Image source: Sarah Kilian on Unsplash
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.
Important FAQs about The Ink Well!
Here are answers to some Frequently Asked Questions about The Ink Well.
What Is The Ink Well All About?
The Ink Well is a short story community. This means we only accept short fiction. (Fiction means stories that came from your imagination, not from real life.)
It also means:
- No novels, chapter stories or multi-part stories
- No poems
- No introduction posts
- No essays or other non-fiction
- No memes
Just fictional short stories!
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.
Weekly Challenge and Prize Announcement
As we announced in our February newsletter, we are now running a weekly challenge to generate some fun and excitement while also helping our members to work on the different skills involved in story telling. Last week's challenge was to work on Character Development.
You guys are amazing! There were some really great stories that showed strong character development. There are few stories that can succeed without at least one strong character. Because this is such an important skill, we'd like to include a few stories from this week that are "honorable mentions". The honorable mentions for character development are:
My mother always worried and feared for my future. However, I didn't care. I wanted to live my life and I didn't need any rescuing from a charming prince.
I have an affinity for perfection. Everything in my life needs to be in order. My routine for a week is planned every Sunday meticulously even down to how drunk I'll get on Saturday night when I escape my restaurant where I'm a head chef to meet my friends and blow off steam. People think I'm too much. But the routine and predictability make me happy
Although we adopted Brigitte, being a baby, she has clarity of what she wants to be and, she has precise goals for her young age. Let her be. Maybe she has a mission in life that you do not understand at the moment. Teach her to fly, but give her the freedom to fly where her heart takes her.
Suddenly, he realized his parents’ relationship and how his mother felt lonely. While his father was climbing the ladders of promotion after promotion, he was not taking care of his mother properly. Now he could see the reason for the increasing lines and wrinkles on his mother’s face that suddenly emerged from the feeling of loneliness. He could see a clear picture now. If his father could not keep my mother happy, it was his duty to make her happy.
Of course, I am not unfaithful. I have never been. If I fall in love with a woman I am with her until the flame of passion fades.
Is it wrong that my favorites are the submissive ones, the ones trapped in a rut, those chrysalises that just need a push to get out of the cocoon
And the winner of the Developing Memorable Character Challenge is... @lordtimoty, with his story The story about Bert, and Bert, and Bert, and Bert and the mole above Charlie's big toe. Here's an excerpt from the story:
Charlie continued to look at his mole, and the mole, he assumed, was looking back. Charlie noted how still that little brown dot was. It delighted him to think that he himself was as still as the mole. He knew that the mole was odd, and it regularly changed position when he wasn’t looking. It was, however, a crafty thing and Charlie had taken many photos of his foot to catch the mole in the act, but every time he was confounded as the mole could only be captured back in its original position. This was not the first time that Charlie had engaged in this elaborate game of cat and mouse.
The character development in this story starts with the first paragraph and continues to the end. It might be said that the story is all about one character. Read it, and discover something unique, surprising, and totally unpredictable.
Congratulations to @lordtimoty, who will receive 5 Hive as the winner.
Okay, let's review fiction entries from last week's prompt and launch a new one.
Stories From the Previous Week
Thank you to everyone who posted a story for last week's prompt, “Perfection."
Here are the week's stories. Be sure to read and support these authors for their work.
