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Dear community, Welcome to Prompt #6 in our creative nonfiction initiative. Thank you to everyone who contributed a nonfiction story last week! In case you missed the announcement about The Ink Well opening up to nonfiction stories, you can see it here. Here's a quick overview of how it works: Each week, we will provide a creative nonfiction prompt. You are also welcome to post other creative nonfiction pieces that are not based on the prompt. See the guidelines below. In opening up our community to a broader range of content, we will take the stance that not every post will be curated. To be curated, your content should follow our guidelines, be at least 350 words, be written in English (or another language as well as the English translation) and — as much as possible — free of errors. There are many guides and resources online for getting to know this wonderful genre. It is truly about storytelling. The simple difference between creative nonfiction and fictional stories is that the story is not made up. We like this definition from an article on creativenonfiction.org: Simply put: Creative nonfiction is true stories, well told. With creative nonfiction, you are using the literary and storytelling tools of a fiction writer to craft stories from real life experiences. Set the scene. Give the details. Profile the characters. Give us the dialog, as best you can remember it. Ideas and inspiration: Creative nonfiction stories can be snippets from your life autobiography — moments in time you want to capture in words, whether they were frightening, enlightening, bittersweet, or life-altering. They can be observations about life, about a time you connected at a profound level with a perfect stranger, or something you have learned along the way that made you a better person. Do you love podcasts? One of the greatest sources of creative nonfiction is The Moth Radio Hour. Listen to a few of the stories from The Moth, and we guarantee you will be inspired. Here are some additional resources for learning more about the creative nonfiction genre: Check out this list of creative nonfiction stories. For example, one of the stories is about a funeral for a lizard named Rango. We hope you are inspired! Here are some examples of what we are looking for: In other words, tell a story from real life. Here’s what we are NOT looking for: What will be muted: Thank you to all who participated in last week's prompt: Traditions! Our creative nonfiction initiative is growing! Each week, we are stunned by the amazing works of writing coming in. As of this week, we would like to add "honorable mentions" to our callouts for the week. Our honorable mentions for the traditions prompt are: Our third place winner is @diikaan, with his story, When the Umoidems Gather. It was a Christmas morning and the otherwise quiet and scanty compound was now swelling with family and loved ones. The family houses were still receiving returnees with their usual gay selves and much fanfare from their dependents who mostly cheered for what will probably come out of the boxes instead of real happiness at seeing them. When they grew up her sons were executioners who squeezed every last drop out of her, and her daughters like her, slaves of the house and the kitchen. She died at the age of 54, on a Sunday, August 18, when she was no longer herself, but delirious ashes on her bed. It was not the cancer in her lung de ella that consumed her life de ella; it was the violence, the lack of love, the injustices, the abandonments, the humiliations, the betrayals, the loneliness and the many other evils to which she and many other women are condemned for life; for being women, for being poor, and for having so much love and so much dignity in a world that only knows hated and misery. Today I study in the ancient temple of family history. The mash potatoes MUST be made the night before, they are mixed with cream cheese and left to chill. The next day, they are baked for an hour. That's entirely dissimilar to how I make potatoes, and it's wonderful! The celery and onions that go into the stuffing must be thinly sliced; the bread sits out overnight in cubes. While the ingredients are combined the next morning, sausage is added. I always ate boxed stuffing, so this is fancy stuff to me. I never measure when I cook, but I do for Jenny, because that is her way. Each year, the family knows what the food will taste like. Congratulations, @diikaan, @jetta.amaya and @grindan! There are so many aspects of childhood, family and growth we can explore with creative nonfiction. For this prompt, think about the idea of growing up; Write your story. Tell us about the process of growing up, or the moment when you realized you were no longer a child. Have fun! Please use the tags #creativenonfiction and #inkwellprompt on these posts. And please remember to add your post link to a comment on this post! Prizes! Deadline You have a week, until the next prompt is posted, to post your creative nonfiction story in The Ink Well community. See you in The Ink Well!
What Is Creative Nonfiction?
-- Reedsy blog: What is Creative Nonfiction? The Unputdownable Truth
-- Writers.com: Understanding Creating Nonfiction: What It Is and How to Write ItGuidelines for Creative Nonfiction Articles in The Ink Well
Last Week's Creative Nonfiction Winners
Honorable Mentions of the Week
Third Place: Wins 1000 Ecency Points
Second Place: Wins 3 Hive Points
First Place: Wins 5 Hive
The Ink Well Creative Nonfiction Writing Prompt #7: Growing Up
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.
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