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. 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: Just fictional short stories! The Ink Well is all about creativity, quality, community, and engagement. As such, we ask the following: 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: 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 story hooks to entice readers into your story. You guys are amazing! There were some really good stories that skillfully handled the challenge, create a character who is faced with desire in the face of danger. Resolving this essential conflict in the character gives tension to the story and helps to drive it forward. People keep reading. They want to learn how the conflict is resolved. Because this is such an important skill, we'd like to include a few examples as "honorable mentions": At that moment, the smell of dew soaked wet grass emanating from the atmosphere was mesmerizing me. The nearness of Rita was another factor that was disturbing me, as I was not sure what was attracting me more, the smell of dried autumn leaves or the fragrance coming from Rita's lovely body. Franklin nodded as his words were getting more interesting by the second, the cold drink sitting at the table now looking more inviting as he took another brief glance at it. She looked at his face wondering if he didn't recognise her or perhaps he did but didn't want to show it. She battled with the desire to wrap the stethoscope around his neck and pull it so hard until he was breathless. Perhaps, during surgery would be the perfect time to rid the world of his kind. Jeremy stared at Solace. He could be with her now but he would lose everything that mattered to him. He nodded. "Can I hug you at least?" They both laughed and held each other. she felt overwhelmed as she imagined with a silly giddiness, that infatuation had stolen her sensibilities. But what of decorum? She had stopped listening to half of what he had said, in order to just be in the moment, losing herself in the hard wrinkles by his eyes. And the winner of the challenge to create a character who is faced with desire in the face of danger is...@vincric, with his story, Fool's Treasure. The quality of writing was quite high in many of the stories, certainly in the honorable mentions. In the end, though, @vincric took the prize because of his surprising and very original take on the prompt. An excerpt from his story is posted below. I debated, the eyes of the invaders were not good at seeing in the dark compared ours, they need those tools that carry fire. I can still move fast, my wound was actually light after I inspected it there was no serious harm, I only need to wash it and rest for a few days. But still the danger was still there I could lose my life! But this is one of the rare opportunities another might never come! But the treasure was so shiny and it glimmered beautifully, it was still tempting nonetheless. Congratulations to @vincric, who will receive 5 Hive as the winner. Okay, let's review fiction entries from last week's prompt and launch a new one. Thank you to everyone who posted a story for last week's prompt, Temptation Here are the stories that were posted in response to that prompt. Be sure to read and support these authors for their work. The Great Hatred by @temileke What a great collection of stories. Thank you, everyone! At last, the prompt of the week! This week's prompt is Happiness. And your skill challenge for the week is the Writing Voice. What should you do with this prompt? And what does this skill challenge mean? Here are some additional details: Happiness: We all know what happiness is, but our idea of happiness may change depending on circumstance. Winning a prize may make us happy, but if it's not first prize that may not be true. We can have happiness, or we can lose happiness. In your story, that is your choice. We can feel happiness, see happiness in others, or aspire to happiness. Your story, your choice. Writing Voice: In her essay, What Is Writing Voice, @jayna describes how every story has a voice. The voice of a story told from the perspective of an elderly woman facing a terminal illness would be different from that of a young girl on her wedding day. This week we would like you to adopt a voice. Try to be consistent, and tell us at the beginning or end of the story what that voice is. Examples of using a voice with the prompt Happiness: We have a great resource for you. Read the article What Is 'Writing Voice'? in our catalog of fiction writing tips to learn more. A week from now, we will select a winning story that demonstrates a consistent writing voice. 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: 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: @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/
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Weekly Challenge and Prize Announcement
"You can still take the drink if you want, feel free" James smiled as he observed Franklin was eyeing the bottle of cold drink.
Franklin stretched his hands and picked up the cold drink on the table, he couldn't any longer resist as he nodded his head in response to the enticing words from James.
Stories From the Previous Week
Gamble With Death by @adaopara
Ighodaro Street by @philomenob
Temptation and Fantasy by @sonofremi
Her Ride or Die by @young-boss-karin
A Work in Progress by @blackalbino1
The Eye of Zeus /by @nelson-george
OBO - 30 Billion Gang by @ghost.queen
Fate beyond Faith by @hopestylist
Mom by @deraaa
Macy's World by @idlemind
Succumbing to Temptation by @khaleesii
Phobia by @chidubem26
Four Temptations of Hulk by @the-last-elf
The Trials and Temptations of Bayo by @kingkenny44
In Search of Mercedes by @popurri
Dangerous Choices by @abmakko
The Forbidden Love by @chincoculbert
My Testimony by @ddn688
Dictator Rectified by @katleya
Rita by @rayt2
Misguided Emotions by @hdprinter
Ms Greta Baumgarten's Mithridatum of Despair by @lordtimoty
Irresistible by @iyimoga
Mercy Fell on Me by @cool08
Guilty Yet Innocent by @preshtrump99
Subtle Beguilement by @buezor
Temptations by @victorkachi
Drug Temptations by @nasfyneboy92
When a Change is Needed by @jmis101
Outta Space by @daniella619
In the Woods by @dwixer
Friendship Apart by @idspecial17
Mr Casanova by @artworkers
Jello by @milezofplay
Flower of Barnabas by @ogochi
Temptation by @repayme4568
Letting Go by @zyzymena
Poor Wife by @fantom22
Irresistible Temptation by @princessbusayo
The Deeper Side of Temptation by @abigail04
A Poor Man Finds Favor by @smilejerry
Her Ride or Die by @young-boss-karin
The Thieving Mary by @mrenglish
Innocent Woman, Unfair World by @kingobonnaya
Strawberry and Chocolate Cake by @marbrym
Kleptomania Spirit by @youngelder
Rekt by @b0s
The Herd of the Forest by @theawesononso
George Succumbs to the Temptation by @emeka002
Royal Temptation by @camerafanatic
Confidence by @alovely
Defeated in Weakness by @yhuddee111
Fool's Treasure by @vincric
The Saving Grace by @modifiers
Jeremy's Dare by @kemmyb
Salvation by @kei2
Say the Word by @joalheal
The Hipster Detective by @diebitch
Apple Strudell by @gracielaacevedo
The Reward for Overcoming Temptation by @raymondpeter
Bulls-eye by @samsmith1971This Week’s Prompt
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@jayna, @agmoore, @gracielaacevedo, @iamraincrystal, @generikat, @marlyncabrera, @preparedwombat, @marcybetancourt, @zeurich, @stormcharmer, @adncabrera, @josemalavem, @morey-lezama, @sayury, @evagavilan2, @bertrayo, @deraaa, @rayt2 and @fantom22.
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