Week One

    In this article, Sam Leith talks about the increasing popularity of the very short creative writing texts. He says that short stories contests are very appealing to people for a few reasons: first of all, it is a good publicity for amateur writers because of the brevity of this particular style. And also because they are just as fun to read as they are to write. What makes this genre so appealing is the fact that it is very challenging for both, the reader and the writer. On the writer’s side, the difficulty lies in the very limited amount of words that he is allowed to use. And from a reader’s perspective, the challenging aspect comes from the fact that he/she, has to be creative enough to imagine what is happening before or after the story.

The author then compares poetry and prose. According to him, they have one characteristic in common: the ability to make the reader use his imagination, to make him read between the lines. The reader is free to interpret the short story as he wants. And therefore, Sam Leith considers this type of writing a real art form.

    Mini-sagas are obviously very short and condensed texts. So synthesizing skills are crucial to succesfully write a mini-saga. The author has to write it in a way that can stimulate the reader's imagination. Yet, he still has to be explicit enough to make the story clear to the reader. There is often more than one interpretation to one short story. And it can differ from what the author originally had in mind.

There are multiple criterias that can be taken into consideration when deciding the winner of such contests. The form is just as important as the story itself. An original structure will often catch the reader’s attention immediately. And a story that everyone can relate to, (like a fundemental question or an everyday-life-situation), is usually more accessible to the reader.

Pauline Cartledge’s text is a great example of an original structure, as well as a very common situation, as most people know what the first day of school feels like. The way it is written, (two very short letters), makes it accessible to everyone.