So you ask just what is a mini-saga? A mini-saga is a short piece of writing containing exactly 50 words, no lesss and no moree not counting your title. However, the title requirement is not always enforced and sometimes eliminated altogether. Mini-sagas are alternately known as micro-stories, ultra-shorts stories, or fifty-word stories. The idea was originally invented by writer Brian Aldiss and the newspaper The Daily Telegraph, which has held several minisaga competitions.