Image source:jw210913 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.
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 splash and the skill target was to describe a vivid scene. This community really came through with many amazing stories!
Splash led to some dynamic, vividly described scenes. 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.
- @cool08 with his story Shattered Wish
The air turned foggy and black around her and she then knew it was going to rain. Not prepared for what was to come, it started pouring heavily and it seemed as if she could hear both tears and laughter in the forest and people calling her name. She was so scared that she started running and the only thing that could be heard was the sound of her feet amidst the puddle of water that was created by the rain and she started making splashes as she tried so hard to find her way out of that dreaded place.
- @nelson-george with his story Philip, My Name Is Philip
The clouds in the sky showed no sign that it had rained earlier. Blue skies with white clouds covered everywhere. His once gloomy day mimicked the weather. He got to meet Ruth and he stood a chance of getting his dream job at the construction.
- @mrenglish with his story Heart of Gold
With her permission granted, Ashura woke up very early in the morning of the said interview date. She is an early bird and wouldn't like to leave a wrong impression of herself to the interviewer. While she waited to catch a taxi to convey her to the city, a utility vehicle, on an average speed, splashed muddy water on her.
Ashura was so devastated.
This cloth was the only ironed attire she had and now, this careless driver had ruined it for her.
Third Place: Wins 2 HBI
- @gabmr with his story Scattered Truth
"Dio Santissimo!" I exclaimed as I, absolutely perplexed, watched as my former co-worker had transformed into a green, slimy creature with purple blobs all over his face, dinosaur hands and a monkey's tail.
Walker was a scrawny 2.15 m guy with a dead face, who turned into a monster dripping disgusting substances with every step he took and coming towards me to eat my brain in a Frankenstein-style.
Second Place: Wins 3 HBI
Later, after the thundering hooves of the horses receded, and only the sound of the wind through the grasses remained, the two little pigs returned to the pond, where they contentedly wallowed in the mud.
And the winner of the splash/scene description challenge is...@madamnaomi, with the story My Inspiration. Congratulations. You will receive 5 Hive!
Chloe was where they left her. But they had forgotten there were open buckets of paint and paintbrushes lying around there and a canvas was nearby as well. Chloe had splashed different colors of paint all over the canvas. She was covered in most of the paint too. To top it off, she acted so oblivious to the crime she just committed. While everyone looked at her with horrified faces, she giggled and said “Dada! Dada! Dada!”.
Okay, let's review fiction entries from last week's prompt and launch a new one.
Stories From the Previous Week
@farahikram
@idlemind
@diikaan
@iyimoga
@chincoculbert
@merit.ahama
@raymondpeter
@buezor
@nelson-george
@treasure-joshua
@bettyhandayani
@lordtimoty
@khaleesii
@yuki-nee
@popurri
@mjvdc
@george-dee
@ezegburugburu
@gabmr
@lightpen
@devotedman
@cool08
@litguru
@greatideas
@fantom22
@mrenglish
@khaleesii
@iyimoga
@madamnaomi
@abigail04
@buezor
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 brilliant. The skill challenge will be to create a memorable character. The word brilliant opens up the possibility for creating a unique, unforgettable character. @jayna explains exactly what this is and how to create it in her essay, Developing Memorable Characters.
As @jayna explains:
Creating a great character is one of the highest goals of fiction writers, because we know that the most memorable characters keep readers engaged and make them want more.
Brilliant A person may appear to shine in a group, brilliantly. Or that person may be distinguished by intellectual excellence. Or that person may be encountered in a setting that is brilliant. Try to think outside the box.
Here is an example that might help you to get started:
- Sometimes life is preordained. That's the way it was with us in college. I was going to travel the world and be an adventurer. Jacques, he was going to mend broken bodies with exquisite skills as a surgeon. But Edna, she was the brilliant one. Every path was open to her. One thing was certain, though, whatever she did would change the world.
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
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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