text: As Cycle 1 of Serial Saturday here on comes to a close, it's high time we get some spotlights posted. This spotlight has been a long time coming, but not for lack of enthusiasm or support for this next story. It’s been such a treat to watch people evolve their flash fiction serials with us and bring arcs to a close that for some have been with us for quite a while. For a good handful of writers on Serial Saturday, their stories are continuations of serials started on Theme Thursday weekly threads. One such story comes from /u/Lady_Oh (). Here at /r/ShortStories we thoroughly enjoyed LadyOh's dedication to telling a cozy fairytale style story in such a unique way. But don't take my word for it! Here's a small teaser from LadyOh: &#x200B; >*The little girl Dot listens to lot of fairy tales from her Granny, but soon enough she finds out that not all of them are true. With her best friend Emma by her side, Dot heads into the forest and as it is with proper magical forests, the two friends get lost in it. On their desperate journey to find back home, they experience a night full of odd creatures, frightening magic, and a pinch of luck...* &#x200B; For our first run of Serial Saturday at /r/shortstories 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 LadyOh's take on that: &#x200B; >I originally started this serial with the intention of writing only one story about giants, which was the theme for TT back then. To my surprise, I got not only a little fanfic for my story in the comments, but also a few people during the campfire session, who ~~demanded~~ asked if Dot would ever become more than just a listener to the tales, which was very motivating for me to send Dot on her own adventure. > >This serial often felt out of control, because I jumped into it without any kind of plan, relying solely on the theme of TT (and later SerSat), inventing the next part of the story on the spot. > >That's why I leaned a lot on the characters' simple but prominent traits, which connected the story parts and helped me in keeping the story grounded. At some point it felt more like the characters acted on their own, facing the challenges based on their personalities, than me writing them. I don't think that without the readers it would have ever become more than a simple story about giants, so I am really grateful to all who pushed me to write more, and left me comments and feedback. > >At first, I didn't have any other goal than finishing the story (which I did with pride and sadness when saying goodbye). However, I picked up a lot of knowledge along the way, found a balance between my own writing voice and the tone of fairytales, and learned to let go of unneeded words, even if they were beautiful. > >All in all, it was a great learning opportunity, that I would like to repeat in the future. Next time, I think I won't wing it as much and create at least a rough outline to follow, to have the story flow a bit better for the readers and make character development easier to write. With the tale of *Dot & Emma* at an end there is only one thing left to do: show off this newly finished story for obligatory bragging rights here on . Let the bragging begin! Lady\_Oh’s personal sub is and I highly recommend checking out her author notes and other stories written for . The *Dot & Emma* story in its entirety is compiled as a collection there, Without further ado, here's Lady's Table of Contents. Get ready for a comfy cozy tale that hits in all the right places! \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ You can check out more of /u/Lady_Oh's work by going to her subreddit, /r/Tattlewhale. Congrats on finishing your serial, Lady\_Oh, and we can’t wait to see what you do next. <3 from the team at r/ShortStories, r/WritingPrompts, 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.