I hope you're not looking for answers here; I joined specifically to ask the question.

So what is a serious story?

I can think of a few definitions, but I'm not sure if any of them are the ones anyone else is using. I'll throw them out here, and you can tell if if you agree with one or make up your own:

1) A serious story is one that addresses and explores the complexity of an issue or idea. This can be through one character or multiple characters, and the issue or idea is usually one of psychology or philosophy. If the idea is resolved at the end, it's on an individual basis, without offering a set solution.

2) A serious story is a story that addresses a serious issue or idea in a way you've never thought about before, causing you to have to reexamine your personal philosophy. This is the most subjective definition- everything is new to someone at some point in their life.

3) A serious story is one that presents a view point on a serious issue or idea, and was successful. What this view point is and how the readers feel about it is immaterial, so long as the idea is expressed well through the story and characters.

4) A serious story has nothing to do with subject matter, and is simply an author presenting any idea in a new and interesting way, be it through envelope pushing literary style, or unexpected psychological/philosophical depth. This is closely related to definition 2, and is just as subjective.

I'd love to hear the thoughts of other people who created and joined this community. What stories belong here?

Any and all "Why so serious?" jokes will be returned to 2008.

Your number 2 definition is the one I would most readily agree with. I would say that a good, serious story is the one where when the reader finishes they say: "I did not think about that before." A great, serious story is the one where when the reader finishes they say: "I must think about this more."

#1 is the closest to how i think of a serious story, if i go strictly on your list.

I also add to that list, a serious story is something that when finished reading, be it either the whole thing if complete, or just to the latest chapter if not, it makes me seriously stop and think. If a story makes me rethink how i see the situation presented i count it among 'serious stories'. It generally makes me think about whatever kind of conflict/issue was given, and the way it is solved, or, if not resolved, how i imagine the characters resolving said issue/conflict, sometimes it makes me think of how I would resolve said conflict if i was in the same situation, and if i would've done anything differently.

Most of what i just put is subjective. Other than the closest to a technical description of what I think a 'serious' story is.

That technical description would be: "A serious story is one that when read, not only presents itself as a story, but leaves some details to be inferred by the reader. This kind of story tends to involuntarily cause the reader to pause and think about it, and possibly what might happen after the story ends. This kind of story may or may not heavily rely on emotion during key parts of it, but those emotions chosen aren't 'for the hell of it' and generally play to the weight of the situation."

That description can be subjective, and some things can, and should mostly, be simple thoughts, but others can cause clear internal psychological/philosophical wars. There haven't been many i've read that lived up to this description, but when they do, they clearly shine in my eyes. These kind of stories keep me up at night if i've not read a whole, complete version, contemplating what will happen next, mostly. These kind of stories will inadvertently draw comments the size of small chapters from me.

I hate to offer up a story that made me think as such, but i've got one that fits my description perfectly, and it updated just yesterday. 'Just over the Horzine' by 'Some Person'. A MLP/Killing Floor (Game) crossover.

In offering a TL;DR of this story, which isn't really a TL;DR at all, Twilight has a nightmare, dreams of the events on earth that 'started' the game. Horzine, the medical company responsible in the game, had just refined Portal Technology (even when being 'beat' by aperture by not creating portal tech first) into inter dimensional capacity. The inital test goes wrong and the project is temporarily halted. Then all hell breaks loose in the 'specimen' labs. They get loose, and when one scientist attempts to use the teleporter device to get help, he gets ambushed. Knocks a specimen into the device, flipping the (plot device) switch from 'same dimension' to 'interdimensional travel' right before the device teleports him. Winds up in equestria, and eventually meets the mane six, quite thoroughly freaking Twilight the hell out, who had been dwelling on the nightmare all day, up until that point. He explains his story, Twilight confirms. With Celestia's permission, and the Elements of Harmony, they venture back with him to earth to help. Said scientist dies saving AJ from an attack. That's pretty much just the first two or three chapters, at most.

