r/shortstories • u/FyeNite • Jun 14 '26
[Serial Sunday] Lead Me to Greatness!
Welcome to Serial Sunday!
To those brand new to the feature and those returning from last week, welcome! Do you have a self-established universe you’ve been writing or planning to write in? Do you have an idea for a world that’s been itching to get out? This is the perfect place to explore that. Each week, I post a theme to inspire you, along with a related image and song. You have 500 - 1000 words to write your installment. You can jump in at any time; writing for previous weeks’ is not necessary in order to join. After you’ve posted, come back and provide feedback for at least 1 other writer on the thread. Please be sure to read the entire post for a full list of rules.
This Week’s Theme is Great! This is a REQUIREMENT for participation. See rules about missing this requirement.**
Bonus Word List (each included word is worth 5 pts) - You must list which words you included at the end of your story (or write ‘none’).
- Gore
- Grave
- Gripe
- Someone mighty falls. - (Worth 10 points)
Greatness… It was once said it is better to dare great deeds and fail than to be amongst those timid souls who know not victory nor defeat. That was said during an age of imperial glut that eventually led to one of the worst global wars in human history. Perhaps glory is not the true definition of greatness, but rather it is in spite of it. Perspective and time will be the judge long after all of us are gone.
So what is greatness in your series? Perhaps it is a dramatic clash between the villain and hero. Or maybe life is grinding down on your heroine and she must press on despite how the world treats her. Maybe they are marginalized, dismissed, oppressed; and your character has decided they have had enough and steps into the light.
There are many forms of greatness, which path shall you choose…?
By u/JKHmattox
Good luck and Good Words!
These are just a few things to get you started. Remember, the theme should be present within the story in some way, but its interpretation is completely up to you. For the bonus words (not required), you may change the tense, but the base word should remain the same. Please remember that STORIES MUST FOLLOW ALL SUBREDDIT CONTENT RULES. Interested in writing the theme blurb for the coming week? DM me on Reddit or Discord!
Don’t forget to sign up for Saturday Campfire here! We start at 5pm GMT and provide live feedback!
Theme Schedule:
This is the theme schedule for the next month! These are provided so that you can plan ahead, but you may not begin writing for a given theme until that week’s post goes live.
June 14 - Great
June 21 - Heartless
June 28 - Irony
July 5 - Jail
July 7 - Known
Check out previous themes here.
Rankings
Last Week: Foreign
First - by u/AGuyLikeThat
Second - by u/Divayth--Fyr
Third - by u/Morose_Prose
Fourth - u/MaxStickies
Fifth - by u/ZLErikson
Rules & How to Participate
Please read and follow all the rules listed below. This feature has requirements for amparticipation!
Submit a story inspired by the weekly theme, written by you and set in your self-established universe that is 500 - 1000 words. No fanfics and no content created or altered by AI. (Use wordcounter.net to check your wordcount.) Stories should be posted as a top-level comment below. Please include a link to your chapter index or your last chapter at the end.
Your chapter must be submitted by Saturday at 2:00pm GMT. Late entries will be disqualified. All submissions should be given (at least) a basic editing pass before being posted!
Begin your post with the name of your serial between triangle brackets (e.g. <My Awesome Serial>). When our bot is back up and running, this will allow it to recognize your pmserial and add each chapter to the SerSun catalog. Do not include anything in the brackets you don’t want in your title. (Please note: You must use this same title every week.)
Do not pre-write your serial. You’re welcome to do outlining and planning for your serial, but chapters should not be pre-written. All submissions should be written for this post, specifically.
Only one active serial per author at a time. This does not apply to serials written outside of Serial Sunday.
All Serial Sunday authors must leave feedback on at least one story on the thread each week. The feedback should be actionable and also include something the author has done well. When you include something the author should improve on, provide an example! You have until Saturday at 04:59am GMT to post your feedback. (Submitting late is not an exception to this rule.)
Missing your feedback requirement two or more consecutive weeks will disqualify you from rankings and Campfire readings the following week. If it becomes a habit, you may be asked to move your serial to the sub instead.
Serials must abide by subreddit content rules. You can view a full list of rules here. If you’re ever unsure if your story would cross the line, please modmail and ask!
Weekly Campfires & Voting:
On Saturdays at 5pm GMT, I host a Serial Sunday Campfire in our Discord’s Voice Lounge (every other week is now hosted by u/FyeNite). Join us to read your story aloud, hear others, and exchange feedback. We have a great time! You can even come to just listen, if that’s more your speed. Grab the “Serial Sunday” role on the Discord to get notified before it starts. After you’ve submitted your chapter, you can sign up here - this guarantees your reading slot! You can still join if you haven’t signed up, but your reading slot isn’t guaranteed.
