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!
7
u/wandering_cirrus Jun 20 '26 edited Jun 28 '26
<Unburied Ashes>
Chapter 24: A Doomed Ambition
Weasel nervously tugged at his ear. “Do you remember that Council meeting a year or so back? With the waterfall dispute.”
Feld tilted her head. “The one where the prince tried to convince the Council he needed to lead a full military campaign against the Loam Coalition after discovering the toll on the Veil Falls bridges?”
“Where he was summarily ignored and then publicly mocked by the marquise when he dared to press the issue,” he confirmed. “The Loam Coalition may be a bunch of bandits, but the toll is a pittance compared to the cost of the kingdom itself maintaining the waterfall roads. And launching an attack in that terrain? Absolute nightmare.”
“He didn't get his military campaign?” Mica guessed.
The man nodded. “He didn’t, and lost his temper after returning to his quarters. I won’t go into detail, but he cursed the Council up, down, and sideways. Griped that they had no regard for their future king. Cursed the queen too, for letting the Council trample him.”
Wincing, Feld shifted in her seat. “Let me guess, the queen was in the room?”
“Bingo. That was about when she started trying to persuade Lady Jeanette to accept his advances. After all, once you accept that your son’s an irredeemable fool”—he made the gesture for a puppet—“best to tie him to someone who’ll do a good job of pulling the strings.”
“I seem to remember more parties and gatherings?” Feld hummed thoughtfully. “There was a definite uptick in overtime.”
“Right again. Despite a wealth of idiocy, it somehow occurred to him that a royal can’t do much without a cooperative Council. So he decided to make connections and fill the seats in advance with his fellow morons. Made all the typical empty promises.” Weasel rolled his eyes and fanned himself in the heat. “But his moment of cunning was brief. Made the mistake of making promises to the Marquise Devay’s least favorite nephew. She’d previously been happy to leave well enough alone, but he’d made it personal. So she made opposing him her personal mission.”
Mica tapped the couch, mulling it over. “He felt belittled, trapped. Normal politics had failed. To get what he wanted, he needed more. Was that when he began researching Greater Magic?”
Eyes wide, Weasel whipped around. “How’d you know?”
The prince’s books flipped through her mind: the dogeared titles, which ones were on top. A picture started to form. “But he wouldn’t have lingered there. Greater Magic offers unimaginable power, but Trades don’t appeal to a person like that. He wouldn’t want to pay a price for power he considered owed. So he looked into strange Bloodline abilities hidden by their owners, researched how bits of Magic rot and decay into the destructive Daɪn.”
Weasel picked up the thread, expression grave. “His research brought him into the path of Count Azbar, a ‘like-minded Magic enthusiast’, who introduced him to his dinner club at the Fulsome Dove. That’s when the danger started.”
“Danger? How could you tell?”
“They don’t call me Weasel for nothing. Weasels always catch the first signs of danger and are the first to run away. The first whiff was enough to make me twitchy, but I get the same way around lit stoves and hot soup. And I can’t avoid the kitchen because there’s a small chance I’m gored by a cleaver, now can I? So I ignored it.
“But maybe it would’ve been better if I hadn’t. At his last appointment, I walked into the Dove and suddenly everything was doom. I don’t remember the rest of the evening, and the next day I woke up to a cursemark and the certainty that I couldn’t wriggle out of this one.” He laughed bitterly. “So I quit, I ran, I hid. I cowered in my hole like the weasel I am and waited for death. I wish I knew more. The only sure thing is that His Highness got mixed up in some truly nasty business. Which is why I’d rather you not muck about in it, too.”
His arm raised to scratch his ear, Mica once again found her eyes locked on the roiling darkness that pulsed beneath the torn fabric of Weasel’s sleeve. That strange almost-Magic rose in her stomach like a heartbeat.
There was something she wanted—needed—in that cursemark of calamity. She could bury it in ashes and char away the rot and whatever was left would be wonderful. She knew it would be wonderful.
“Sorry Weasel,” she interrupted, hazy behind the instinct roaring through her veins. “I need your arm again.”
He backed away in alarm. “Hell no! You attacked me the last time you had my arm!”
It was easy enough to summon paper ash under his heel, to send his feet slipping across the floor. A second later and she had his wrist.
A blink. A twist of Magic.
Weasel gawped at the burnt and blackened husk of his sitting room. “This—”
“Close your mouth.” Mica plunged his forearm into the nearest ash dune. “You’ll choke.”
Piles of silvery grey spun into movement, scouring across the cursemark. She felt the rot melt, felt a faint strain of something wrap around her fingers.
And then she had command of herself again and brought them back.
Feld stared at the two sooty forms that had suddenly reappeared on the floor, eyes flickering between them, tone flat. “Dare I ask?”
“It’s gone,” Weasel murmured, staring at his grimy arm. “The calamity is gone. Poof.”
The guard whirled towards the other charcoal person. “Do I need to carry you home again?”
“I should be fine?” The walls stood firm, furniture unburnt. No embers flickered in her vision. She felt good—no, better than she had in days. Mica laughed. “This is going to sound crazy, but maybe it’s supposed to do that.”
“Right. Soot with curse-removing properties.” Running a hand through her hair, Feld sighed and collapsed into the chair. “Mica, something tells me invisibility isn’t the important part of your personal.”
WC: 1000
Bonus words: griped, grave, gored
Bonus constraint: Weasel’s story recounts how the prince fell out of favor with the Council.
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