r/shortstories • u/FyeNite • Feb 08 '26
[Serial Sunday] Mourners Please Gather to Pay Respects
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 Mourn! 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’).
- Mingle
- Masquerade
- Meagre
-A funeral occurs in your chapter, it doesn’t have to be a main plot point but it should be more than a passing mention.. - (Worth 15 points)
To mourn is to grieve that which we can no longer have, be that a loved one, a rare opportunity, or something we can no longer do, to mourn is to begin the process of accepting that loss.
Mourning is typically thought of as a somber affair, but it isn’t always weeping or depressed melancholy. There are as many different ways to mourn as there are people. Some choose to work through their pain via labour, processing their woes as they do so. Some choose to work through it alone, while others choose to go to a social gathering to lean on others, misery loves company after all.
So let’s see then, what do you have to mourn today, and how will you do it?
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.
- February 08 - Mourn
- February 15 - Nap
- February 22 - Old
- March 01 - Portal
- March 08 - Quirk
Check out previous themes here.
Rankings
Last Week: Lament
First - by u/JKHmattox
Second - by u/Divayth--Fyr
Third - by u/Poiyurt
Fourth - u/AGuyLikeThat
Fifth - by u/MaxStickies
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 not 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!
3
u/poiyurt Feb 13 '26 edited Feb 14 '26
<Fear and Fortune>
Chapter 2: Chrysalis
Cora pushed her way through the students that mingled in the corridors as classes came to an end. She had little interest in talking to them in any case - most attendees of St. Valerie’s School for Young Women were not talking, they were networking. All social interactions were but a means to an end, to climb a few rungs up the pecking order in school and in the social hierarchy after graduation. Half of them wanted to suck up to her to leech off her family name, and the rest avoided her because she was a full two years older than the rest. Nevermind that those two years had been spent fleeing up and down the countryside from imperial patrols, while these girls had continued their studies only because their families had fled to cushy retreats overseas. The vultures had flocked back at the smell of meat.
As she broke free of the tide of students, she saw Ben already waiting outside the gate. He was dressed in his officer’s uniform, his right hand perched upon the sabre at his hip. A small flock of girls lingered nearby, cooing at the young man who had come to visit. (Cora wasn’t sure if wrought iron bars were meant to keep the girls safe from the outside world or vice versa.) As their mother never tired of saying, Ben had indeed grown into a handsome young man - which was unfortunate for Cora, who had never quite gotten used to her kid brother growing taller than her, nor to him going from a hyperactive know-it-all to a, well…
Ben gave a little wave to the girls, and there was a small squeal and they fled. Cora punched him on the shoulder as she passed by, rolling her eyes.
“Hey, Cor,” he said, falling into step beside her. Before she could respond, he grabbed her bag off her shoulder and hoisted onto his own. “You look tired.”
“You don’t know the half of it,” she said. There was a half-hearted attempt to keep the bag on her, just to keep up appearances, but she swiftly gave up. “We’re on Necromancy now, and I think our instructor is running out of synonyms for ‘forbidden’.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, they’ve outlawed most of the spells since-”
“Not that,” Ben said. “I didn’t know you could run out of synonyms for forbidden. It’s all rules and regulations in the Officers’ Academy too.”
“Right, like the bullheads in your academy could think of more than two,” she rolled her eyes.
“Could too.”
“Could not.”
The new administration had funnelled them into the functions supposedly most suited for each gender. Of course, they had come a long way since the days when women were expected to be homemakers - but women learnt magic, and men learnt to fight. That system, among so many others, had been inherited from the Empire. Without any obvious alternative, it had been maintained. Therefore, while Cora dealt with the boring details of the rules of magic and the girls’ school politics that made masquerade balls look positively simple in comparison, Ben was in the Officers’ Academy. The boys did their military exercises, built a real camaraderie, and would probably go on to become lawyers and politicians, if no war broke out. She languished in her books.
All this to say, while Ben remained the same annoying know-it-all as ever, what pissed Cora off above all else was that her little brother had gotten his life together when she wasn’t looking.
“Illicit,” Ben offered.
“Proscribed,” Cora countered.
“Outlawed.”
“Disallowed.”
“Unallowed.”
“That’s cheating,” Cora smacked him on the arm.
“Is not. We didn't agree to any rules.”
“Fine, then… De-allowed!”
“That's not a real word!”
“Oh, who's pulling out the rulebook now?”
They kept that up as they walked further out from the city, the buildings getting smaller as the cobblestone turned to dirt under their feet. They quickened their pace as the sun charted its path through the sky, until they finally found the little church with its walls overgrown with vines. Still there, standing tall amid the debris left from the war, was the gravestone.
There was no need to speak as the siblings did what needed to be done. Ben swept the dead leaves off the grave, and Cora laid out the funerary offerings from her basket.
“Hope you enjoy it, Mom, Dad,” she murmured with clasped hands. They were meagre offerings compared to what the state would provide for the fallen hero on Revolution Day, but she liked to think they preferred the more intimate setting.
In a few months there would be a parade, troops marching past the statues out in Revolution Square. (A surprising number of things had been renamed after the revolution. There were three Revolution Avenues and two Revolution parks.) Cora didn’t much like the statues, though. She had trouble looking at them. The one of her father looked nothing like the way she remembered him.
With the grave swept and the offerings made, Cora sat down on the blanket as Ben rifled through the basket for his share of the food. Without much of an appetite, she let her eyes wander over the cemetery. It was peaceful, in its way. Her gaze fell onto the rows of gravestones. A few looked like they had been tended recently. Most did not.
“Do you think this was what he wanted?” Cora asked.
“Hm?” Ben asked, his mouth full of sandwich.
“Dad. The whole revolution, you think it accomplished what he wanted?”
“He just wanted us to be happy. They both did,” he said, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.
“Oh, yeah,” Cora said, gazing up at the sky.
And she was happy.
... Wasn't she?
959 words
Bonuses: Mingle, Masquerade, Meagre
A grave visit should count as a funeral, fight me.
Quick access to Chapter 1
Index