Image source: vojta_kucer 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
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 establishing a story's setting.
The community was amazingly successful in meeting this challenge. The settings described were varied, vivid and memorable. This challenge seemed to invite a special level of originality. In addition to the prize winner, we'd like to call out a few stories that were particularly successful in creating show-stopping settings!
Here are the honorable mention stories of the week, with excerpts that illustrated their scene-setting skill:
Bill went inside without bothering to put on the light. The chill of the floor tiles penetrated his barefoot, immediately he traced the wall then grabbed the shower knob. The bathroom started to warm up as the hot water came pouring in from above
A little down the road, Al glimpsed at a couple arguing intensely but he paid them no mind and continued looking head. All of the sudden, a van with tinted windows opened up with a man holding a camera and a woman holding a microphone walking out.
For miles upon miles, open space, and nature's tones provide a natural depth of colour, from the bright blues of the ocean that bring an overwhelming sense of tranquility, and the earthy hues of the vast landscape, to the vivid and distinct colour layers evident in the sunrise and sunset, so brief yet so alluring and uplifting.
He stepped into the puddled street. His shoe, muddied, tapped a beat. The clock ticked quietly and the wind blew – but did he feel the cold? The stale smell of beer hid in the alleyways, as windows were lighting up. Lighting up for what? The cobbles kept the tap-tap-tap and the men and women passed each other’s faces. Blank faces, bearded faces; the clock face spoke six o’clock
and as Salome lay on the stairwell, upside down, face up, with a bleeding head barely hanging on the last step. She could see images approaching her, but all she could do was try to keep her eyes open, at least enough to think about a few things
And the winner of Creating a Setting Challenge is...@grocko, with his story Fumes. Here is an excerpt from the story:
So he stuck to what he knew, handling his broom with stark efficiency.
Sometimes, if you were too fast with your sweeps, the dust caused by foot traffic would be swept in the garden. Said dust would mingle with the plants and contaminate them. Granted, the plants themselves were contaminated, but that's beside the point.
If the trajectory of your sweeps was not measured, you could leave unwanted tracks.
This story is told from the point of view of a simple person, and yet through the eyes of this character we see a stark and startling environment. Read the story, and see for yourself.
Congratulations to @grocko, 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, “Lens."
Here are the week's stories. Be sure to read and support these authors for their work.
A Different Story by @rayt2
The Deal by @kingobonnaya
Back to the Beginning by @deraaa
Richards Home by @todayslight
Just a Click Changed Everything by @chincoculbert
Of Broken Hearts by @drceeyou
The D Day by @boscohage
Salome by @queenstarr
The Destiny Makers by @idlemind
The Monocle by @restcity
Appeasement to Who? by @mrenglish
The Street of Mumbai by @iyimoga
Of Broken Hearts by @drceeyou
If He Is Mine by @rayt2
A Journey to Independence by @khoola
A Unique Excursion by @ricardo993
Exhausted by @ipexito
The Missing Piece by @emeka002
Declared Deceiver by @abigail04
A Desperate Woman by @piratethanos
I See the Real Me by @danladi
How Did I Get Into This Mess by @didiee
Look What I Captured by @zeraton
The Eye Which Sees All by @dlmmqb
The Interview by @egboncass
All for You by @kingobonnaya
The Beast and I by @ubani1
The Blue Clover and the Rose Bush by @popurri
Will You Marry Me by @rayt2
The Collectors by @strangegravy
Witches Wisdom by @abigail04
It is Everything by @kingobonnaya
In Her Eyes by @dwixer
The Land of Restrictions by @cool08
Weird Way by @fantom22)
Esperanza by @marbrym
Don't Judge a Book by its Cover by @kingkenny44
At four and five and six o'clock by @lordtimoty
A Separate Lens by @litguru
Frederickenstein and the Devil's Magnifying Glass by @mosin-nagant
The Leprechaun Hunter by @wrestlingdesires
Memory Loss by @smilejerry
Broken and Abandoned by @khaleesii
A Unique Excursion by @ricardo993
Fergal Leo Donated What He Wanted To Spend On St. Patrick’s Day by @rayt2
WWIII by @ricardo993
That Scary Photo Assignment by @rayt2
Just That Moment by @boscohage
Adventure by @fantom22
Pink Poodle's Not Very Royal Backstory (Bet I Can Make You Laugh Around The End) by @kittycrafter
"Smile!" The World Through the Eyes of the Mirror by @kennysplash
The Path of No Return by @ricestrela
Biosuit by @kei2
Love or Just Replacement by @mrnightmare.net
Autumn and Big Pumpkins Through the lens of Generations by @deeanndmathews
Ryan and the Magical Life by @merit.ahama
The Truth Seeker by @joalheal
Love Gone Bad by @adoore-eu
A Miracle Happened by @hopestylist
Goat Lake by @mosin-nagant
Study Buddy by @diebitch
Fumes by @grocko
Spiral From the Notebook of Wahala by @doziekash
Reddington College by @mrenglish
The Faulty Lens by @raymondpeter
The Test by @joseph23
Beneath the Facade by @samsmith1971
A look at the Universe @popurri
Adolf/A Love Story by @obikay
Grandpa's Secret Shamrocks by @idlemine
Wild Forest by @ipexito
An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure by @victorbch2
The Magical Camera @exceltogaming
The Weight of Power by @hdprinter
Reddington College by @mrenglish
The Faulty Lens by @raymondpeter
The Test by @raymondpeter
Beneath the Facade by @samsmith1971
Dedication by @fantom22
Never Ending Time by @boscohage
A Powerful Magic by @itsostylish
Al Gets Stuck in a Hidden Camera by @amirtheawesome1
Heavier Than Any Burden by @grocko
Here's a MUST READ!!! Once upon a 14TH day of February by @unyime1
Each Part a Memory by @boscohage
I Wanna Stay With You by @totyahmed731993
What an impressive collection of stories! Thank you everyone.
This Week's Prompt
Finally we come to it, the prompt of the week! This week's prompt is: Perfection. Your skill challenge for this week is, Developing Memorable Characters.
What should you do with this prompt? And what does this skill challenge mean? Here are some additional details:
Perfection: This word can describe a goal, an aspiration, physical appearance, moral character, and a personal trait. It may suggest a life that has failed to achieve a goal. This prompt allows the author to introduce an idea of perfection, or of failure to achieve perfection. Perfection is something that taunts many of us throughout our lives, and it is something that often eludes us.
All real people have “character traits” and so must the characters in our stories. There are several different ways to share a character’s traits with readers:
Characters are not fully in charge of everything that happens in a story. Things happen. How your character reacts to the other characters, the story’s conflict, and events will tell us an enormous amount about the character.
We have a great resource for you. Read the article Developing Memorable Characters in our catalog of fiction writing tips to learn more about the art of developing characters and why this is so important.
A week from now, we will select a winning story that includes a great character development. 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
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/
@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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