Source: u_0f7jf8tu7s 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: "Dish":
- @amarachi22
- @iskawrites
- @hive-world
- @katleya
- @nancybriti1
- @treasuree
- @gabmr
- @do777
- @rinconpoetico7
- @marriot5464
- @kinganny
- @trexane
- @rare-gem
- @emreal
- @tommyik
- @loveth97
- @balikis95
- @osomar357
- @jjmusa2004
- @abigail04
- @lara-bee
- @amiegeoffrey
- @captainman
- @mrenglish
- @kristowe
- @kennysplash
- @lightpen
- @graat
- @bipolar95
- @kingsleyy
- @diikaan
- @fashtioluwa
- @popurri
- @oluchi31
Author Shout-outs
We'd like to call out a few stories that got high marks from our curators.
@loveth97
Curator comment:
@loveth97 gets kudos for originality as she responds to the 'Dish' prompt. To most writers, this prompt suggested meals, cooking, nostalgia for times past with food as the connection. To loveth97 the prompt suggested a detective story, with romance tossed in. A young man introduces a young lady as his girlfriend. He does this to pacify his mother who claims (falsely) to be ill. The young lady turns out to be a thief who returns in the night to steal the mother's heirloom dishes. Clever. The young man is smitten by the female detective who investigates. Hidden cameras reveal the thief. Dishes are returned. Mother and son confess their lies. The detective is smitten by the young man. Love blossoms and peace is restored to the house. Really a clever plot spun from the simple prompt.
@rinconpoetico7
Curator comment:
@rinconpoetico7 writes an exquisite story in response to the dish prompt. He writes of a loving mother who makes a rice pudding in which the major ingredient is love. She serves the dish with joy, because she is feeding her family. This is the son's favorite dish. Years pass. The boy grows, moves away and rarely comes home. A call from his sister beckons him to visit for Mother's Day. He finds his mother white haired and frail. She cooks the rice pudding. They go to bed and when they wake, she has passed away. On the table are two dishes of rice pudding.
@lara-bee
Curator comment:
@lara-bee writes a delicious, delightful fiction for the “dish” prompt that’s both original and entertaining: A young doctor is allergic to chicken. She is sent to a rural hospital that’s in poor condition. She fixes things up using her salary for funds. A mother arrives with a very sick child. She diagnoses appendicitis and saves the child. The mother cooks a special chicken dish to thank her and in so doing teaches her a recipe that obviates her allergies. Sweet, fun read.
@iskawrites
Curator comment:
@iskawrites delivers a fiction for the dish prompt. It's an original perspective - writing in the first person as the dish! She shares its journey from its place of manufacture to retail and into the hands of a family where it is used daily. She shares how it feels to be wanted and then discarded over time. One day the dish has had enough of being left dirty and abandoned in the sink to smell for days alongside the other unhappy crockery, and when the mom picks her up to clean her for her son to use, she decides to end her life and slips from mom's grasp onto the floor. Her sacrifice meant that Dad got angry and insisted that their son would clean all the dishes after dinner, every day, which meant that the rest of the plates and cups would live a happy life. Iska had some fabulous lines in this piece and I just loved that she took a different approach. Iska likes to push the boundaries.
Fiction Writing Prompt of the Week
This week's prompt is: "Talking in your sleep."
For this prompt, consider the strange world of the subconscious and what might be happening there. Have you ever heard anyone talking in their sleep? Like dreams, sleep talking sometimes requires interpretation. A person might say something strange, or they might speak a name. What might be revealed as a character speaks while sleeping?
Tell us a story!
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; #168 Chin up; #169 Dish
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, @marriot5464, @preparedwombat, @gracielaacevedo, @timix648, @samsmith1971, @jackdeathblack, @josemalavem, @riverflows, @generikat, @mineopoly, @hazmat, @treasuree, @innfauno12, @kingsleyy, @popurri, @nancybriti1, @marynn, @universoperdido, @rinconpoetico7, @nathy33, @iyimoga, @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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