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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!
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 Spirit and the skill challenge was to describe an interesting character. 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, 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
- @kei2 with the story Farida and Her Stories
She walked to her window. Outside was filled with the chattering and buzzing of little kids trick-or-treating. All of them wore funny and intriguing costumes. Farida marveled. In that split second, she relived her childhood all over again. The memories were crisp and clear like daylight.
- @fantom22 and the story The Good and Bad Spirits
Then he told again that just as there are good and bad people in life, similarly good and bad souls also roam in this supernatural world. These souls keep wandering about in their lifetime due to leaving some work unfinished. By contacting them, a person can know about his past and future.
On this third step, he wavered between taking a large gulp and the sip, but felt the momentous task ahead of him demanded a risk-management approach which favoured minimising risk. He justified the sip on the grounds of safety, given the potential of the hot water to cause injury. As far as a measure of significant risk went, this was to be Anthony’s most threatening activity he had engaged in throughout the entirety of the day.
- @drstrings with the story Dad's Plight
Dad used to be so happy back then, but it's all cold now. It's been a year since Mom passed away from a heart disease. Even though he's been trying his best to stay smiling and keep us happy, we can tell that it's not the same Dad as before. Some nights, we would hear Dad sobbing from his room. Mom was his rock, his best friend, but now she's more like a spirit that haunts him. And as for Thunder, she hasn't been this dusty since ever.
- @cool08 with the story The Chosen One
Everyone in Ijemba was searching for the portal to the spirit world. It was the custom for all the people in Ijemba to search for the portal to the spirit world at the early rains to appease the spirits. There wasn't much luck this year as the Oracle hadn't chosen the carrier of the sacrifice to the spiritual portal and only the chosen person could find the portal.
Third Place: Wins 2 HBI
- @balikis95 with the story Hope's Presence
Sighing deeply, I stared at the sky, the stars kept on dancing around, why wouldn’t they? When they have a lovely soul with them who was wrongly taken away from me. I was very angry and sad, perhaps I feel indifferent about it all. I want her back!! I screamed, as my voice echoed through the silent night.
Second Place: Wins 3 HBI
- @grindan with the story The House That Allows You to Fail
She laughs again, and he can almost feel it pass the cold length of winter air between them, to echo like music around him. He wants to make her laugh, to feel the warmth of her creamy skin... Desire creeped up his windpipe like hot lava, throwing him from the pinstriped armchair.
And the winner of the Light/create a vivid story setting challenge is...@warpedpoetic with the story Delirium. Congratulations, @warpedpoetic. You will receive 5 Hive!
It was time to return home. We had gone to the forbidden forest and we were returning with gifts. We had not encountered any demon or ghost. We had not caught the scent of any rabid carnivore. We were alive and had more fun than we could remember and we would be praised and worshipped by our parents and the hollowness would leave their eyes and they would smile more and maybe they too would want to return to the forest with us and we would live happily ever after.
Okay, let's review fiction entries from last week's prompt and launch a new one.
Stories From the Previous Week
@mrenglish
@tozill
@riverflows
@cool08
@ipexito
@wrestlingdesires
@olaphem
@momogrow
@george-dee
@fantom22
@drstrings
@lordtimoty
@fragozar01
@balikis95
@nichebezarius
@kemmyb
@innfauno12
@restcity
@adhyaksaardaus
@rammargarita
@iyimoga
@abdul-qudus
@lightpen
@kei2
@grindan
@pjpavan
@diikaan
@ricardo993
@merit.ahama
@diebitch
@khaleesii
@treasure-joshua
@madamnaomi
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 Fire. Our skill challenge will be to work on creating a powerful hook. This is one of the most important parts of your story. The first line pulls the reader in and entices the reader to go further into the story. You will find a discussion about creating a powerful hook in @jayna's essay, Hook Your Readers .
In writing for the prompt, you don't have to use the exact word of the prompt. Derive inspiration from it, and let your imagination go to work.
Here are some ideas to help get you started on your story.
These are just some ways in which the prompt might inspire a story. You can probably come up with much more interesting ideas of your own.
- Janice arrived at work every morning with the expectation that she would be fired.
- Eight police officers fired their guns simultaneously at the range.
- The fire in Arthur's mouth was unbearable after he ate the raw chili pepper.
- The campaign manager fired up the crowd.
- One of the most fiery speeches in American history was delivered by William Cullen Bryant.
- The four cylinders fired at the same time.
- Agatha acquired the reputation of being a firebrand.
- Homeowners fled as fire raged in the forest.
- Fire ants were swarming over the rotting fruit.
- Andrea had a fire in her belly for civil rights reform.
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
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, @seeger, @itsostylish, @josemalavem, @morey-lezama, @sayury, @evagavilan2 and @popurri.
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