Hello and welcome to the The Ink Well weekly fiction prompt and prize announcement! The Ink Well is a Hive blockchain-based social media community of creative writers. If you love to write short stories, we invite you to join us. Or peruse the work of our community members.
Note: We always launch our prompt posts with important information. So be sure to check it out first! Then we invite you to read on and see what we have in store for this week's prompt.
Special Reminder: In addition to the weekly fiction challenge we offer a monthly challenge. Check out our February fiction contest. 10 Hive to the winner!
Important FAQs about The Ink Well!
What Is The Ink Well All About?
The Ink Well is a creative writing community. We only accept fictional short stories and creative nonfiction stories. This means:
- No novels, chapter stories or multi-part stories
- No poems
- No introduction posts
- No memes
- No photography posts
- No advice columns or self-improvement articles
The Ink Well is all about creativity, quality, community, and engagement. As such, we ask the following:
- Please take the time to get to know the community and read other writers' work. Everyone who posts in The Ink Well is expected to read and comment on at least two other stories for each piece you post.
- See our catalog of fiction writing tips and make use of our resources. (Many of our writers are developing awesome skills, and you can too!)
- Put effort into your posts. Review and edit your content for errors before publishing.
What are the community rules?
You can find our community rules at the top of The Ink Well community (right side of the page).
Please read the rules before posting in The Ink Well, as we outline the "do's and don'ts." If you can't find them, you can read them here.
Our community rules are designed to make our community a safe, welcoming, plagiarism-free space for self-publishing original short stories suitable for all ages. We do not allow stories depicting violence, rape, brutality, or gore. If you have questions, please read this article explaining our stance on violence.
What does it take to get rewards in The Ink Well??
We refer you to the above description of what The Ink Well is about. If you are not getting great rewards, it is likely for one of the following reasons:
- Your story has many grammatical errors. (This is easily fixed with the tips in our post, Help for the Grammatically Challenged.)
- Your story lacks some important elements of good fiction, such as character development, dialogue, scene details or a story arc. (See our catalog of fiction writing tips for information on these important aspects of short stories.)
- Your story lacks originality or does not follow our community rules.
Important tips!
- Only post 100% original content that does not appear elsewhere in any form.
- Engage with others in the community by reading and commenting on their work.
- Make sure your story is clearly inspired by the prompt.
- Remember to link your story to the prompt post.
Weekly Challenge and Prize Announcement
Time for the prize announcement and new challenge!
Last week's prompt was a three-word prompt: bride, stairs, and illusion, and the skill challenge was to write a stunning resolution. You guys produced some awesome stories for this prompt, including some unique and unusual plots!
Stories From the Previous Week
Thank you to everyone who posted a story for last week's prompt!
- @jadams2k18
- @marriot5464
- @iskawrites
- @jjmusa2004
- @universoperdido
- @marynn
- @mrenglish
- @loveah
- @dianelson
- @deraaa
- @popurri
- @kzxixs
- @dennnmarc
- @jhymi
- @pjpavan
- @cool08
- @lrscarmen
- @abigail04
- @teknon
- @balikis95
- @royaldiadem
- @arduilcelebren
- @amiegeoffrey
- @kemmyb
- @iyimoga
- @lightpen
- @george-dee
- @kingsleyy
- @rammargarita
- @nelson-george
- @diikaan
- @innfauno12
- @vincric
- @seki1
- @grindan
- @itsostylish
- @wrestlingdesires
- @minhajulmredol
- @amiableamara
Honorable Mentions
Our honorable mentions of the week are:
- @jadams2k18: The Wedding
- @deraaa: Swerve
- @balikis95: Rafaela's Walk to a Metaphysical Doom
- @seki1: The Mad Bride
- @universoperdido: Emma's Wedding
Third Place: Wins 2 Hive
On the big day, Fred arrived well before the appointed time. He knocked, and was greeted by a woman wearing a silk powder blue dress, with a matching powder blue lace veil.
She seemed to be studying him from beneath her veil. "You must be the groom. Vivian will be down shortly."
