r/shortstories • u/FyeNite • 8d ago
[Serial Sunday] DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
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 Doom! 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’).
- Damsel
- Daring
- deity
- Somebody is overly dramatic. - (Worth 10 points)
Doom. It is onomatopoeia for the end of all things. Doom.
The last door to close, the lid of your coffin slammed shut. Doom. It is the sudden, shocking sound before the eternal silence. The final knell of the mortal bell that rings with the echoing tone of,
DOOM.
Doom is a mood. But everything ends, sooner or later.
What things will perish in your chapter this week? Will a delicious snack meet its doom in the belly of our protagonist? Or will a forlorn hope of romance be crushed?
Or perhaps an unexpected meteor will introduce your serial to the fate of the dinosaurs, after all.
Whatever the case, we look forward to reading whatever carnage you wreak upon your story this week.
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.
May 24 - Doom
May 31- Entrenched
May 7- Foreign
June 14 - Great
June 21 - Heartless
Check out previous themes here.
Rankings
Last Week: Cry
First - by u/wandering_cirrus
Second - by u/AGuyLikeThat
Third - by u/Morose_Prose
Fourth - u/Divayth--Fyr
Fifth - by u/Scoping-Landscape
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 7d ago edited 2d ago
<The Broken God>
Chapter 64: Foolishness
.
Sancaurion the Great, the Mighty, the Wise, sat in his parlor, puffing at his pipe and pondering the rather impressive depths of his abject idiocy. Until quite recently, he had not seriously entertained the notion that he might be a blithering dimwit. It was an astonishing discovery—a bit like finding, one sunny afternoon, a second head you just hadn’t noticed before.
The orcs have no gods and no magic. So he, and everyone, had believed—except the orcs, of course.
He had planned and plotted against the human empire—reading their books, learning their histories, considering their weaknesses. He had prided himself on his curious and meticulous mind, yet had never investigated the orcs as anything but mindless tools of the empire.
It would have seemed absurd to do so. He had never looked into the capabilities of their cows, either, and whether they could cast spells.
Perhaps they can. How would I know?
Sancaurion was a legend of malicious terror among the orcs to this day, apparently. The Torikarsh, the Orcbreaker, credited with feats of tremendous destruction and mayhem—some of them wholly invented, some quite accurate. He hadn’t considered the sobriquet much of an honor, or much of a curse. They had needed killing, was all.
Now he had met some.
The previous night, a magnificent dark green deity had come striding into his parlor, glowing with arcane power, demanding that he follow her with paper and ink. She had ordered him about in his own tower, and he had obeyed without question as she stood there, muscled, exalted and luminous, like some mystic herald and champion of the divine. He had all but tripped over his feet in his urgency to comply, and spent quite a time carefully transcribing a recipe from his sitting-stone outside, in the characters of a language he did not recognize.
No gods and no magic! Idiocy! This Durash Arn was Aldivitar, a sorcerer, and, most unusually, a highly trained one. She could already cast spells more powerful than his, though he had not told her so, and remained unaware of her vast potential.
She had shown him the utter miracle of the ironward—something else he had failed, in all his centuries, to seriously investigate. Something the ignorant, mindless orcs had developed, and kept hidden along with an unknowable host of other capabilities.
And now, with almost casual ease, this walking miracle had communed and spoken with the spirit of her ancestor, and it seemed this was something many orcs could do. No elven mage, priest or prophet had ever done such a thing, nor any human.
Ah, the blithe contentment of the ignorant. ‘Satisfaction is the death of learning’, said Calambrio, or some other of the Vilthiri. ‘The scholar is one daring enough to admit ignorance’.
I know I have encountered the spirits of the dead, but not from within this realm of the living. His memories of such things were hazy and incomplete, but what he did with such spirits could hardly be considered communing.
He idly arranged the clouds of smoke from his pipe into mountains, runes, and geometric shapes. Hundreds of books in a multitude of languages lined the walls, each of them futile to explain what he now knew.
I shall have to write a new one, he thought. ‘On The Prevalence of Foolish Assumptions’, or something like it.
Durash Arn was off with Mrs. Gimple now, in the workshop, making the tincture or salve that could save wise young Gorthag. Sancaurion was all but useless to that process, but his stated intention—to go and rest—had not materialized thus far.
His left arm lay limp and idle in his lap, the pain of the newly-set bone giving way to a dreadful itching as it healed. He could still manage to look after himself, at least, with his ability to move objects around magically, but it was tricky with one hand. He had spilled tea on himself twice now, and was becoming increasingly morose, thoughtful, and damp.
This was no helpless damsel he was meant to help.
I have seen the Doom of the World. In my parlor. What was to come, he did not know, but he could feel a trembling. Wheresoever that sorcerer goes, she will bring death and thunder, and the storm of her passing will leave nothing unchanged.
Whether that change would help his people or eradicate them, he could not say. Helping her, furthering her education, showing her what the full power of the Everstorm could do, might prove to be triumph or catastrophe for his long-held oath.
My oath. Mine. I will end the empire in Tel Calador.
But what if she does it?
His pipe-smoke wafted away in unguided clouds as he explored this idea. It was akin to exploring the space where a tooth had gone missing.
What is more important? That the empire be wrecked, or that I be the one to do it? To become secondary in his own ancient purpose was a disturbing notion. Should I train her fully? Reveal all the secrets, then? He would become a footnote in the history of how some slave-born orc changed the world. ‘She was assisted by others’, it would say, and he would simply be part of the anonymous ‘others’.
He shook his old head. Overwrought foolishness. I will train her anyhow. To go on as he had, puttering about Heromil and making impotent plans, was absurd. In his mind he saw two green stones. Two lives left, with the amulet, the kethar-alnaron. A few paltry centuries at most.
A pounding at the door startled him. He dropped his pipe and strode out, preparing a one-handed spell against whoever might be out there. He spoke the great disc aside.
“Uldarquin!” he cried.
This could be terribly inconvenient. Perhaps the others could stay hidden.
“Come in! Are you well?”
“Yes, I am quite…” She stopped, and stared past him.
Durash and Mrs. Gimple had entered the parlor, and were staring back.
998 words. Damsel, daring, deity used. Sancaurion is overdramatic (hardly the first time, really).
Dooooom.
Feedback welcome.
Chapter Index
r/DivaythStories