ears, as the crowds' voices seemed to cheer as one. He opened his eyes to see the holo-recorder before him, hands empty, sitting in his living room wheel-chair.

[zac]

I just realized after watching this for the 3rd time that the structure she uses is the exact same structure used for sitcoms: introduce the characters and what their goals are, show us the first obstacles that are keeping the characters from achieving those goals, have them try and fail a few times, have one last attempt that either succeeds or fails, then close things out and put a nice little bow on it. I find it interesting how that formula gets used for lots of things that aren't sitcoms.

[HeidiMaginness]

How am I learning more in this free youtube video than an entire module of creative writing in university

[notanothercomedian]

“Your goal as a writer is to give your characters goals and then prevent them from reaching those goals. the goal is to be mean.” Fantastic writing advice. An absolute goldmine

[thisismemoocow]

I was really hoping she'd make Brandon read his story at the end.

[julio]

I love that not only she is very knowledgeable, but also she clearly prepared for the class. Not saying that other professors don't, just saying that she clearly rehearsed and edited her material to a point that is much more refined than the average professor

[Bobaloo]

The lecture is organized so well... Way more than I hoped for. For one, it’s a masterclass in scene-level writing.

[Pixel]

I did the exercise on paper and then cleaned it up on the computer, finishing at exactly 260 words. When I woke up this morning I did not expect to write a short story about a jockey riding a mecha-dolphin to compete in the Island Coaster League.

[greiwer]

I wrote nearly 5 short stories just rewatching Mary's lecture. Stories from 2 to 8 pages each. Shes' inspiring and i love reading her shorts.

[filipjanik]

Sometimes you only need one sentence... The man in black fled across the desert and the Gunslinger followed...

[billyalarie]

"does that make sense?"


mary robinette, EVERYTHING you say makes sense, my dear.


you are one of the smartest, most intuitive people on the earth. <3

[Ariodan]

Just Btw for everyone watching this, Because of Covid-19 BYU has decided to cease in person classes and has actually encouraged the students still on campus to go home by the end of the week. It sounds like there might be Online Classes starting in a week, but I don't know how that is all going to affect the youtube recordings. Some news from anyone in the know would be greatly appreciated.