There was only one other guest. Dressed exactly like the woman who had answered the door, she was sitting in a plush chair, stroking a white Persian cat.
A priest was standing in front of the fireplace, looking at some papers.
"I thought she'd want to have it in the garden," Fred said more to himself than anyone else.
"Perhaps she didn't want to take a chance on it raining?" asked the woman.
Second Place: Wins 3 Hive
- @vincric with his story Be Still My Muse
Overtime I learned her name. Julieta, such a tender word. She was the daughter of a well-known entrepreneur, whose lineage came with noble roots. I could not help but admire her more as I learned of her, until I came upon another conundrum. I understood, she and I were too far apart. I was no pauper but nor did I come from great or remarkable bloodline. With a heavy heart, I lamented my meager identity.
Upon another dinner my family noticed my depression, still, despite their good intentions, I did not speak of my troubles. Later I was called aside after dinner, in private by my mother. She held my hands, gently as she implored me to reveal the reason of my sadness. So, I bared my heart’s woes.
First Place: Wins 5 Hive
- @kemmyb, with the story The Army Governor and Her King
Zeke turned to face Amina. His gaze became intense, his lips thinning and hands clenching as a nerve ticked in his strong jawline. As teenagers, they had a crush on each other and hoped their relationship would blossom into marriage. Zeke wanted no one else. He made Amina promise to wait for him when he travelled to the land of druids to study for two years.
Upon his return, his father, the king, arranged a marriage for him and conscripted Amina into the army. Zeke had never forgiven his father, even on his deathbed.
Congratulations to @kemmyb, @vincric, and @wrestlingdesires!
Okay, let's launch the new prompt!
This Week’s Prompt
The Ink Well is fortunate to have many members who are eager to write. It would be wise to use talent on the best story you can write so you can receive the optimal curation. Remember, Quality over Quantity.
Please Note: We try to curate as many stories as possible, but do not curate every story published in The Ink Well, due to the volume of posts.
Prompt of the week!
This week's prompt is: reality TV. Our skill challenge is dialogue. We'd like to see your characters interacting with one another. What do they say? Be sure to have a look at the article on dialogue in our Catalog of Fiction Writing Tips for inspiration.
What to do with this prompt?
Reality TV is an odd phenomenon of our modern world. We watch people going about their day as if everything was normal, except that they just happen to have a TV crew following them everywhere.
For your story, you could write about someone who is obsessed with a reality TV show. How does it affect that person's family or relationships with friends.
You could also write about what it's like to be in a reality TV show. What goes on behind the scenes? Are the conflicts that appear on TV the same ones the characters are having in real life, or are they staged?
Let your imagination run wild. Good luck!
A week from now, we will select a winning story that demonstrates this skill and utilizes the prompt. Of course, we will also be looking for overall quality in the winning story. Good luck!
Note: As always, please avoid violent, gory, bloody, brutal, sexist or racist themes and language, erotica and other NSFW (not safe for work) content, stories with a political or religious agenda, and stories featuring abuse of any kind. (We have a complete article about The Ink Well stance on violence and brutality for more information.)
If you don't feel inspired by this prompt or the featured image, feel free to peruse any of our past prompts or our collection of idea-generators:
Weekly Prompt Rules:
- Deadline: You have a week to write for the prompt, until the next one is posted. (Note: You can write for any of the prompts anytime. This is just a guideline to be included in the weekly round-up in the next prompt post.)
- Story link: Post your story in The Ink Well community, and post a link to your story in a comment on this post.
- Hashtags: Please use these hashtags: #fiction #writing #inkwellprompt #theinkwell and #dreemport, if you are also posting your story to the DreemPort site.
- COMMUNITY SUPPORT: Visit the work of at least two other community members and comment on their work.
- Title: The title is up to you. You can come up with any title you wish. You do not need to name it after the prompt or include the prompt word.
- Images: Please only use images from license free and creative commons sites, like Pixabay, Unsplash and Pexels. Images you find on the Internet are copyright protected and cannot be used. Be sure to provide the source link.
