Dear community, We have an exciting announcement to share. As you know, we like to shake things up from time to time, whether that comes in the form of additional rewards, special contests, new ways to highlight the wonderful work of our writers, or fun new initiatives. This one is unprecedented! Check it out. In The Ink Well, we’ve always been devoted to short stories, and we feel this is really the heart and soul of The Ink Well. But we are looking for ways to kick-start some fun initiatives that inspire new members to come and join our community. How would you like to write short stories from real life? Now you can! Our foray into creative nonfiction will be on a trial basis. If it results in an explosion of spam (which as you know we have worked diligently to stamp out), we will re-evaluate. But as usual, we have a plan for making it all work! Here it is: Each week, we will provide a creative nonfiction prompt. This will help guide our community members toward writing engaging, interesting nonfiction stories. Note that you are welcome to post other creative nonfiction pieces that are not based on the prompt, but please be sure to follow the guidelines below. In opening up our community to a broader range of content, we will take the stance that not every post will be curated. To be curated, your content should follow our guidelines, be at least 350 words, be written in English (or another language as well as the English translation) and — as much as possible — free of errors. There are many guides and resources online for getting to know this wonderful genre. It is truly about storytelling. The simple difference between creative nonfiction and fictional work is that it is not made up. We like this definition from an article on creativenonfiction.org: Simply put: Creative nonfiction is true stories, well told. With creative nonfiction, you are using the literary and storytelling tools of a fiction writer to craft stories from real life experiences. Set the scene. Give the details. Profile the characters. Give us the dialog, as best you can remember it. Ideas and inspiration: Think of a story your grandfather might have told from his own childhood that started with, "When I was just a boy..." Creative nonfiction stories can be snippets from your life autobiography — moments in time you want to capture in words, whether they were frightening, enlightening, bittersweet, or life-altering. They can be observations about life, about a time you connected at a profound level with a perfect stranger, or something you have learned along the way that made you a better person. Do you love podcasts? One of the greatest sources of creative nonfiction is The Moth Radio Hour. Listen to a few of the stories from The Moth, and we guarantee you will be inspired. Here are some additional resources for learning more about the creative nonfiction genre: For additional inspiration, here is an opening to a creative nonfiction piece by Sherrie Flick, titled Contagious Empathy: Our faces are buried, and I don’t mean in the sand. They’re snuggled into our machines these days as we scroll and click and finger type away. We travel into virtual lands, disconnecting from the three-dimensional one around us. I worry that we’re no longer able to walk in this world and communicate with each other one-on-one. I worry that we no longer understand how to be alone. And being alone and lonely and bored is important to us as creative people. We hope you are inspired! Here are some examples of what we are looking for: In other words, tell a story from real life. Here’s what we are NOT looking for: What will be muted: Write about a travel experience. Why were you there? What did you see? Who did you travel with? Give us the sights and sounds of the experience. Tell us about the food, or something delightful that happened. How did the experience transform you or broaden your views, even if it was in some small way? Please use the tag #creativenonfiction on these posts. Prizes! Deadline You have a week, until the next prompt is posted, to post your creative nonfiction story in The Ink Well community. See you in The Ink Well!
Image source: crispy-fotografie on Pixabay
Announcing Creative Nonfiction in The Ink Well (Trial Period)
What Is Creative Nonfiction?
-- Reedsy blog: What is Creative Nonfiction? The Unputdownable Truth
-- Writers.com: Understanding Creating Nonfiction: What It Is and How to Write It
Guidelines for Creative Nonfiction Articles in The Ink Well
The Ink Well Creative Nonfiction Writing Prompt #1
Interested in joining our community? Start by joining Hive!
We invite lovers of creative writing to visit The Ink Well, a Hive community started by @raj808 and @stormlight24 and run by @jayna, @agmoore, @gracielaacevedo @yaziris and @itsostylish.
You can follow our curation trail by going to our hive.vote curation trail page and clicking the follow button.
We welcome delegations! These support our community in many ways, including helping us to provide support to quality content creators through curation and contests.
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