text: As Cycle 1 of Serial Saturday here on comes to a close, it's high time we get some spotlights posted. One such story comes from /u/ATIWTK, or, as we call him in Campfire (discord voice chat), Oeri. Oeri’s story was brand new to us, fresh to Serial Saturday and relatively new to WP as well. It’s pretty unanimous that doing Campfires and weekly threads is the best way to get to know each other’s work and personalities, and Oeri was a great addition to the bunch. Here at we thoroughly enjoyed Oeri’s beautiful tale of a young woman who goes on a journey with an unexpected outcome. It’s a beautifully written story full of imagery that evokes a feeling akin to traditional folktales, which was a stark contrast to the overall tone of most of our Serial Saturday stories. Oeri’s approach to storytelling is like an expertly illustrated picture book, just crack open the first chapter and you’ll see for yourself. What made this story especially unique in this run of Serial Saturday is Oeri’s approach to the story beats-- For a lot of people, the titles of our story beats could be taken very literally, in a good vrs evil or protagonist vrs adversaries sort of way. Oeri managed to write a story that not only matched the feeling of each brief challenge but also make it fit for his story. But don't take my word for it! Here's a small teaser from /u/ATIWTK: > Nestled in the valleys of *Pinawa*, the human tribes have lived in peace with nature for a long time, but when resources run scarce and the animals are leaving, where do they turn to? How will the deities answer? > > Liwayway, a young girl journeys to the center of a volcano in search of the forgotten memories of her father. *How did her father die? What was she doing there?* But what she finds out and what she remembers is enough to change the world she lives in. For our first run of Serial Saturday at it was important for us to get author impressions of how their experience went with us, and give readers a peek at the "behind the scenes" of creating a flash fiction serial. Here's /u/ATIWTK's take on that: I had a blast writing this story. I loved all the searching for thematic descriptions (synonyms for earth, lava and rocks must’ve filled my browser history a thousand times) and researching the folklore which I based this on and thinking of ways to move the story forward while keeping the message consistent across. **Impressions from writing in this format:** Coming from r/writingprompts, this is the first time I’ve written something this long and I really had a lot of help from the beats that were set-up. I’ve wanted to play along with the beat for the week while at the same time telling a unique narrative about a conflict that’s more internal than external and I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. It’s a very helpful format for a new writer, and the weekly campfires have really helped nudge me to write more with the helpful feedback and the positive vibes. **Challenges** The main challenge I faced writing this was moving the plot along while keeping the ending in mind, and sometimes I felt that I was writing myself into a corner whenever I built the world and drove the characters forward. I didn’t even know how Liwayway was going to survive! But I realized at one point, it’s okay to think outside the box, pull a little plot loophole, throw a little wrench, simplify a little bit and just write whatever comes along! It’s fun and at the end of the day you can always edit your story once you get it down to the end! **What’s the future of this story?** Liwayway is a story that I started on a whim on Serial Saturday; but it’s become something that I really enjoyed doing and at the same time, a space for me to try out new styles, new techniques, and new character ideas. I’m thinking of keeping Liwayway’s story exclusively on Serial Saturday and hopefully more of her will be seen on the future cycles. \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ With the tale of Liwayway at an end for now there is only one thing left to do: show off this newly finished story for obligatory bragging rights here on . Let the bragging begin! /u/ATIWTK’s personal sub is /r/dozing_in_prose and I highly recommend checking out his author notes and other stories written for . Without further ado, here's /u/ATIWTK’s Table of Contents. \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ You can check out more of Oeri's work by going to his subreddit, /r/dozing_in_prose/. Congrats on finishing your serial, /u/ATIWTK, and we can’t wait to see what you do next. <3 from the team at , , and Serial Saturday. \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ *For more information on the Serial Saturday program feel free to check out our* *.* We have members from all around the world and who have all kinds of schedules, so there’s usually someone awake to talk to. We also have scheduled readings, oration critiques, spur-of-the-moment story time, or even just random hangouts over voice chat.