Image source: ArtSpark on Pixabay
In this monthly newsletter, we share tips for our writers, as well as any important news or updates, and announce the winner(s) of the previous month's contest for the best overall story of the month.
Helpful resources:
We collect all of our important tips for success in the community in our Treasure Trove of Tips, Reminders and Guidelines. If you're looking for writing tips and help with improving your writing craft, be sure to check out our catalog of fiction writing tips.
Topics in this newsletter:
- Topic of the Month: A Few Changes in The Ink Well
- Winner(s) from the July Contest!
- August Contest
- Find Us on Discord
- Delegate to The Ink Well / Follow Our Curation Trail
Topic of the Month: A Few Changes in The Ink Well
Hello friends. Thank you for your continued participation in The Ink Well. As you know, we update our methods from time to time.
We would like the community to step up and be more a part of the curation process. Here's how:
- When you read a story you think has merit, in addition to a comment on the story itself, please write a short synopsis of the story and what you loved about it, and post this comment under the prompt post. We will reward quality comments with upvotes!
- As you know, we do not curate every story in The Ink Well. We want to emphasize this and let our community members know that we are really going to focus on rewarding the stories that have clearly been written with effort and where the author has taken time to edit their work. We feel this will best support our quality goals for The Ink Well community.
As always, if you have questions, please visit the "ask-theinkwell" channel in our Discord server. But note that we do not tolerate pleading or arguing with our admins.
Winner(s) from the July 2025 Contest!
Image source: Generated with Leonardo.ai
Thank you to everyone who participated in our July fiction contest by writing stories for our fiction prompts throughout the month. If you submitted a story for any of our weekly fiction prompts, you were automatically entered into the monthly contest.
In addition to our winner of the month, we have selected several honorable mentions.
Our Winner!
Our top story of the month for July, 2025, winning a prize of 20 Hive is....
@lailawrites, with his story, Passenger.
Curator's notes:
@lailawrites shares a powerful, grounded and moody fiction that’s full of flavour and depth. After being clinically dead for a few minutes Arun wakes with a passenger in his head—a voice that believes he’s an ancient, fractured god sustained by the remnants of near forgotten beliefs. Arun needs to nurture the god to protect it from dissolution. To save the fragmented deity he finds/is drawn to others who hold shards of forgotten faiths. Together, they build a new religion…a god for the lost, the leftover and the in-between. A mesmerising, atmospheric piece that blends urban fantasy with both theology and folk horror. It blew me clean across the kitchen. WoW!
Congratulations, @lailawrites!
Honorable Mentions
The following stories were also in the running for best stories last month, with excellent storytelling!
- @edith4angelseu: In the Time Before the Shackles
- @artofkylin: Where Did You Go to Get Here?
- @marriot5464: Skyfall
Well done, writers!
August Contest!
As a reminder, you are automatically entered into the contest of the month by writing and posting a fictional story in The Ink Well anytime throughout the month. There is no prompt for the monthly contest. So keep writing for our weekly fiction prompts and keep giving your stories your best effort!
Contest Rules
Participate in one or more of our weekly fiction prompts (or write any fictional short story in The Ink Well) before the end of the calendar month.
Post a link to your story in a comment on the prompt that inspired your story, if applicable.
Use the #fiction tag as well as the #inkwellprompt tag (if applicable) on your post.
Please remember that we have rules around violence, rape, blood, and physical abuse. See The Ink Well rules, and our article describing The Ink Well Stance on Violence.
If you have questions, please visit the "ask-theinkwell" channel in our Discord server.
At the end of the month, we will announce our winner of the month and our honorable mentions, and the winner will receive 20 Hive.
Hint: We are looking for a high-quality story. Don't rush. Remember the important skills we always talk about — great settings, good character building, strong dialog, and a good story arc that resolves well in the end.
And finally, we recommend using our tips in the article Help for the Grammatically Challenged to identify errors in your story before posting.
Good luck!
Find Us on Discord
Our Discord server is a great place to chat with other community members about the craft of writing.
Please pop into our Welcome channel, read our guidelines for conduct, and then feel free to interact with other community members or ask The Ink Well Team a question in the #ask-theinkwell channel.
Discord invitation link: https://discord.gg/Bng7mMsaQj
Delegate to The Ink Well / Follow Our Curation Trail
Want to support our community, our contests, and our rewards for great quality content? See the table below. We have made it super easy. Thank you, thank you, thank you! We have a goal to continue increasing the support we give to our wonderful, hardworking and dedicated authors!
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.
@jayna, @felt.buzz, @carn, @itsostylish, @agmoore, @ricardo993, @marriot5464, @marcybetancourt, @marlyncabrera, @stormcharmer, nathy33, @iamraincrystal, @jasonbu, @preparedwombat, @gracielaacevedo, @timix648, @samsmith1971, @jackdeathblack, @josemalavem, @generikat, @mineopoly, @hazmat, @kingsleyy, @popurri, @nancybriti1, @marynn, @rinconpoetico7, @iyimoga, @captainman, @kachy2022, @monster-hunter, @morey-lezama, @evagavilan2, @funshee, @amiegeoffrey, @balikis95, @rukkie, @raymondpeter, @tomiajax, @stuartcturnbull, @gertu, @mosin-nagant, @beauty197, @beckyroyal, @perfect20, @zaeema, @almadepoeta, @estilodereba, @rare-gem, @jjmusa2004, @ricurohemi28, @benwesterham, @artofkylin, and @shakavon.
We invite lovers of creative writing to visit The Ink Well, a Hive community run by @jayna, @gracielaacevedo, @yaziris, @itsostylish, @samsmith1971 and @agmoore.
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