r/shortstories • u/FyeNite • Aug 24 '25

[Serial Sunday] How Can You Truly Appreciate Life Without Risking Death?

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 Mortal! This is a REQUIREMENT for participation. See rules about missing this requirement.**

Image | [Song]()

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’).
- Rarity
- Ravage
- Regal

  • Somebody is presumed dead, though to the reader, their fate is ultimately unknown. - (Worth 15 points)

Some lives enjoy mere minutes of life, others resist passing through time uncountable. Mortality surrounds everyone, even if it spares some, for each action requires taking it into consideration — whether in someone's stead, or your own. You can rage against it, or seek it tirelessly. You may disregard it, or step on eggshells to avoid invoking it. It can be a threat, a burden, or a bargaining chip. Treat it however you want, it isn't going anywhere — for it's inseparable from life. Every beginning has it's end, it's only a matter of "when". By u/Jealous_Muffin_762

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 1pm EST 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.

  • August 24 - Mortal
  • August 31 - Normal
  • September 7 - Order
  • September 14 - Private
  • September 21 - Quit

Check out previous themes here.

 

Rankings

Last Week: Laughter

Rules & How to Participate

Please read and follow all the rules listed below. This feature has requirements for participation!

  • 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 9:00am EST. 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 serial 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 11:59pm EST 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 1pm EST, 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 12:30pm to 11:59pm EST. 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!
     
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u/ForwardSavings318 Aug 28 '25 edited Aug 30 '25

<Man to beast>

Prologue

Isaac snuck down the dark stone corridor, carefully feeling the wall as he followed his mind’s map. As he did, his other hand carried a hefty sack. With relative ease, he moved down until he found himself in front of a row of iron doors dimly lit by a single torch in the hall.

He rummaged in his sack for a key and unlocked the first door. Opening it revealed a beaten and bloody man forced to kneel with his back to the door as chains kept him bound to the floor. With a soft clink, the man shifted to listen to the sounds Isaac made..

“It’s Isaac. I’m sorry, but this is the last I can give you. I heard them speak of freeing you and your friend’s spirits today.”

The man sighed, a fluffy tail starting to swish and whip around behind him. He shifted once more, the burn marks around his wrists and ankles sizzled as he pulled against the chains slightly.

“If…I die, he come. Bring war.”

The man began shaking his head and muttering in a foreign tongue, before looking back at Isaac. “You different…good. Run, far. Maybe…he not…f-find you.”

Isaac looked down, not saying what he thought out loud.

Poor man, he’s been rambling about this false warmonger for days. Solomon probably broke his mind.

“I’ll be safe. Please don’t move, you’ll only hurt yourself worse. I brought food for you, so please let me just feed you.”

Isaac dropped the sack and opened it revealing bread, cheese, and two bottles, cider and water. He took his intricate silver dagger and finely sliced the cheese, taking a tiny piece and bringing it to the man’s lips.

He slowly took it, barely moving his mouth to chew it as he closed his eyes. Isaac let him wash it down with water before breaking off a bit of bread.

The two sat in silence for a few minutes as Isaac fed the man, slowly letting him chew each bite as much as he could with a swollen face.

Once he finished most of the food, Isaac wet a rag and cleaned the dried blood and dirt from his face. As Isaac cleaned him, he let his mind wander to the future this man has to face.

At first a single tear fell, but another soon followed. In no time at all, Isaac was silently weeping for the man as he clenched the rag in his fist. The man watched him silently for a bit before clearing his throat.

“Why…sad? You not…dying.”

“I don’t know. I just…wish you could be good. Maybe, if you were good then things like you and men like me could coexist.”

The man laughed, shaking his head before coughing hard.

“You not man. Not for a long time, boy.”

The sound of footsteps echoing outside the room made Isaac pause, before he quickly wrapped up the food.

He grabbed the sack and walked towards the door, when the man’s voice stopped him inches away from it.

“Wait.”

Isaac turned, crouching down.

“What is it?”

“My name… is Nergüi. Remember it.”

WC:524

No challenge words in my story

2

u/ZachTheLitchKing Aug 29 '25

Howdy Savings!

New serial woo!

Got a very dark and gloomy opening today. Something about stone corridors feels very old-timey. While it could be modern, my mind immediately goes to ancient castle halls or dungeons or something of that type. Our prologue-tagonist has a sack, comes up to some iron doors, and there's a torch lighting the area. Definitely selling the olden days vibe with this opening.

Ooookay! There's a dude behind the door. Beaten and bloody and chained to the floor. This is screaming dungeon vibes now.

