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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.
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 exhaust and the skill target was 'show, don't tell'. This community really came through with many surprising, amazing stories!
Many of our writers created original, memorable stories in response to 'exhaust'. 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, in addition to a few 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 written in response to the prompt and skill challenge.
Honorable Mentions
- @deraa with the story The Window
It was empty. A room almost empty save for Magdalene and classic furnitures. Her plump figure in the middle, hair grey with age and tied up in a prim bun. Her eyes bounced across what was once her home. She could even see things in their proper place, she could still hear the faint laughter from where she'd be chopping onions in the kitchen.
- @kei2 with the story Dreams Come True
Their three little lanterns of green, yellow and orange shone brightly beneath the dark sky. The moonlight was modest with the rays it cast upon the inhabitants of earth.The three friends jollied and sang their way back home. They giggled and whispered as they strolled into the decent suburban neighborhood.
- @diebitch with the story A Little Bit of Me
Eva glided through the streets at midnight. Her high heels hitting the pavement with a steady rhythm. The crystals on her dress swung musically around her body. She bit her ruby red lips as she saw the expression of the passersby.
Then he looked at the scars on the tree diagonal to him. Though the fire nearly consumed it, the branches greened. He visualized in his mind's eye the strong roots pushing through in search of water.
- @popurri with the story Mission: Explore the Sea Trench
As they descend, the light diminishes and the intense blue turns to a black color only illuminated by the lights of the underwater camera. The equipment begins to record temperature, pressure, oxygen and other gas concentrations and sounds and send this information back to the ship.
Third Place: Wins 2 HBI
- @rammargarita with the story The Monarch and the Scarecrow
Every day the desire to escape increased among those butterflies, like the waters of a rising river. They were ready to take anything in front of them, in order to achieve their goal. They decided to look for a chisel and at night, some of them took it in their paws and others took the hammer between theirs, little by little they were opening an opening in the roof of the greenhouse. Several nights passed in this way, until they managed to complete the escape route.
Second Place: Wins 3 HBI
- @idlemind with the story Side Hustle
Cool air lingered in my nostrils as I breathed in the minty-grassy atmosphere. It was that time of the year again. The time when our branches and twigs flourished with a bounty of silver and gold leaves — leaves that are desired by humans in Greed Town.
And the winner of the exhaust/show don't tell challenge is...@seki1 with the story The Loss of Passion. Congratulations, @seki1. You will receive 5 Hive!
"Mr Leo, how are we feeling today?" It took him a few seconds to notice me, guess today is a slow day today. "Do you want to tell me what your painting today?" I took a look at the paint board that's coloured a deep black with a few drops of grey. Strange for someone who has been painting colorful artworks all week. We've had to throw away 12 pages of art so far.
Okay, let's review fiction entries from last week's prompt and launch a new one.
Stories From the Previous Week
@raymondpeter
@idlemind
@stellageorge
@deraaa
@mrenglish
@cool08
@restcity
@samsmith1971
@fantom22
@pjpavan
@mjvdc
@gi-de-on
@marynn
@balikis95
@janaveda
@creepymeow
@lightpen
@abigail04
@dennmarc
@drstrings
@emeka002
@george-dee
@jemima1996
@offia66
@maryjacy
@iyimoga
@khaleesii
@popurri
@lordtimoty
@kelseyimoh
@buezor
@diebitch
@diikaan
@madamnaomi
@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. 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 roll. As is often true, the prompt is a gift to writers because of the many possible applications. Are you thinking of food? Of gymnastics? Of music (drums, rock 'n roll)? An attitude (that's the way they roll)?
Have fun with this prompt. Surprise us. The skill challenge is something we have tried before: create an antagonist for your main character. The antagonist can be anything you imagine. It might even be a piece of freshly-baked bread that taunts a character trying to lose weight (This idea for 'roll' was inspired by @seckorama's collage, Gluttony).
You can read about the function of an antagonist in @jayna's essay, Character Types in Fiction. Here is an excerpt from that essay:
This is the “bad guy,” essentially, also known as the “villain.” But it’s important to know that not all antagonists are truly bad.
If you want to read more about antagonists in short stories, here is an online essay that might be helpful.
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
Thank you for being a part of The Ink Well!
@jayna, @agmoore, @gracielaacevedo and @yaziris
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.
@zeurich, @jayna, @felt.buzz, @marcybetancourt, @marlyncabrera, @stormcharmer, @generikat, @agmoore, @iamraincrystal, @preparedwombat, @gracielaacevedo, @chocolatescorpi, @kirlos, @josemalavem, @morey-lezama, @sayury, @evagavilan2, @deraaa and @popurri.
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