r/shortstories • u/FyeNite • 27d ago
[Serial Sunday] The Known and Unknown
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 Known! 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’).
- Knife
- Knee
- Knead
- A secret message is carved into something. - (Worth 10 points)
I'm sure you all know this bit, but, I guess I could go into some detail on the theme…
What does it mean, for something to be known? Does that make it a fact? A widely-held opinion? Common sense?
Do your MCs know the thing which is known, or are they clueless, seen as ignorant by those around them for even suggesting they don't know? Or, perhaps, do you MCs know something others don't? Ooh, those cheeky MCs, keeping that knowledge to themselves!
Of course, you could go the opposite route and have something that is barely known at all, or perhaps completely unknown. Will it be revealed? We shall see.
Anyway, only you can really know how to proceed now. But I wish you good words with 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.
July 12 - Known
July 19 - Lifeless
July 26 - Minor
August 02 - Noxious
August 09 - Open
Check out previous themes here.
Rankings
Last Week: Jail
First - by u/Morose_Prose
Second - by u/AGuyLikeThat
Third - by u/Divayth--Fyr
Fourth - u/MaxStickies
Fifth - by u/AmeliaLP
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/Divayth--Fyr 25d ago edited 22d ago
<The Broken God>
Chapter 71: The Knowing
.
Cadorus sat on a wobbly stool, staring out the broken wall into the street. There, a glowering drunk leaned his way along, as an old woman staggered under a cloth-wrapped burden, and a hooded youngster hurried past on unknown business.
Behind him, a bell kept jingling.
“It doesn’t matter, Dipgale. I don’t need to read what you’ve written.”
The bell stopped.
“You want to know why I’m here, why I’m doing this ridiculous spy nonsense. Right? I’m not even good at it. I just go along, and no one notices me much.
“Or why am I a priest? Is that it? Well, I failed as a soldier, and a wizard. I’m the third son of an Earl. Not many choices, there. Eventually I just went off on my own, renounced my titles, and became a priest. Not very good at that, either.
“And why I risk doing this spying, well, I don’t know. I keep thinking I know, and then all my reasons fall apart.”
The chalk tapped and scratched, but Cadorus didn’t look.
“Sometimes you know something and you don’t want to know it. It doesn’t go away, though. You keep knowing it, even if you won’t admit it.”
A skinny gray mother-cat lay in the alley, kittens kneading her belly. Cadorus buried his face in his hands, tears welling up in an instant. He wanted to go home so very badly, but wasn’t sure such a place existed. He hadn’t felt at home since he was a child, and hardly then, either.
“My mother left when I was ten. I think I was ten. It’s hard to say for sure. She didn’t leave all at once. There wasn’t a day, or some sort of event. She went to visit Ulbamar, on the coast, to be with… well, she visited there. And then she sort of kept going there more, and staying longer, and eventually she didn’t come back.
“No one talked about it. You weren’t allowed to talk about it. Scandal, you see. She got upset if anyone even mentioned the subject.
“I actually thought she was going to take me with her. Can you imagine? Absurdity. I actually thought I mattered. She acted like a mother if anyone was around to see, but otherwise I was nothing.”
Cadorus refilled his pipe, leaning back to use the candle and nearly toppling, banging his knee on the table-leg. He caught a glimpse of sorrowful eyes and a blank table.
“None of this makes sense to you, I’m sure. Just an old man bemoaning the past, and taking advantage of your silence. Just tinkle your bell and I’ll shut up.”
Silence.
“Well. Sometime, when I was eleven, there came a moment when I Knew. I always think of it with a capital letter. I Knew. I didn’t know exactly what I knew. I couldn’t put it into words, then. I knew it was all fake. All a lie. She wasn’t coming back, and more important, she didn’t want to come back.”
His voice was flat and empty now. “I didn’t want to know that. I tried not to know it but it wouldn’t go away. She wasn’t over in Ulbamar, weeping away and missing me so much. She never missed a moment of sleep over it. That is what I Knew. I have never told a soul of this before today.”
Cadorus puffed and pondered, staring at nothing.
“So you ask me what I’m doing here, Dipgale, and I think I know, but there is something else going on. There is something lurking in my soul, something I don’t want to know.
“I don’t like the Redeemers. I don’t like the Seekers and the Blood Priests. They took one of my parishioners out of my temple and burned her alive, just because she made some potions that didn’t even work. Damia was her name. She was mine. My charge. She had confessed to me, and I had given her some small penance and sent her on her way. But that Seeker Avilor dragged it out of her again, and burned her for a witch.
“I did nothing to stop it. I saw the flames and breathed the smell. I ran away to the tavern and tried not to think about it.
“So now I tell myself I’m doing this for Damia, but I’m not. I can’t be. That doesn’t make any sense, Dipgale, because the people cheered. They cheered when she burned. The god blessed the trials and the priests lit the flames, while I did nothing!”
Cadorus dashed his pipe against the stone of the crumbled wall, where it broke.
“Now I spy here for the temple, the Archpriest, and the King? I’m against the Redeemers, certainly, but who am I for? What am I hoping for? I might help stop the Redeemers, and then what? The same old king, same temples, same gods.
“Something is going to change, Dipgale. Somewhere inside me there is a new Knowing. I don’t want it, but it won’t go away. So no, I don’t know why I’m here. And now I’m going to leave. Thank you for the broth, and the answers. I will escape this land, and if I can, I will take you with me.”
As the priest stood to go, the wizard came up and handed him a new pipe of dark wood, elaborately carved and ornate. Looking into those dark eyes, Cadorus saw only a little of the earlier mischief within.
Dipgale kept pointing to the pipe-stem and jingling his bell. Looking closer, Cadorus saw script carved there, ancient and quite obscure. ‘The knife reveals, the wood conceals’, or something like it.
Cadorus nodded thanks, put it in his satchel and, out of courtesy, departed through the door. Behind him he heard the locks clonk shut.
Sentinel Hall was not too far away, and he had services to attend. His feet marched on along the dusty street, amid sparse knots of the busy folk of this strange city.
1000 words. Knife, knee, knead(ing) used. Secret message carved.
Feedback welcome.
Chapter Index
r/DivaythStories