The Ink Well Fiction Prompt #121 - