"Cal" is a science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 short story

Short story

A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...

 by American writer Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000...

, which was included in the 1995 collection Gold

Gold (Asimov)

Gold: The Final Science Fiction Collection is a collection of Isaac Asimov's stories and essays. The stories, which comprise its first half, are short pieces which had remained uncollected at the time of Asimov's death. As such, they have been criticized by some as inept or below par—what the...

.

Plot summary

Cal is a robot

Robot

A robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...

 whose master is an author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

. Set in the Age of Robots, the word processor

Word processor

A word processor is a computer application used for the production of any sort of printable material....

 is called the Writer. Cal, under the influence of his master, decides to learn to write. His master outfits his mind with a dictionary

Dictionary

A dictionary is a collection of words in one or more specific languages, often listed alphabetically, with usage information, definitions, etymologies, phonetics, pronunciations, and other information; or a book of words in one language with their equivalents in another, also known as a lexicon...

 and gives him advice and a few of his own books to read, as well as a grammatical dictionary. Cal tries to write mystery like his master, but is hampered by the Three Laws of Robotics

Three Laws of Robotics

The Three Laws of Robotics are a set of rules devised by the science fiction author Isaac Asimov and later added to. The rules are introduced in his 1942 short story "Runaround", although they were foreshadowed in a few earlier stories...

; a robot's aversion to harming a human makes Cal cut out all violence, making the mystery rather inane. Instead, his master decides to give him the knack of recognizing humor. Cal writes a very good story on this new topic: so good, in fact, that his master is afraid of being put in the shade and 'playing second dog to a robot'. He orders the technician to remove Cal's abilities. Cal, hearing this, decides to kill his master, in defiance of the First Law, because apparently his new abilities take precedence: "I want to be a writer."

The humorous story written by Cal is in fact one of Asimov's Azazel

Azazel (Asimov)

Azazel is a character created by Isaac Asimov and featured in a series of fantasy short stories. Azazel is a two-centimeter-tall demon , named after the Biblical demon....

stories.