Source: syaifulptak57 on Pixabay
Welcome to the Weekly Fiction Prompt
Hello community members! Thank you for joining our weekly writing prompt! If you're new, be sure to check out our community rules before posting in The Ink Well. (You can find them at the top of our home page. And you will find all kinds of great resources for fiction writers in our catalog of fiction writing tips.
Stories from the Previous Week
Thank you to who posted a story for last week's prompt: "Keep Out":
- @treasuree
- @marriot5464
- @iskawrites
- @amarachi22
- @zyzymena
- @chuksmeezy
- @annavenezmua
- @captainman
- @do777
- @trexane
- @mhizrutty
- @gabmr
- @cool08
- @tommyik
- @jjmusa2004
- @marynn
- @rare-gem
- @kristowe
- @kingsleyy
- @emreal
- @universodaniel
- @balikis95
- @loveth97
- @osomar357
- @nancybriti1
- @mikechrist
- @sabrinah
- @abigail04
- @ucngozi
- @fairylaw
- @rinconpoetico7
- @wrestlingdesires
- @kei2
- @bipolar95
- @amiegeoffrey
- @fashtioluwa
- @emeka002
Author Shout-outs
We'd like to call out a few stories that got high marks from our curators.
@nancybriti1
The hiding place of some creatures
Curator comment:
Nancybriti1 helps us understand why the sea kisses the sky at the blissful point of horizon. She suggests the hidden glory that the gods have secreted away from the curious. Additionally, she explains where the spectacular amongst the creatures—the unicorns, mermaids and centaurs—have gone! This is a spectacular piece of writing!
@zyzymena
Curator comment:
@zyzmena writes a gorgeous and moving story for the keep out prompt. Mia returns to her mother's home in Nigeria after six years abroad. After a long journey, she arrives at her village to discover it under quarantine restrictions due to a disease outbreak. She manages to sneak in under the cover of darkness to get to her mother's home. The town appears derelict and her mother's house is abandoned. She finds a stack of letters in her mom's bedroom, all addressed to her, and spends the evening reading them. They are filled with her mom's love for her and longing for her to return. The following day, Mia is discovered during a security sweep and taken for medical attention as she is showing signs of the disease. She meets a woman at the facility who tells her about her mother's situation over the past six years and her eventual demise. Mia gets better and dedicates her life to fighting disease. Wonderfully told, this story has excellent pacing and good development. It tugs at the heartstrings and we are left aching for Mia's loss, alongside her.
@universoperdido
Curator comment:
@universoperdido is in prime form with this story, which has an excellent story arc. The suspense builds as we understand that something is not right with Mildred. She continually speaks of her brother who has achieved many feats and accolades in the military, though there is not a single picture of him in her house. The narrator is a young neighbor who watches her decline, especially after her mother passes on and she is on her own. Out of concern for her, he continues to visit her, though he has an uneasy feeling. And one day, he enters her house, find's the military brother's room... and discovers Mildred's secret. But you'll have to read the story to find out what it is.
@wrestlingdesires
Curator comment:
@wrestlingdesires writes a children's story about two hungry girls who visit a dragon's cave. They refuse to steal but wish to work for food. In the cave is a witch that has adopted the sleeping dragon's character. The witch offers to help them and everything ends well.
Fiction Writing Prompt of the Week
This week's prompt is: "Chin up."
For this prompt, consider scenarios where one person is trying to cheer up another person who is feeling downcast, sad or blue. Perhaps that person has received bad news, is feeling dejected over the end of a relationship, or had hoped to join a group of friends on a travel adventure, but cannot afford to go.
The expression "chin up" is a way of telling that person that they should look on the bright side, or find a way to forget their troubles. Sometimes, this can be helpful advice. Other times it may just be annoying.
Tell us a story. What is your character dealing with, and who tells them "chin up"? We look forward to seeing what you come up with.