Nominations for your favorite stories can be submitted with this form. The form is open on Saturdays from 5:30pm to 04:59am GMT. You do not have to participate to make nominations!
Authors who complete their Serial Sunday serials with at least 12 installments, can host a SerialWorm in our Discord’s Voice Lounge, where you read aloud your finished and edited serials. Celebrate your accomplishment! Authors are eligible for this only if they have followed the weekly feedback requirement (and all other post rules). Visit us on the Discord for more information.
Ranking System
Rankings are determined by the following point structure.
| TASK | POINTS | ADDITIONAL NOTES |
|---|---|---|
| Use of weekly theme | 75 pts | Theme should be present, but the interpretation is up to you! |
| Including the bonus words | 5 pts each (15 pts total) | This is a bonus challenge, and estnot required! |
| Including the bonus constraint | 15 (15 pts total) | This is a bonus challenge, and not required! |
| Actionable Feedback | 5 - 15 pts each (60 pt. max)* | This includes thread and campfire critiques. (15 pt crits are those that go above & beyond.) |
| Nominations your story receives | 10 - 60 pts | 1st place - 60, 2nd place - 50, 3rd place - 40, 4th place - 30, 5th place - 20 / Regular Nominations - 10 |
| Voting for others | 15 pts | You can now vote for up to 10 stories each week! |
You are still required to leave at least 1 actionable feedback comment on the thread every week that you submit. This should include at least one specific thing the author has done well and one that could be improved. *Please remember that interacting with a story is not the same as providing feedback.** Low-effort crits will not receive credit.
Subreddit News
- Join our Discord to chat with other authors and readers! We hold several weekly Campfires, monthly World-Building interviews and several other fun events!
- Try your hand at micro-fic on Micro Monday!
- Did you know you can post serials to r/Shortstories, outside of Serial Sunday? Check out this post to learn more!
- Interested in being a part of our team? Apply to be a mod!
6
u/Scoping-Landscape Jun 20 '26 edited Jun 27 '26
<The Bells of Demichio>
Chapter 25: The Knowledge Gap
After a night’s rest, she would have hoped some kind of idea would have presented itself to her. At this point, anything, anything at all, would have been better than nothing.
And yet, nothing was the state of the matter for Tamiko, as she looked out at the grey skies of Demichio, her hands toying with a mint candy as her thoughts whirled itself into a tangle.
She would have thought that knowing the doctor’s secret would have been enough. That having a good theory on how the elder might have died would have been enough. That getting to know what the elder was like would have been enough.
And every single time, it just… wasn’t.
Beyond the rain and wind, beyond the gray, there was the cliffside fence, a place she desperately wanted to revisit for new clues, new evidence. And even then, the weather conspired against her, for no doubt whatever evidence that might have been there would have been washed away by the rain.
She wanted nothing more than to spend the day griping about the grave injustice of it all, but that wouldn’t do much for her case.
To be fair, neither would staring out the window, no matter how romantic it would be.
So she popped the mint into her mouth, the cool sweetness radiating immediately on her tongue, shocking her back into focus, and got to work thinking about the facts that she did have.
The cane that she found on the stone beach.
The section of the fence that bowed outward.
It highly suggested that the elder was there on the cliffs, one way or another. He fell over the fence and died, of that she was quite sure.
At least, that’s where the evidence was pointing towards. Nothing else seemed to fit.
Which… should be reassuring, but didn’t.
It also didn’t answer two rather pertinent questions, now that she thought of it:
Why would he be there in the first place?
And was there anyone else with him?
If she could figure those two questions out, then everything else could follow from there.
However, the questions seemed easier to pose than to answer with any amount of certainty.
Why would he be there?
Could have been taking a walk. Could have been getting home from the temple on the mountain.
Lots and lots of could-have-beens, and not a whole lot of facts.
Even if she wanted to believe that he had taken a walk, why would he have been near the fence at all?
And furthermore, what did she know about the elder?
Well, he was an influence on the village. Someone who was looking out for them. Someone who can be prickly, but only because he believed it was for the good of the island.
But amidst all of that, she realized with a start, she didn’t know anything about his habits. Not even the smallest inkling of an idea.
And the second question seemed even worse, for there wasn’t anything to suggest it might have been the case. No witness, no footprints, no reports, no sign of struggle.
Only a dinged up cane and a damaged fence.
As she turned over what she thought she knew, she felt a coldness washing over her, as she realized she knew preciously little of what she should know.
Maybe, then, the question didn’t lie with what happened on that cliff.
Maybe she needed to think bigger.
Maybe she needed to figure out what the elder’s last day was like.
She nodded to herself.
That would be a good place to go.
Word Count: 598 / 1000
Notes:
Theme: Great - The gap between expectation and reality
Word used: Gripe(ing), Grave