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 January's Prompt Post. 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. Here are answers to some Frequently Asked Questions about The Ink Well.
- No novels, chapter stories or multi-part stories
- No poems
- No introduction posts
- No memes
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. We do not allow stories depicting violence, brutality, or abuse of women, children or animals. 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, dialog, 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!
- Among the factors we look at is quality of engagement with others in the community
- Please 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 To Create and the skill challenge was to create a vivid story setting. This community really came through with surprising, amazing stories!
Many of our writers created original, memorable stories in response to the prompt. Our selections of this week's winners and honorable mentions reflect how well writers dealt with this prompt and skill challenge.
Update! We are excited to share that in addition to our first place winner, we are awarding a second and third place. We also will be selecting honorable mentions. For second and third place we are awarding Hive Basic Income (HBI). The third place winner receives 2 HBI and the second place winner receives 3 HBI.
Here are this week's honorable mentions, all of them writing in response to the prompt and skill challenge.
Honorable Mentions
- @rammargarita with the story Emblematic Figures
Today, Aura Marina is 70 years old and is still waiting for him. Standing in front of the sea, her gaze is lost in infinity, waiting for a ship to appear and for her beloved to come in it.
- @lightpen with the story Nurturing Talents
John was the third person to display his project. He got a standing ovation when he unwrapped the flyover bridge built with paper. It was a replica of a popular flyover bridge in the town known to almost everyone in the hall. It was nicely designed to depict the real bridge.
- @arduilcelebren with the story An Artificer Cornered
When they came downstairs, to the basement, the smell of alcohol and gunpowder filled the air. Many chemicals were lined up on wooden shelves. Pieces of metal were scattered harmoniously around and the work table they walked through was covered with paper notes and scrolls
- @marynn with the story The Pain of Love
Hilary tried his best to talk Lily into accepting his proposal but to no avail. He built a fortress around his heart with his mind sealed never to get hurt again by a lady.
- @littlepiggies with the story A Stormy Night
The recursive nature of the tiny lightning bolts that continue to spread out in the sky was also the same recursive nature of the nerve synapses moving nicotine through her system. Of course, she was oblivious to this connection of patterns created within the universe.
Third Place: Wins 2 HBI
- @seki1 with the story The Result
I went to the curtain blind, walking carefully, making sure not to draw any attention to myself.
I quickly took hold of the spot and felt the solid shape of the key. Feeling reassured that it was still there, I feigned trying to look around for my own key and trying to force open my locker before giving up and going home.
Second Place: Wins 3 HBI
- @kemmyb with the story The Summoning
My form was stiff and my eyes were heavy as I struggled to open them and answer the summoning. I was surrounded by darkness and cold earth. I had been buried deep in the earth for three thousand years, but now I was free.
And the winner of the To Create/vivid story setting challenge is...@wrestlingdesires with the story It's Just a Lump of Clay. Congratulations, @wrestlingdesires. You will receive 5 Hive!
The animals in the sculpture continued to change positions every few hours for a full week. Dr. Lorne was curious what the patient would see when he returned.
Okay, let's review fiction entries from last week's prompt and launch a new one.
Stories From the Previous Week
@balikis95
@lazythoughts
@marriot5464
@popurri
@mrenglish
@maam.sammy
@marynn
@kenechukwu97
@gi-de-on
@treasuree
@littlepiggies
@seki1
@wrestlingdesires
@fantom22
@babamb03
@cool08
@kemmyb
@vincric
@abigail04
@hazmat
@arduilcelebren
@kingsleyy
@pjpavan
@lrscarmen
@kingsleymark
@maam.sammy
@idlemind
@lightpen
@rammargarita
@george-dee
@edystringz
@kei2
Thank you to everyone who posted a story for last week's 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: The Inkwell curators read many creative submissions each week. Ideally, we would comment and curate each piece. However, there are physical limitations, which include time. It may be the case that stories are submitted and are not curated. We do try to curate every piece but that may not happen.
At last, the prompt of the week!
This week's prompt is Vision. Our skill challenge will be to create a powerful hook for your story. @jayna has written a great essay about creating a hook in the Catalog of Fiction Writing Tips.
**When you write for the prompt, you don't have to use the exact word. Derive inspiration from it. Vision has many applications. Use your imagination and come up with an original interpretation of this prompt.
Here are some ideas about how to use the prompt, Vision. You can probably come up with much more interesting ideas of your own.
- Maria had struggled with poor vision all her life.
- Antonio claimed that he had a vision when he was on top of the mountain.
- Visionaries have often paved the way to the future for different cultures.
- Can you visualize the room as I describe it?
- Alan looked across the desert and was certain he saw an oasis.
- When Marco saw Antoinette he said, "She is a vision of her mother."
- A well-written story allows the reader to imagine a scene exactly as the author imagines it.
- I wonder if the world sees me as I see myself when I look in the mirror.
- It is likely Vincent van Gogh had visions when he created his fantastical art, because he was suffering from mental illness.
- As I close my eyes, I see my childhood home, as though I had been there yesterday.
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, and stories featuring abuse of women, children or animals. (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 maximum 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
Thank you for being a part of The Ink Well!
@jayna, @agmoore, @gracielaacevedo, @yaziris and @itsostylish
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.
@jayna, @felt.buzz, @zeurich, @marcybetancourt, @agmoore, @marlyncabrera, @stormcharmer, @generikat, @iamraincrystal, @preparedwombat, @gracielaacevedo, @chocolatescorpi, @samsmith1971, @grindan, @stuartcturnbull, @itsostylish, @josemalavem, @morey-lezama, @evagavilan2, @popurri, and @mrenglish.
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