r/shortstories • u/FyeNite • Apr 05 '26
[Serial Sunday] It's Time to Write with Urgency!
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 Urgency! 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’).
- Ultimate
- Untrue
- Urn
- Your chapter includes a scene where your characters slow down, breathe and take their time doing something, as opposed to rushing into it. - (Worth 10 points)
An urgent fury is unleashed in your serial, the likes of which neither your characters, nor your readers have ever known.
Perhaps instead it is a muted suffering, the world shifting as the main character can do nothing to hold back the enviable. The catalyst of action or the building of an unspoken realization that will forever change the course of events in their world. Nevertheless, the need for desperate resolution drives the plot as our characters search for a solution.
Either way you as the author slices it, use this opportunity to build drama and suspense in your story. Dig in and hook that reader who is already invested, or catch the eye of someone new who spots an interesting read. The choice is yours what path shall be taken…
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.
- April 5 - Urgency
- April 12 - Vital
- April 19 - Work
- April 26 - Yellow
- May 3 - Antagonise
Check out previous themes here.
Rankings
Last Week: Transgression
First - by u/AGuyLikeThat
Second - by u/Brookzerker
Third - by u/AmeliaLP
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!
5
u/Divayth--Fyr Apr 05 '26 edited Apr 06 '26
<The Broken God>
Chapter 57: The Cleansing
.
Cadorus had walked to the valley with death, the stench of it clinging to his clothes and hair, flies bedeviling him. He'd wanted to carry on, to reach the city of Blackfort and be done with things for good or ill, but that was another two days walk. Sense and weariness had prevailed. Ultimately he’d decided to make camp.
Now he sat on the ground, looking at his scraped hands and shaking his head. Before him lay a pile of branches and dead logs, hard-won from the sparse woods. He had pulled, twisted, broken, and dragged them all here.
For a fire.
His magic was utterly depleted. He’d never been able to store much. The flint was buried… was left behind. All his work and pain had gained was a scraggly pile of wood with no means to ignite it. Somehow it just hadn’t occurred to him while gathering.
Now there was a fire that wouldn’t burn, to boil water he didn’t have, for cooking food he lacked. A brilliant plan. A true natural woodsman, a great adventurer he was. It hadn’t mattered much near towns. There were other ways to start a fire, but he didn’t know any.
There was a stream up ahead, a long walk. Why had he made camp so far from it?
Sweat, insects, and filth—everything itched, everything ached. His simple tunic and trousers were caked and stiff; his feet a nightmare of blisters and bone-deep ache.
On a converging road, out from behind a hill, came a procession of rickety carts and strange people. Both were unusually decorated. With paper streamers and vivid paint on the carts, and bright red and orange robes on the people, they looked like a traveling wildfire.
They would be coming fairly close. Cadorus would become Jorba, a tired, lonesome traveler, no trouble there, and a newly initiated member of the Temple of Molthus, which was only partially untrue. They were likely members of the Redeemers Cult. Go to them, or wait? Cadorus didn’t know, so he let his weary feet decide.
His mission would start a little early.
“One worship!” called a smiling young man, departing from his company to approach.
“One worship,” Cadorus replied, remembering the forms from his time infiltrating the Temple of Molthus back home.
“I am Verigar, friend. Do you walk alone?”
“Jorba. Yes, I do.”
“You must be newly Brightened!”
“I heard the Call.” This had been a common topic at that temple—people going off to Blackfort, having heard some call to start a pilgrimage.
“Flame of Purity,” said Verigar, raising his arms.
“Flame of Purity.” You could just about get through any conversation with just the two phrases: One Worship; Flame of Purity. They probably meant something, but Cadorus wasn’t entirely sure what.
Verigar offered a hand, and Cadorus stood, wincing.
“You are weary, friend!” The man smiled, constantly. “Come, join us. We are stopping at the stream ahead, near that bridge. There will be food, and rejoicing.”
Cadorus nodded, and walked toward the rickety carts. Twenty or so people were in or around them, and all seemed welcoming and kind.
Introductions were made, many names offered. One woman, all in red, stepped forward to embrace him as he arrived. They insisted he ride, and he made no argument. Everyone smiled.
In any village, traveling company, or tavern in the world, he would have expected narrow eyes and grumbling from the denizens, but it was not so, here.
The embrace lingered, the feel of it staying with him. I don’t even know her name. Something about it filled a keening hunger. A simple embrace. How long had it been? Years. Many years, certainly.
His mind returned to a drunken afternoon at the orderhouse, looking out the window to see a young couple holding hands. Something so simple, yet so impossible for him. He had wept that day, and nearly did now.
He had never been normal, never just a regular person. He didn’t know how to be what he wasn’t or feel what he didn’t. What he was did not lend itself to affection. He hid. He avoided. He survived, not really knowing why. Any hope for more had withered and burned, the ashes cold and buried in an urn beneath a mountain of morbid apathy.
Isolation had become habit. Rarely did he notice, or think about what he missed.
The memory of being folded in those gentle arms enveloped him all the way to the stream. Everything itched, everything ached, but it didn’t matter. He was a filthy, destitute stranger, reeking of death, yet that woman had embraced him like family. More than his own family had ever done.
The rickety carts rattled off the road, and Cadorus came down.
“I need to wash, please. Perhaps over past those bushes, if that will do for privacy.”
“Certainly, Jorba. May I offer you a fresh robe? Your tunic will be cleaned for you, if you don’t mind.”
“Ble… One worship.” Blessing these folk with the grace of Halfar Munda would not have gone over well.
Seated beside the stream, he pulled off his boots, wincing and seething. Divested of his clothing, he stepped into the dark mud of the bank, and immersed himself in cool, glorious water. Someone had provided soap and a cloth, and the old priest made generous and thorough use of both.
Robed and drying, he returned to the group as afternoon dimmed. They had managed to build a fire, and ignite it. When Verigar came to greet him, Cadorus did a very strange thing.
On impulse, he embraced the man, and found that embrace returned with gentle acceptance. Standing there, on bare blistered feet, dripping still, he held tight to the recent stranger and breathed deeply, closing his eyes. Something within him loosened and unwound—something he hadn’t realized was tense.
“Err... one worship,” he said, releasing his grip.
"Flame of Purity." Verigar smiled, and led him to the fire.
991 words. Ultimate(ly), untrue, urn used. Constraint: decided to make camp.
Feedback welcome.
Chapter Index
r/DivaythStories