- Length: We request that story word counts are a maximum of 1,500 words in length (preferably 750-1000 words). This is just a guideline. Longer stories are okay too, but they tend to get fewer readers. Additionally, The Ink Well admins appreciate keeping to that maximum story length for our time management. Thank you!
Reminder: Be sure to also read our community rules. The reason for the repeat reminder is that we see many stories describing brutality of women, children, or animals, or that have excessive gore or violence, and we must mute them. Please do not post these stories in The Ink Well. We want our community to be a safe and comfortable place for all readers.
Here are the past prompts if you would like to use them or refer back to them:
- #1: Heart and Soul
- #2: The moment when...
- #3: Beauty with a twist
- #4: The Way Home
- #5: A Matter of Time
- #6 50 Story Ideas
- #7 The Library
- #8 All the way to tomorrow
- #9 Legend
- #10 Three Words
- #11 World Building
- #12 Childhood Summers
- #13 50 Imagination Ticklers
- #14 Railroad
- #15 Cats - 750 words
- #16 Your Birthday
- #17 Action, Dialog and Narrative
- #18 Change
- #19 Tea Time or Tee Time?
- #20 Summer Camp
- #21 Main Street
- #22 Fireworks
- #23 Picnic
- #24 Run
- #25 A word of advice
- #26 Winding road
- #27 Mirror
- #28 Shipwreck
- #29 School Notes
- #30 Three Words: Scooter, River, Midnight
- #31 Flash Fiction Contest
- #32 A Fork in the Road
- #33 Shadows
- #34 Three Words: Island, Witch, Cake
- #35 Full Moon
- #36 Graveyard
- #37 Jack-o-Lantern
- #38 Family Ties
- #39 Longing
- #40 Feast
- #41 Gift
- #42 Season of Light
- #43 Believe
- #44 Elf
- #45 Holiday
- #46 New Year
- #47 Unlikely Hero
- #48 Inheritance
- #49 Under the Light of the Moon
- #50 Three Words: Shoes, Mood, Adventure
- #51 They're Here
- #52 Artist
- #53 Headlights
- #54 Tomorrow
- #55 Lense
- #56 Perfection
- #57 Making and Breaking Rules
- #58 A Reckoning
- #59 Blossom
- #60 Temptation
- #61 Happiness
- #62 Footprint
- #63 Frequency
- #64 Sailing
- #65 Fortune
- #66 Worry
- #67 Adventure
- #68 Shadow
- #69 Motor
- #70 Embarrass
- #71 Proud
- #72 Guide
- #73 Impression
- #74 Lost
- #75 Wonder
- #76 Tear
- #77 Splash
- #78 Brilliant
- #79 Sinkhole
- #80 Exhaust
- #81 Roll
- #82 Wishbone
- #83 Chatterbox
- #84 Foil
- #85 I can't believe you said that
- #86 Boo
- #87 Midnight
- #88 Hunger
- #89 Light
- #90 Spirit
- #91 Fire
- #92 Tend/Tender
- #93 Cheer
- #94 Appearance
- #95 Ambition
- #96 Trust
- #97 Fly
- #98 Comfort
- #99 Fate
- #100 To Create
- #101 Vision
- #102 Sympathy
- #103 A Special Time
- #104 Suspense
- #105 Bride, stairs, illusion
Thank you for being a part of The Ink Well!
@jayna, @gracielaacevedo, @yaziris, @itsostylish, @millycf1976 and @grindan
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, @gracielaacevedo, @yaziris, @itsostylish, @millycf1976 and @grindan.
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, @zeurich, @marcybetancourt, @agmoore, @marlyncabrera, @stormcharmer, @generikat, @iamraincrystal, @preparedwombat, @gracielaacevedo, @chocolatescorpi, @samsmith1971, @grindan, @jackdeathblack, @josemalavem, @itsostylish, @stuartcturnbull, @morey-lezama, @evagavilan2, @popurri, and @mrenglish.
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