I'm just going to stop the TL;DR here. See what i mean about making me think? When i think about a story, it makes me write about it. My current thoughts can be shortly summed up into, "Oh damn, how are they going to pull this off and make it home?"

Yeah, i'm just going to post this before i add another page or two to it inadvertently.

With respect, based on the description you've given, I do not think Just Over the Horzine is a serious story. It does not make you think about human nature or existence or ethical values. It makes you wonder what's going to happen next, which is an important part of an engaging story, but it won't stick with you once the story's over.
Compare that to The Carnivore's Prayer, wherein your perception of monsters and the objectivity of morality is challenged, or Eternal, which explores the consequences of maintaining the facade of perfection.

If a story challenges me to reexamine my own acceptance of what is the status quo, I believe it is serious. The story does more than simply entertain from beginning to end with well written characters and a good plot. It makes me think about something, to consider the moral it contains and ask myself if I agree or not.

For example, take the work Lolita. This book tells a story of pedophilia from the viewpoint of a protagonist actively engaged with a minor. It creates huge controversy for even attempting to approach such a taboo topic, let alone portray it in anything resembling a sympathetic light. The reader may be actively repulsed by the book, but it's considered a great work of literature because it challenges the reader to examine their own perceptions of morality.

I'm here to find something that will make me come back to the story in my mind half an hour later and ask questions about it. How did it make me feel? Why did I feel that way? Did I agree with the author's message? The Cough did this for me recently. The author explored the concept of sacrifice wonderfully, comparing the idea of the need of the many against that of using a wrong to make a right. Well after I'd finished I still think about it, ask myself what I'd do in that situation. This is what a serious story does, and this one did it in only a thousand words.

In my opinion, I think it's either #1 or #2, slightly leaning to #1. I'd say there are some elements of both in a serious story. There should be a theme to the story, but it should, for the most part, be left ambiguous so the reader can decide what they think of the issue. Stories that come to my mind for this are Through the Eyes of the Hurricane by Impossible Numbers and Bad Horse's story Twenty Minutes. I won't explain what makes me think that they'd be serious stories, since I'd definitely just end up butchering my thoughts. Simply put, they made me think about things.

Oh, hell, I have to say something, don't I?

Here's how I would categorize some well-known stories:

- Pinkie Watches Paint Dry: Not serious. It appears at first to deal with philosophical questions, but it doesn't say anything significant about them. It's really a character study that cleverly shows typical crazy Pinkie behavior, and then some very unexpected causes for it.

- My Little Dashie: Hmm... somewhat serious. It's a thought experiment about whether you'd make yourself unhappy to make the people you love happy. You know what you're supposed to do, but would you really do it? It generalizes far beyond the story itself. But it can be a little hard to think about it without getting hung up on its flaws (I'm not going to add it here because some people have an allergic reaction to it.)

- Sunny Skies All Day: It involves personal problems that are serious - whether our friends love us conditionally, whether we need to hide who we are. I'm not getting a "serious" vibe from it, probably because it doesn't examine those issues in any difficult scenarios - we all know what the answers are in Celestia's case from the very start.

- How to do a Sonic Rainboom (since bookplayer started this): I don't know. It's about the magic of friendship, in a real (though not literal) sense: how caring about others can counter-intuitively be of more help to you than trying to solve your own problems. I have doubts because the problem is well wrapped-up by the end, and because it comes down on the side of the problem that you're supposed to come down on. It doesn't leave a problem or question open at the end that noms on your mind when you're trying to fall asleep. But don't get me wrong; I love this story.

- Star Wars: It tries to be serious, dealing with the hero's journey, rites of passage, good vs. evil, temptation, and trust in yourself. I think that it gets the answers wrong for many of the big problem that it tackles - don't switch off your targeting computer, kids - so I see it as "failed serious". The redemption of Darth Vader is serious and awesome.

- Heart of Darkness / Apocalypse Now: Very serious. How the best intentions go wrong, how weak even the strongest of us are on our own, how narrow the line is between saints and monsters, between justified pride and megalomania. This is more clear in the original short story.

