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.
Special Reminder: In addition to the weekly fiction challenge we offer a monthly challenge. Check out our February fiction contest. 10 Hive to the winner!
Important FAQs about The Ink Well!
What Is The Ink Well All About?
The Ink Well is a creative writing community. We only accept fictional short stories and creative nonfiction stories. This means:
- No novels, chapter stories or multi-part stories
- No poems
- No introduction posts
- No memes
- No photography posts
- No advice columns or self-improvement articles
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 suitable for all ages. We do not allow stories depicting violence, rape, brutality, or gore. 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, dialogue, 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!
- Only post 100% original content that does not appear elsewhere in any form.
- Engage with others in the community by reading and commenting on their work.
- 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 suspense and the skill challenge was to create a compelling opening. We loved the stories you guys developed from this prompt! There were so many fantastic stories that it was truly difficult to select winners.
Stories From the Previous Week
Thank you to everyone who posted a story for last week's prompt!
- @stellageorge
- @marriot5464
- @abigail04
- @nichebezarius
- @sayee
- @arduilcelebren
- @iskawrites
- @marynn
- @cool08
- @mrenglish
- @dianelson
- @diikaan
- @princess-dara
- @george-dee
- @kemmyb
- @lrscarmen
- @balikis95
- @universoperdido
- @aloysiusmbaba
- @rammargarita
- @fantom22
- @faitz007
- @ipexito
- @jadams2k18
- @popurri
- @amiegeoffrey
- @gracielaacevedo
- @rinconpoetico7
- @innfauno12
- @seki1
- @lightpen
- @nelson-george
- @littlepiggies
- @bluefinstudios
- @cypher09
- @kedi
Honorable Mentions
Our honorable mentions of the week are:
- @universoperdido: Don't Leave Me
- @seki1: The Chain
- @kemmyb: The Reunion
- @stellageorge: The Ghost Bakery
- @sayee: The Land of the Lotus
Third Place: Wins 2 Hive
The bar The seven stars, is a very busy place, people come and go as the night progresses and at the door they are greeted by Omaira, a tall and thin young woman, dressed in a combination of white blouse and black skirt. Her frizzy hair pulled back in a bun highlights her long neck adorned with a pearl choker, a souvenir from her grandmother. As she walks ahead of them to take them to the inner room where the tables and the bar are, she feels the male gazes, she is very attractive, but she is used to it and does not take it personally. The hours go by and at four in the morning the employees finish their work. The street is dark, the pavement shines under the light of the lamps, a cold drizzle makes the group leaving the bar shiver.
Second Place: Wins 3 Hive
- @diikaan with the story The Room of No Secrets
The water levels kept on rising steadily and in a few minutes, Ryan's protestations were only heard as mumbles. Drowning fast Ryan's life began to play before his eyes, the pictures and memories he shared with his family began to flicker before him, and with oxygen gradually evading him, he couldn't tell if he was watching the screen before him or if he was hallucinating.
First Place: Wins 5 Hive
- @littlepiggies, with the story The Secret Admirer
Wait, was it Owen who left the note and the wine? Michelle began to contemplate all the possibilities while staring into the fire. Seemed like I could use the wine, she thought. So it’s someone who has interacted with me recently? Her mind combed through the various people throughout her daughter’s school and the neighborhood. The soft waves of the fire made her eyes heavy and she closed her eyes, thinking of the note sitting on the table. Soon, her conscious thoughts swirled into dreams as she proceeded into a slumber. The note now sat on top of a building, and a gust of wind blew it down. She went to grab it, and toppled over the ledge; Falling. Falling. Falling. Jolt.
Congratulations to @popurri, @diikaan, and @littlepiggies!
Okay, let's launch the new 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: We try to curate as many stories as possible, but do not curate every story published in The Ink Well, due to the volume of posts.
Prompt of the week!
This week's prompt is the following three words: bride, stairs, illusion. Our skill challenge is to create a story that has a stunning resolution. This means we want to see a conflict in your story which is resolved in an interesting way in the end. Be sure to have a look at the articles in our Catalog of Fiction Writing Tips for inspiration.
What to do with this prompt?
Occasionally, we put out three-word prompts. The idea is that these are unrelated words that should somehow appear in your story, all spurring different aspects of your setting or your plot. Writing stories using three different words is a great trick to get your creative mind and your subconscious mind working together.
Most of the time, we mention that the prompt word is not required. In this case, we want you to incorporate all three of the prompt words.
Good luck!
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, stories with a political or religious agenda, and stories featuring abuse of any kind. (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 in 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
- #91 Fire
- #92 Tend/Tender
- #93 Cheer
- #94 Appearance
- #95 Ambition
- #96 Trust
- #97 Fly
- #98 Comfort
- #99 Fate
- #100 To Create
- #101 Vision
- #102 Sympathy
- #103 A Special Time
- #104 Suspense
Thank you for being a part of The Ink Well!
@jayna, @gracielaacevedo, @yaziris, @itsostylish, @millycf1976 and @grindan
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, @gracielaacevedo, @yaziris, @itsostylish, @millycf1976 and @grindan.
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, @samsmith1971, @grindan, @jackdeathblack, @josemalavem, @itsostylish, @stuartcturnbull, @morey-lezama, @evagavilan2, @popurri, and @mrenglish.
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