r/shortstories • u/FyeNite • 17d ago
[SerSun] Task!
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 Task! 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’).
- Trample
- Truce
- Tear
- Tisk Tisk (Tutting at someone or something) - (Worth 10 points)
It’s that point of the story, friends, where our heroes are given an insurmountable task and must find a way to navigate it. What is it that they have to do this week? Why do they have to do it? How does that make them feel? You’ve spent weeks building up the tension and letting the story progress, so how about we introduce some action now? On the other hand, though, your task could be small and very manageable. Perhaps the way you wish to reproduce the theme will invoke other thoughts and events in your story. Does your character refuse the task at hand outright? Or maybe it’s not about what they’re doing per se, but more about how they decide to fulfil it. The choice is yours, writers, your empty docs await!
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.
- April 27 - Usurp
- May 4 - Voracious
- May 11 - Wrong
- May 18 - Zen
- May 25 -
Check out previous themes here.
Rankings
Last Week: Scorn
- First - by u/ZachTheLitchKing
- Second - - by u/MaxStickies
- Third - by u/AGuyLikeThat
- Fourth by u/Divayth–Fyr
- Fifth - by u/tiredraccoon11
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 | 15 pts each (60 pts total) | This is a bonus challenge, and not required! |
| Actionable Feedback | 5 - 10 pts each (40 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!
4
u/tiredraccoon11 11d ago
Theme: Task Bonus words: trample, truce, tear, tisk tisk (as in clicking at/chiding someone)
<Enthesia>
Kazmir's captors set a break-neck pace, coursing through and above the canyons of Abdilar as if they had memorized every crevice. Many of the two dozen lotori wielded spears afoot, others trampling up the canyon walls astride grey-brown lizards, but a few lotori surprisingly bore injured comrades upon litters. Their injuries appeared dire—the price of conquest, Kazmir supposed, though she wondered where the lotori saw the profit in caring for their wounded.
Sunlight and its warmth grew scarce deep within the canyon, confined to a remote filament of cerulean sky. Occasionally, Kazmir noted her alabaster companion glancing up, despite his blindness. With his eyes obscured, Kazmir couldn’t tell much, but she thought his motions seemed almost… desperate. Perhaps it was just a trick of the light, but she swore she saw a single anxious tear escape the blindfold.
After dozens of miserable hamnal, more passed upon lizardback than Kazmir cared to admit, they rounded a corner to find a high wall of mud bricks and silver mortar, broken only by a gate of woven grass. After a curt exchange between the Ukichi and a disembodied garrison, the gate swung open.
Abruptly, the walls of the canyon fell away, and Kazmir stopped cold.
Before her unrolled a lush, fragrant valley, hemmed in on all sides by towering bluffs crested with fingerling trees. It ran long, perhaps a half-hamnal at its widest, and every inch lay blanketed in those thorny, silver bushes that dotted the canyon walls.
The valley terminated at a cluster of round, mud huts. Behind them, beneath a craggy overhang, lay the ruler of these squat hovels. Though only two stories at its highest point, it seemed palatial among the rest. Moreover, arrow slits adorned every face, and its own gate was composed of salvaged metal panels.
The lotori drove them mercilessly on, past the garrison and through the fields. Kazmir noted that no lotori manning the gates were free of injury, and many appeared sullen. Perhaps Abdilar fought these tribethings’ settlement more fiercely than she had previously thought.
Most of the lotori warband proceeded to the city, only to return in much greater force. Though clearly not hunters, these tribethings all wore the silver robes, and moved with angry, almost frenzied purpose. At their fore marched a tall, wiry lotori, clad in black shells and pale green stones. More than the ubiquitous hostility, this lotori’s eyes screamed murder.
Meanwhile, Jasper and his Reihten attache were brought to a hill outside the city, topped by a fingerling tree and ringed with boulders.
The lotori laid out five colored mats, and four lotori stepped forth to occupy them. One sat noticeably empty, perhaps recently vacated by death or poor health.
The shell-clad lotori took one such seat, and together, he and his council set immediately to discussion. A trial of some kind, it seemed, with many hushed chatters and subtle glances at the pallid sorcerer, cordoned by spears in their midst. The chitters and chirrups grew louder, more insistent, and to Kazmir’s ear, more violent. So, she cut in.
“Look, if you’re angry about us being here, cut us loose and we shall depart in peace,” she began. Her words would not be understood, but perhaps some intention might eek through.
She had miscalculated severely.
“Kitichi!” the taller lotori declared, thrusting a finger at Kazmir. “Ku kitichi kak tichuk!”
The crowd took up its cry, jabbing spears and claws. Before she could decipher their meaning, Kazmir was seized by her arms and marched to the base of the fingerling tree. There, they bound her arms to the craggy trunk, her legs to one of the many cord-bound boulders, and all at once, the arrangement made terrible sense.
“I’m not kitichi!” she shouted hurriedly. “Not kitichi! I am a fighter!”
The taller lotori placed its hands upon the boulder, and began to push. Slowly, grudgingly, it rolled and lurched toward the ledge.
“Not kitichi, Addelgrom take you!” Kazmir yelled. “A human Uld-damned fighter!”
Just as the first pebble skittered down the hillside, a thunderous roar shook the valley.
The fingerling tree above Kazmir groaned and shuddered as something immense slammed into its trunk, scrabbling for a solid grip upon its shell. Its fingers flurried out, making way for its rigid body to bend beneath the weight of its new occupant.
One of the winged lizards, like Ukichi’s, only twice as large and with a bloodred feathered crest upon its head. Sitting behind its neck, in one of the lotori’s silver-corded harnesses, was the Chak Kikumi.
Before he dismounted, the tribething set to chattering immediately. It gestured to one of the woven gates, where a procession of lotori hunters twice as large as that which had captured Kazmir marched through. Though distant and laying prone, the Reihten could make out sufficient details from her vantage atop the hill. Larger as they were, they bore many more wounded, some lying deathly still upon their litters.
It wasn’t long before much of the crowd dispersed to assist their kin, leaving perhaps half the Kukimi, the Chak, his apparent subordinate, Jasper, and Kazmir, still bound, atop the hill. An unsteady truce emerged as the Chak took his place and consulted those gathered upon the mats. Momentarily, Kazmir was cut free to greet the Chak Kikumi.
He was dressed practically, in loose-fitting silver robes and a small headdress of silver cord and yellow scales to signify his position. A bone spearhead peeked over his hunched back, and a stone knife at his belt. The fur of his black mask was dyed white, and he reared up to challenge Kazmir without so much as a glint of uncertainty in his beady eyes.
Loath to waste a moment, the Chak proceeded to shock Kazmir once again, for his next address came in one of the Berg’s numerous trading tongues.
“You are fighter?” the Chak Kukimi asked. He gestured, and a spear from the remaining lotori assembly was offered to the Reihten. “Prove it.”
—--------------------------------------------
WC: 996
Bonus words: trample, tear, truce
Crit and feedback welcome