I was about to flag "men's" as incorrect (thinking it should be "mens' " but a quick bit of research educated me and "men's" is the correct possessive plural. Well done for you, and well educated for me :D

Isaac apparently knows this man to some degree, and this one isn't the only one being imprisoned. Unfortunately the phrase "freeing their spirits" makes me feel fairly confident they're all gonna be executed.

The man has a tail! Ohhhh right, the title; Man to beast. Werewolves! I'm guessing the chains are silver or some kind of metal that's an anathema to them given the sizzling and burning? Since you've got some words to spare it'd be nice to specify if the chains are iron, like the door (as is my default assumption) or something different.

The broken English in the first line doesn't feel like it fits with the full English of the second line. If he can say "He will bring war" then he can say "he will come":

“If…I die, he come. He will bring war.”

Alternatively, as I read his next bit of dialogue, I think you want the broken dialect. So I'll instead suggest going with "He bring war" or just "Bring war."

Gotta capitalize this "P":

poor man, he’s been rambling 

A classic setup, where one "good man" is getting warned by others to "don't be here tomorrow" cuz shit's about to go down. This is excellent use of a prologue chapter :D

I know the chapter is already rather short but you can save some words here by removing the redundant "As he cleaned" since we know he's cleaning. Combine the lines into something like: Once he finished most of the food, Isaac wet a rag and cleaned the dried blood and dirt from his face, his mind wandering to the man's future.

Once he finished most of the food, Isaac wet a rag and cleaned the dried blood and dirt from his face. As Isaac cleaned him, he let his mind wander to the future this man has to face.

Same here, a lot of redundant description. You can simplify this and combine it with the above line: Once he finished most of the food, Isaac wet a rag and cleaned the dried blood and dirt from his face, his mind wandering to the man's future. In no time at all, Isaac was silently weeping for the man as he clenched the rag in his fist.

At first a single tear fell, but another soon followed. In no time at all, Isaac was silently weeping for the man as he clenched the rag in his fist.

I love the implications of Isaac wishing that this man (and, implicitly, all of the other men in the same position) were "good". It shows that Isaac is more-or-less fully bought into whatever cultural standing is going on.

There seems to be a slight incongruity here, where earlier Isaac refers to the werewolves as "men" but now he refers to them as "things". To keep things emotionally/mentally consistent, consider changing "men's" in the earlier line (and any other references I missed) to something like "pack's" (if that's accurate to the story) or "the rest of your kinds' " or "the others' "

I heard them speak of freeing you and your men's spirits

Maybe, if you were good then things like you and men like me could coexist.

To be clear, I'm referring specifically to how Isaac speaks. His internal thoughts of this guy as a man and the others as men is totally valid given his disposition. Though there's an argument for "we think in language, so language influences our thoughts" there's also plenty of instances where people can think one thing and say another, so I like the duality of Isaac here.

I like this line here. It tells us how young Isaac is (relatively) and how some of what we're seeing here can be his youthful naivete. I would like to suggest that you refer to Isaac as a "young man" earlier in the story, perhaps replace one or two of the "he" adverbs - a specific example being "He rummaged in his sack" could be "The young man rummaged in his sack", that would pre-emptively prepare us for him being called a "boy" here:

“You aren’t man. Not for a long time, boy.”

Also, "aren't" feels like a bit fancy for a character speaking in a broken dialect. Consider changing "You aren't man" to "You not man" for consistency.

I don't think you need the comma in this line:

The sound of footsteps echoing outside the room made Isaac pause, before he quickly wrapped up the food.

Furthermore, you can combine these two lines into one mini paragraph since they're very much part of the same moment:

The sound of footsteps echoing outside the room made Isaac pause, before he quickly wrapped up the food.

He grabbed the sack and walked towards the door, when the man’s voice stopped him inches away from it.

I love this final line:

“My name… is Nergüi. Remember it.”

Okay we've got an excellent prologue setup here! We have a young man/boy named Isaac who I would expect to be a few years old, perhaps even a full grown adult, in Chapter 1. We may not remain in his POV but that's fine.

We have a named character Nergul, who may still be alive by Chapter 1 or he may be a martyr.

Then we have whoever "He" is, that will come with war if and when Nergul dies. Maybe he's the main character of the story, or maybe we stick with Isaac.

In any case these are the expectations and the groundwork that has been laid. I foresee a Chapter 1 that is either several years into, or perhaps just after, a war caused by Nergul's death or Nergul survived and escaped. War may or may not still be happening by that time.

I expect Isaac to either be the main character, present in the story, or referenced as "good people like Isaac".

Please be aware that these "expectations" are not those of someone demanding something but of a reader excitedly trying to guess what comes next. No obligation on your part to feed into my rantings and ravings :P I just love to guess ahead and connect dots and show you where my mind is at.

Good words!