MINI SAGAS - what are they?

The mini saga is a recent invention.  It was started by the Daily Telegraph newspaper and followed up by the BBC who broadcast the results on the radio.

The name is really a joke.  Originally, sagas were long stories of dramatic events over many generations told by Norse and Icelandic peoples.  They were probably started to provide entertainment around the fire during the long winter nights in those countries.  Today we gather round the television and watch soap operas that tell long stories of dramatic events over many generations.

A mini saga must be exactly fifty words long and it must be a real story.  

The title is very important too so the rule is that any title can be up to fifteen words long. 

The limitation of fifty words means that the mini saga writer needs to think very imaginatively about just which words are really necessary to tell the story.

Read these mini sagas written by young people and work out how they create their effects:
The Death Touch!

When a daughter went away to college, she reluctantly left her plants and her goldfish in her mother’s care.  Once the daughter telephoned and her mother confessed that the plants and the goldfish had died.  There was a prolonged silence.  Finally, in a small voice, the daughter asked, “How’s Dad?”

 Dawn Hunt

Silence in Court

The jury watches as the frightened girl slowly walks up to the witness stand.  She is only eleven years old, and doesn’t like what she sees.  As the questions are asked, she tries to answer, but tears stream down her face.  It’s not easy being witness to a murder.

 Debby Dell

Who Dares Wins

He was scared.  It was his first drop.  The transport shuddered violently on its journey through the night.  They were over the dropping-zone.  Soon it would be knives into unsuspecting bodies.  Killing silently.  “Ready? said the Sergeant.  “Go.”  He said a prayer and jumped into the streets of Troy.

 N M Cooper

Friend

Tumbling and rolling beneath the warm Pacific, my friend and I plunge past the beautiful coral, our fins skimming the sand.  My stomach turns as I hear my friend scream in panic.  I look around to see him caught in a tuna net.  And they say that dolphins can’t cry…

 Claire Clark

The next mini saga was written by an adult - the winner of the Daily Telegraph mini saga competition.  What do you think made it stand out and eventually win from over 48,000 entries?

The Postcard

Friendless, he despatched a letter to the twelfth century.  Illuminated scrolls arrived by return post.  Jottings to Tutankahmen secured hieroglyphics on papyrus; Hannibal sent a campaign report.  But when he addressed the future, hoping for cassettes crammed with wonders, a postcard drifted back with scorched edges.  It glowed all night.

 Guy Carter

It may help to talk to a friend or family member about why and how these mini sagas work.  
The examples create their effects in different ways – can you see what they are?  
Write notes or a brainstorm.  These may help you choose an effect you want to create in your own mini saga.

The next mini saga is a first draft.  The writer has concentrated on getting his fifty words – but are they the best fifty words he could use?  What advice would you give this young writer on how to improve his writing? Can you rewrite it after looking carefully at the others?

The Train Crash

I was travelling on a train to Glasgow to see my aunt.  I began to feel the train shudder.  It began to rock about violently.  I went to complain to the driver – no driver!  I panicked.  I began to press all the levers and suddenly the train toppled over altogether.

 Lee Goodgame

Here are three key tips to help you when writing your mini saga:

  1. Get a good idea.  This is the most important start you can make. Brainstorm ideas based on situations.  Perhaps you can work out a story idea from real-life situations that can be shaped into a simple structure. If this doesn’t give you a starting point, look again at the notes you made earlier.  You may have noted how the atmosphere and effects are created in each of the above examples. 

  2. When you start, don’t worry about the fifty word limit to begin with.  
    Concentrate on getting the narrative right. Then look at the words and phrases you can ‘tighten up’ so that every word counts.  Use the best words you can to tell the story quickly.

  3.  Don’t use the “I woke up and it was all a dream” ending!  This almost always makes the reader feel cheated. (You don't need to write "The End" either!).

Mini sagas work because they look at something in an unusual way or from a different point of view as in the story of the Trojan Horse or the capture of a dolphin.  It could be an original thought, idea or theme and might create effects similar to those in the examples above. Sometimes off-beat ideas work well or something more ordinary and down to earth with an unexpected twist at the end.