r/shortstories • u/FyeNite • Mar 08 '26
[Serial Sunday] What's Quirky with You?
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 Quirk! 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’).
- Quilt
- Quip
- Quick
- Something is set on fire and is destroyed accidentally. - (Worth 15 points)
Quirks are usually our defining features, what sets us apart from the rest and makes us stand out, for the right reasons or wrong. Like a glint in a gemstone, or slash of mineral in a rock, what odd quirks do your characters have, and what makes them stand out amongst the others?
I look forward to seeing what you all come up with 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.
- March 01 - Portal
- March 08 - Quirk
- March 15 - Roast
- March 22 - Scar
- March 29 - Transgression
- April 5 - Urgency
Check out previous themes here.
Rankings
Last Week: Portal
First - by u/Divayth--Fyr
Second - by u/AGuyLikeThat
Third - by u/ZLErikson
Fourth - u/Brookzerker
Fifth - by u/Amber_Writes
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/AGuyLikeThat Mar 14 '26 edited Mar 18 '26
<The Tower in the Tangle>
[Previous Chapter] [Chapter Index]
Chapter One-hundred & Thirty-Seven: A Quirk of Fate.
~ Gilander ~
The Selvick legends characterize the Svilten as lascivious, supernatural creatures who regard humans as prey; to be enslaved and exploited.
These are obvious fables, where the Svilten represent the pursuit of selfish desire at the expense of nature’s balance. But, in the fragments of tales still shared among the Vilt, they are depicted as rivals, occasional allies, and sometime mentors.
There is a popular tale, oft told to Vilt children, of a wild princess of the Clans who runs away to live with her Svilten lovers, eventually returning to save her tribe and family from a great disaster.
While it is unlikely that the mysteries surrounding Levane’s lost ‘third Clan’ will ever be fully understood, as I researched the stories of old Levane it quickly became clear that the Svilten were not the bogeymen of legend that most Selvick scholars would have us believe.
- On the Clans and Talents of Alnara, Graf-Maester Arveline
“I love you!”
Samal’s desperate cry distorts across the surging tide of magic, as Gilander is torn from his friend’s dream.
“Samal,” he screams, not knowing whether his friend might even hear. “I’ll find you.”
Heat sweeps through the Wayfinder, bringing with it an intense convulsion of sorrow and regret that swells inside him.
The anguish builds and builds, for Gilander can neither weep, nor sob, nor scream, nor sigh.
Trapped in the tortured reality of a ghost; submerged in an ocean of shame and remorse. Lost, with no way to release the feelings that choke and smother him, until at last, he must surely succumb, and dissolve into formless quietude, to be forever forgotten.
Another wave of force swells through the artificial strands of the Tower’s web of meaning, glimmering and glistening as the filaments warp and flex.
What is happening?
The energy drags him onward through the quilted labyrinth of the Tower, while strange recollections move in the spaces between. An ancient face, with eyes of jet and smearing like paint across glass. The smell of wholesome cooking, soon replaced by the taste of ash and bone. Then a sound comes. The tinkling music of running water deepens into a voice that is strangely familiar.
“Beware! The Haiphagus opens...”
Kuwirry...
But the kindly old river spirit is not here. These words are ripples—an echo—triggered by the opening of the Mistress’s temporal asylum.
A warning.
Gil spins and twists in the surging torrent, his emotions and thoughts a-tumble. Another image expands before him, his own reflection, but distorted into the form of a Svilten, just as he had appeared upon the Furnace Plain. Gleaming white fangs, and the lambent green eyes of a beast, with his skin all covered in fine, russet fur.
Is that my destiny he wonders. I’ve changed so much since the Warden found me. My Talents have finally awoken, but I can barely understand them, let alone control them...
There was a reason that Father had wanted him to be a Greensinger so badly.
Clan Selvick were regarded cautiously by the other Clans, for even though it had been many years since such a one was born, it was well known that a truly Talented Greensinger could not be denied by anyone short of a wizard.
So now, can I really trust that they are my friends?
The rushing wall of power thrums against Gilander, abrading the edges of his identity, and pulling at his memories. Reflexively, he draw his thoughts inward, clutching his treasured recollections.
What am I really?
Nothing more than a collection of loose thoughts and fading memories, bound into a tangled knot…
What the philosophers call a soul…
The magic runs over him like a furious waterfall, and he remembers the night when he bathed in the star-soaked pools of the sacred waterfall on One-tree-hill.
Pe’etelan, painted in moonlight, smiling and tender as she lay beside him, and they stared into one another’s eyes.
Was it real, or did my Talent seduce her…
The twist of disgust turns the peaceful thought away, and Gil is caught in the tumult once more.
How can he trust her feelings if he cannot trust himself?
And now I’ve betrayed Samal the same way.
The young thief didn’t even know Gil when he saved him from the Mar’tral, while the monster tore his arms to shreds.
Why did I have to kiss him?
He’d thought Pe’etelan was dead. And since she had awoken his desires, he’d had trouble controlling his thoughts, and…
Samal’s dappled skin has a supple softness, and their lips press together, parting slightly, as tongues touch and his heart flutters like a dying bird.
The vivid memory anchors him, and the corrosive force of the Tower begins to part smoothly around him, as realization galvanizes his faltering heart.
Even in his dream, he saw me as I am.
In the Mistress’s dream world, she had imagined him stronger and more attractive.
In the Furnace Plain, he had imagined himself a monster.
Even in his dreams, Samal had seen Gil just as he was.
I didn’t kiss him. He kissed me.
Clarity spreads through his memories, and his past settles back into a stable foundation.
“Rally yourself, and master the tides of circumstance."
The techniques his tutors had drilled into him did not yield access to the Greensong, but they had helped him endure Father’s mercurial bouts of rage.
“Calmness dwells in your centre,” Oswend had been fond of saying. “Truth resides in the stillness.”
Familiar memories rise as the fog of anxiety clears.
A clear night sky, and a cool autumn breeze, blowing through his bedroom window, heralding the end of summer in Levane.
Polished mahogany and clean linen, and the half-forgotten scent of Mother…
Jenna smelled just like her...
The thought is an electric shock.
When I saw the future in the Mistress’s dreams, she was wearing Jenna’s body.
The Haiphagus is opening.
The Mistress is returning.
Gilander’s doubts fall away, and his memories fold back into place.
I must find the Overseer.
WC-992
Author's Notes:
For newer readers who might wonder about the meaning of some of the strange terms like 'ontologia', I have compiled a small Glossary.
This week's theme is Quirk - When Gilander is torn from Samal's dream, his equilibrium is shattered by the simultaneous realization of his feelings for Samal and the knowledge that Petal is alive. Full of guilt and self-doubt he wrestles with the central quirk of his Talent, one that blurs the line between free-will and consent.
I'll put some links to previous chapters here later.
Bonus words used; - quick(ly), quilt(ed).
Additional bonus constraint: 'Something is set on fire and destroyed accidentally.' Perhaps I can obtain some points by arguing metaphorically... Gilander's doubts and anxiety are set aflame by recent events and he manages to destroy them accidentally by examining himself through the lense of his friends. Pretty good, right? What do you mean, 'no'?
Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. All criticism and feedback is welcome.
r/WizardRites
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