Remember, as always, we are looking for the elements of story. These include:
- Great first lines
- Good settings
- Well-developed characters
- Integration of action, dialogue and narrative
- A conflict that intrigues the reader
- A "story arc" which results in the resolution of the conflict and brings the story to a satisfying conclusion
- And of course, we are looking for well-edited stories that are not littered with typos or grammatical errors
You can find more on all of these topics in the catalog of fiction writing tips.
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:
Writing Prompt Guidelines:
- See The Ink Well FAQ: Before you post in The Ink Well, we ask that you read our FAQ post to familiarize yourself with our important community rules and guidelines.
- Story link: Please be sure to 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 — as well as #dreemport, if you are also posting your story to the DreemPort site.
- Community support: When you post in The Ink Well, please be sure to 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. Please do use the prompt word(s) within the story.
- 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 all image source links.
- Length: We request that story word counts are a maximum of 1,500 words in length and ideally 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. (Note: We generally consider stories less than 750 words "too short!")
- Translations: If you post a story that has been translated from another language, please include both the English version and the translation.
Reminders: Be sure to also read our community rules. As always, please avoid violent, gory, bloody, brutal, sexist or racist themes and language, NSFW (not safe for work) stories like erotica, 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.) And do NOT use AI tools to write your stories. You must provide your own unique content.
Past Prompts
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; #106 Reality TV; #107 Things the Go Bump in the Night; #108 First line: Two strange things happened that day; #109 What if that loose floorboard was actually a hidden passageway?; #110 Footsteps; #111 Mess; #112 Cards; #113 Elephant; #114 Crystal; #115 Phone call; #116 Date; #117 Chocolate; #118 Three words: wish, button, sky; #119 RSVP; #120 Objets d'art; #121 Soul; #122 Scuttlebutt; #123 Recall; #124 Doorway; #125 Beacon; #126 Seagull, Market, Box; #127 Window; #128 Terrified; #129 Dance; #130 Two endings; #131 Ghosted; #132 Treasure; #133 Taste; #134 Reunion; #135 I miss you; #136 Wonder; #137 Ruins; #138 Beach memories; #139 There was something in the wind; #140 Mask; #141 Halloween; #142 Photo album; #143 Dreams; #144 Crayon box; #145 Back of beyond; #146 Intuition; #147 Delight; #148 Anticipation; #149 Holiday memories; #150 Resolution; #151 Bicycle; #152 Flight; #153 Time Travel; #154 A trip to the fair; #155 Don't sell me a dog; #156 Gravity; #157 Love, wheelbarrow, dog; #158 Stealing; #159 Sportsmanship; #160 Toast; #161 Pickle; #162 You only live once; #163 Ring; #164 Hope; #165 Dreamcatcher; #166 In mother's house; #167 Keep Out
Thank you for being a part of The Ink Well!
@jayna, @gracielaacevedo, @yaziris, @itsostylish, @samsmith1971 and @agmoore
Interested in joining our community? Start by joining Hive!
You can follow our curation trail by going to our hive.vote curation trail page and clicking the follow button.
Note: The Ink Well is now paying out curation rewards to our delegators!
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, @itsostylish, @blueeyes8960, @agmoore, @marcybetancourt, @marlyncabrera, @stormcharmer, @juniorgomez, @iamraincrystal, @preparedwombat, @gracielaacevedo, @timix648, @samsmith1971, @jackdeathblack, @josemalavem, @riverflows, @generikat, @mineopoly, @hazmat, @treasuree, @innfauno12, @kingsleyy, @popurri, @nancybriti1, @marynn, @universoperdido, @rinconpoetico7, @nathy33, @iyimoga, @marriot5464, @morey-lezama, @evagavilan2, @moneykeep, @mrenglish, @stuartcturnbull, @funshee, @amiegeoffrey, @balikis95, @cool08, @rukkie, @raymondpeter, @emreal, @tomiajax, @kushyzee, @jjmusa2004, @rare-gem, @ricurohemi28, @benwesterham, and @shakavon.
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