Episode 4.
Mahvesh Murad

Short stories are short: Edit for meaning

1. Keep it brief

Mahvesh Murad says that from an editor’s point of view, brevity is key.

I’m going to keep this prompt brief.

Take what you’re working on right now and summarise it: first, the story idea in a 200-word paragraph; second, write a one-line elevator pitch

If you’re not working on anything now, choose something you’ve written recently.

*

After that, apply the exercise to the last book you read or film you watched.

Does this exercise tell you anything about your story? Does it help clarify your intentions in any way?

Comparing your work in progress with a produced film or book, is it easier to find the synopsis or pitch in one or the other?

Do you prefer books or films whose central point is easily identifiable?

2. Your djinn

Murad tells us that the djinn represents the figure of The Other and connects it with uncanny mirroring. The djinn is clearly a powerful psycho-mythological motif throughout the world – there are tokoloshes and leprechauns and jackals and tricksters and imps dotted in every culture, boogeymen under every bed and in every jar in the corner.

For your next exercise, describe your own personal djinn. What specific little monster scared you as a child?

Why do you think it was scaring you? To keep you in line? To warn of dangers? To offer a sense of the supernatural or the other? To what purpose?

Describe what they look like and how they communicate and behave. What do they do? Are they malicious? Is their trickery psychological – that is, internal – or social and external?

Can you imagine a story playing out with this character? If you can, plot it out briefly.