Sam Leith- Mini Sagas

1.      What, according to Sam Leith, is the attraction of the very short creative writing texts, and to what extent does he appear to accept them as a serious art form?

After reading Sam Leith’s article extract, it is clear that he has a generally positive view on ‘Mini-Sagas’. Leith uses words such as “inspire” and “irresistible” to convey his fascination to these short creative writing texts. He advertises these types of short writing texts, by telling us that the website has received over 11,000 responses to reinforce the popularity of this new art form. Leith presents the example of the Daily Telegraph publishing these mini-sagas: which in many people’s eyes is an example of an influential newspaper, and describes the mini-sagas as “a positive narrative gusher” and claims the responses were “enough to fill two bestselling anthologies”.  We can assume Leith is fairly passionate about these forms of art, as he claims that this type of writing is simply “fun.”  He appears to take this statement as fact, rather than opinion- “the fact is”, which gives us the impression as a reader that Sam Leith feels passionate about these new types of art. He also describes it as a “real challenge”, to consolidate the real seriousness of the mini sagas. Overall, Leith’s tone throughout the text shows he has a general interest in mini-sagas. We realise that he takes them relatively seriously – “Haiku isn’t for kids”, as we understand his fascination for the new art form- “offers the chance for real artistry”.

2.      Describe what you think are the characteristics/requirements of the mini-saga as a literary form, and the criteria you would use deciding on a ‘winning entry’. Illustrate your answer with reference to a mini-saga/mini-sagas you particularly like.

To write a successful mini-saga, I think it is important to have a real sense of how you want your saga to end, and the way you want your audience to feel after they have read it. Whether you want it to be funny, or even sad, you need to make sure that you write your saga to reveal the wanted outcome successfully. As a mini-saga is inevitably so short, I think to create a winning entry you have to attempt to create a sense of foreboding or tension or perhaps even excitement. An example of this is the “Inner Man”. The short story builds up tension by making us question what is in the drawer that’s locked. When we find out it’s only an empty space, an eerie ending takes place from this tension and we are left to question what happened next. I feel this would be a common characteristic of a mini saga, to leave an ending on almost a cliffhanger, to enable the audience to use their own imagination to figure out the ending. I particularly liked the “Inner Man”, because of the meaning behind it: how the man just wanted something for himself- even if it was an empty space. I thought it was a sad ending and was thought provoking.  I also think structure can make a mini-saga successful, 1955 and 1997 by Pauline Cartledge is structured in a way which is almost similar to a poem. This makes it “flow” easier and gives it a poetic and artistic feel. I liked this saga, because it was comical and also reflected similar real life situations between a Mother and her Son and how authority roles change between this certain type of relationship. This too, would perhaps meet the criteria of a winning entry, as if a person felt they could relate to the saga on a personal level, it may make the play more meaningful.
Overall, to decide on a winning entry of a mini saga I think the purpose has to be clear to the reader. I also think it would be important to have a thought provoking ending, whether it was a cliffhanger or an obvious ending I think it would have to be an ending the audience could laugh about, or even feel sad about, so the message of the saga remained with them long after they had read it. 

The Horrors Of Punctuation!

After reading my assignment on Sam Leith, I realised many of my sentences didn't seem to make much sense! They were far too long winded, with many 'ands' which gave the effect of my writing dragging on and on, generally making it a very boring read.
After my class on Monday, I realised there was an easy way to fix this. Punctuation! I replaced the many 'ands' for commas, and added full stops to break my sentences up and make them read much better than they did before. I feel this improved my work immensely; however I also discovered the true use of a semicolon! Now I could write my long sentences, but just ensure I added a semicolon where appropriate- this meant my writing was much more coherent.
After re reading my assignment I noticed I made some silly mistakes that could easily have been avoided.  I didn't put the name of the mini saga in quotation marks- ie "the Inner Man". 
Overall, the idea of punctuation is actually a strange one. I think I do punctuation without any conscious thought, but once told to think about it, I feel that's when I realise just how complex it can be! I have never really been taught properly when to use punctuation, and when not to use it. I suppose I have picked it up over my academic life, or from reading numerous books and writing from many different sources. After Monday's lesson, I realised just how ambiguous punctuation can be, for example the oxford comma. I was always taught to never use a comma before the word "and" yet was quite fascinated to see how many people had been doing the opposite. I was also intrigued to see how people could use a lot of punctuation, and some could use hardly any which could make a meaning and tone of a paragraph appear completely different!
I think I have learnt, that with punctuation as long as you're consistent to your own style, then your writing should at least make some sense. I think the main purpose of punctuation is to enable your writing to read well, so as long as your punctuation enables you to do this, then I think you're on the right track!