Image source: Vic_B on Pixabay
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
Time for the prize announcement and new challenge!
Last week's prompt was adventure and the skill challenge was to focus on the setting, in your story.
Great work, everyone! There were some wonderful demonstrations of interesting and visually rich story settings. Our selection of this week's winner and honorable mentions very much reflect how well writers developed adventure-based stories with good settings.
Selecting honorable mentions and the winner is never an easy choice. A significant factor that influences the decision is quality of engagement with others in the community.
Here are this week's honorable mentions, all of which created a strong and immersive setting for their adventure story:
@yuki-nee An Explorer's Promise
An albatross soared along the beach, joining the other birds drawn to what appeared to be a boat’s wreckage. There it saw a person lying face down on the sand, motionless. The albatross tilted its head, as if it unsure whether the person was alive or dead.
The strokes of rain flogged bountifully on their vehicle. The car wiper brushing off the drops of rain in a rhythmic sequence. Maria stretched herself. The road was flooded and appeared to be deserted only for a few heavy vehicles that drove past. She reached out to Debby and rubbed her shoulder.
@nelson-george Close Your Eyes
The wind blew softly making the trees outside rustle. It was so peaceful and quiet just the way Jack liked it. Growing up he had hated the outdoors. Preferred to stay inside all day, reading or listening to his grandma's tales.
@katleya Milingo's Love Affair
I remember perfectly that day, October 12. My free soul went to snoop around a place unknown to me: Plaza de los Aventureros. The beautiful square, with its leafy trees, fragrant flowers and impeccable golden metal seats, was used by my congeners for their amorous escapades. They invited me to share their wanderings.....My ingenuity knows no bounds.
The afternoon sun is hiding on the horizon. I walk on the wet sand, the foam of the waves on my boots. Winter is already arriving in these latitud. I find it hard to adapt to this abrupt change of climate. From the torrid tropical lands of South America to the cold northern regions of Alaska.
And the winner of the adventure/setting challenge is... @kei2 with the story Home Coming Queen.
The sun was starting to set and it gave the weather a sepia tone. The air felt a little too chilly and crisp against my skin. I had walked subconsciously through the bustling market to the butcher's table. He was butchering a portion of meat that wasn't dividing. Then my eyes darted to his left hand. Astonishingly, he had only four fingers. He was still the same man. I was stunned to still see them there-The children bedside him dancing without music. The guitarist with a turban that always sat there playing his cordless guitar. He seemed to be lip-syncing as no words came out of his mouth.Even the mad man in tattered clothes still paraded in a circle while doing a gesture like opening a door.
Congratulations to @kei2, 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
@gi-de-on
@fantom22
@kirlos
@itsostylish
@kingobonnaya
@mrenglish
@abmakko
@matyr
@cool08
@assegai
@chidubem26
@yhuddee111
@nurudeen081
@buezor
@iyimoga
@lightpen
@diikaan
@young-boss-karin
@litguru
@katlaya
@dwixer
@merrymay22
@ddn688
@blackalbino1
@filipz
@bettyhandayani
@repayme4568
@abigail04
@popurri
@kingkenny44
@smokyice
@kei2
@preshtrump99
@kalkulus001
@merit.ahama
@hopestylist
@nelson-george
@yuki-nee
@davidbright
Thank you to everyone who posted a story for last week's prompt!
This Week’s Prompt
The inkwell is fortunate to have many members who are eager to write. However, the curation team does not have infinite resources. In order to be fair to all writers, we have decided to ask our members to publish only one story per week. If members choose to publish more than that, they may. However, only one story will be curated.
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. Moving forward the Ink Well Team believes this will provide a better experience for writers and curators.
At last, the prompt of the week!
This week's prompt is Shadow. The skill challenge this week is to build your skill in developing the "voice" of your story, which you can read about in the article, What Is Writing Voice?. Refer to that essay (in the Inkwell's Catalog of Fiction Writing Tips) to learn more about writing voice.
What should you do with the prompt, Shadow? And how do you handle the skill challenge? Here are some additional details:
Shadow: Shadows can be beautiful or frightening. A shadow can be left by a gorgeous statue or a majestic building. A shadow can indicate that a storm is coming, a bird is flying overhead, or someone is loitering under a lamp post.
Writing voice: This is essentially your writing style or the tone of your writing. You should consider setting the tone for your story early on, and maintaining that "tone" or "voice" throughout.
Some writers have elaborate prose that includes a lot of fancy words. Others write in simple language and simple words. There is no right or wrong, as long as your story has a consistent voice throughout. You'll find some great examples in the voice article.
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
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, @josemalavem, @morey-lezama, @sayury, @evagavilan2 and @deraaa.
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