- Everything ever written in Russia: Serious.

Some of my own stories:

- Sisters / Socks: This is a political satire, but I wouldn't call it serious because it doesn't raise any questions, it just pokes fun at problems we're all aware of, without talking about possible solutions.

- The Detective and the Magician: While the characters confront their own serious personal issues (notably the possibility of love for even the most anti-social creatures, and Holmes' forced admission at the end that it is not unicorns he loathes, but himself for not being one), I don't think of it as serious, probably because these issues just don't apply to most people, and because most of the story is a straightforward howdunnit mystery.

- Burning Man Brony: Serious. The main character is terribly flawed, and you know and he knows that what he's doing is wrong, but it isn't clear that it's possible for him to live life as he should, and maybe not hurting others is the most-heroic thing he can realistically aim for. Maybe I'm being hypocritical, because this also comes down on the side that you're supposed to come down on, for the most part.

- Twenty Minutes: Serious, because although we all agree that what the army has done to the pegasus is terribly wrong, it's not clear whether what Amadi did was stupid, generous, selfish, brave, cowardly, and/or futile. It's a "what would you do?" scenario.

477445
I'd never argue that How to do a Sonic Rainboom is serious, though it's nice of you to mention it. As I said in my blog post, I don't usually write serious stories, preferring a focus on emotions and their causes and effects rather than anything larger and more impersonal.

If I had to argue one of my short fics as being serious, it would be Wisdom is Just Being Old, and even that isn't really serious. It's more of an offer of a cure for existential angst than a cause of it. But that in and of itself makes me wonder if it's something that should be considered by people considering serious fics.

(I think Wisdom is Just Being Old is often overlooked for being a "last of the mane six" fic. It's actually a response to them. But it is kind of sappy and probably not my best writing.)

477479 Emotions are serious. Citizen Kane is a serious movie, because you get to the end and you find out all this striving, all this drama, was for nothing, because it never made him happy. Or for the graphic novel equivalent, "The Eternal Smile". That has three very-serious stories that are all about emotions. The title story is similar to Citizen Kane. "Urgent Request" is, argh, I can't explain without spoiling it (and there are spoilers in the preview for that story on the linked-to page!), but I strongly recommend that book.

I was the one that created and wrote most of the description for the group, so I suppose I should say something. What I wrote in the description can fit here: Stories that stay with you and make you think after you finish reading them or step away for a few minutes. Stories that challenge the morals and personal views you already had. Stories that say something more that you actually have to think about. Hell, stories that just make you think in general. There is no one set definition of what a serious story is.

A serious story is not Pinkie going crazy and cutting ponies up. A serious story is not necessarily a tragedy. A serious story is not griffins going evil and making war against the ponies.

A serious story details Pinkie's mental decline as she slowly cracks from getting ignored and snubbed too many times by her friends and it deals with her insanity and how she just knows what she's doing is the right way to get her friends to notice her even if she intellectually knows that it's bad and wrong and evil.

A serious story details both sides of the tragedy, how both sides were wronged and how neither side deserves to be brutalized in whatever way they were. It gives the perspectives of both sides and how the causers of the tragedy were wronged just as much as the one that faces the tragedy, or at least in their mind they are.

A serious story deals with the ramifications of war, not the fighting. It deals with the mental states of the ponies as a peaceful race is forced to kill or be killed and become warlike in the name of protecting the innocent. It deals with the issues of the leaders on whether to risk soldiers with an evacuation or declare a city an open city and hope the invaders don't take out any anger on the civilians. It deals with the other side of the conflict as well. It answers the question of why the griffins or whoever went to war, be it food shortages or whatever.

Hm, yes. I actually don't do a lot of reading, myself. The only goal I had in mind when participating in the creation of this group (though my role was miniscule in its growth) was to create a center for stories that don't just have a punchline or gimmick, but a plot that has you thinking. This has already been said, yes, but that doesn't make it less so.

19 minutes, 23 seconds.

476718
Sorry if this was asked by other people, but how do I get my stories added to your group