Another Mother Joins the Resistance by @mineopoly
She Felt as if She Obtained Perfection by @rayt2
The Voices in His Head by @yaziris
In My Dream by @kingobonnaya
The Flower Stalker by @itsostylish
No One Is Perfect by @repayme4568
My Parent's Wish Fulfilled by @cool08
Obsession by @mrenglish
Emilia a brave woman by @lrscarmen
How the Coronation Crumbled by @restcity
Extreme Love by @fantom22
Everything Has Changed by @khaleesii
Dusty Stars by @piratethanos
Lady Boss by @ozohu) by @ozohu
Multi Level Marketing by @mosin-nagant
For All the Dark Places by @ehrycarrh
A Changed Mind by @princessbusayo
The Devil's Workshop by @abigail04
It'll All Be Worth It by @b0s
Adam's Quest for Perfection by @dwixer
Echoes of Thoughts by @sadfish
The Lucky Object by @restcity
Natasha Sabinski by @emeka002
Home Sweet Home by @grocko
Steps to Be a Seducer by @ricardo993
Vestigial Wing by @ayesha-malik
Humility is the Key to Perfection @iyimoga
It's Almost Perfect by @deraaa
Ultimate Crush by @mrnightmare.net
They Won the Lottery in the End by @rayt2
His Magical Diary by @rayt2
Odette (the Monster Typhoon) A True Story by @mrnightmare.net
Wounded Traveler by @wahyunugraha
Perfection: One Big Perfect Family by @ddn688
The Drummer by @kei2
During the Flood: Warpedpoetic's Book of Strange Happenings by @warpedpoetic
Persistence Pays-Luck Strays by @wrestlingdesires
Procession of Freedom by @milezofplay
An Unexpected Book Gives the Key to Destiny by @katleya
Our After Sunset by @joreneagustin
The story about Bert, and Bert, and Bert, and Bert and the mole above Charlie's big toe. by @lordtimoty
The Tradition by @kingobonnaya
Campfire by @sadfish
His Last Breath by @egboncass
The Perfect Lady by @sonofremi
The Princess and the Firecrackers-
a Different Love Story by @rayt2
Ayo's Dilemma by @egboncass
Light Years/A Love Story by @restcity
Transformed Totally by @abigail04
Open Up by @kingobonnaya
Josh and Vic Friends for Life by @repayme4568
Guru Disciple Dialogue About Social Media by @rayt2
When the Sky Meets the Sea by @joreneagustin
Wow by @fantom22
A Higher Pursuit Than Perfection by @deeanndmathews
The Imperfect God by @doubleworld
The Call of the Forest by @popurri
What's Going on at the DnD Tavern by @ipexito
In the Wake of Perfection by @farahikram
Perfection! Life or Death by @drceeyou
The Perfectionista by @merit.ahama
Street Busker Story by @radenkusumo666
Ghost on a Banyan Tree by @rayt2
King's Justice by @grocko
Farewell in Times of War by @ricestrela
March 25th by @joydukeson
Edna and the Prince by @doziekash
Looking for Perfection by @marbrym
Simple Perfection by @joalheal
The Photographer by @smilejerry
A Better King by @restcity
Little Wahala in Guadalajara by @mineopoly
Your Angel by @milezofplay
Background of My First DnD Character Lena by @ipexito
A Blind Love by @fantome22
Help!My Brother Is an Idiot by @diebitch
What a great collection of stories. Thank you, everyone!
This Week’s Prompt
At last, the prompt of the week!
This week's prompt is Making and Breaking Rules. And your skill challenge for the week is Adding Conflict. Conflict is what gets your reader to sit up and pay attention. Something has to happen in the story that challenges your characters. That is conflict.
What should you do with this prompt? And what does this skill challenge mean? Here are some additional details:
Making and Breaking Rules: We've all broken rules at some time. There are few things in life that lead to more disagreement--conflict--than rules. There are rules for children. Rules at work. Traffic rules. There are even rules that are considered illegal. Who decides if a rule is good or bad? When is it appropriate to break a rule? What are the consequences? This prompt opens up so many possibilities. Have fun with it. Remember, we are looking for conflict in your stories. Give your character (characters) something to worry about, a problem to solve.
For example:
- A child is wounded on the playground and the parent speeds through traffic lights to get to the hospital quickly. Conflict in the parent: follow the rules or take care of the child.
- Alvin belongs to a country club that establishes a rule against membership of people of a certain religion. Alvin's conflict: does he have a responsibility to act?
- There is a rule that all children in a family must be in bed by 10:00, but Grandma is visiting from out of town and leaving in the morning. Conflict: hold to the rule or let the children visit with Grandma?
We have a great resource for you. Read the article Adding Conflict in our catalog of fiction writing tips to learn more about adding conflict and why it's so important.
A week from now, we will select a winning story that includes a narrative-driving conflict. 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 Lens
- #56 Perfection
Thank you for being a part of The Ink Well!
@jayna, @agmoore, @gracielaacevedo, @wrestlingdesires and @yaziris
We would like to invite lovers of creative writing to visit The Ink Well, a Hive community started by @raj808 and @stormlight24 and run by @jayna, @agmoore, @gracielaacevedo, @wrestlingdesires and @yaziris.
We also invite you to follow The Ink Well curation trail on the Hive blockchain, at https://hive.vote/. Simply navigate to the curation trail section and search for theinkwell (all one word with no @ symbol) and our trail will pop up as an option.
Similarly delegations are possible on Hive using the fantastic https://peakd.com/ Hive Blockchain front end. If you wish to delegate to @theinkwell, you can do this from the wallet section of https://peakd.com/
@zeurich, @jayna, @felt.buzz, @marcybetancourt, @marlyncabrera, @stormcharmer, @generikat, @agmoore, @iamraincrystal, @preparedwombat, @gracielaacevedo, @chocolatescorpi, @kirlos, @adncabrera, @josemalavem, @morey-lezama, @sayury, @evagavilan2, @deraaa, @rayt2 and @fantom22.
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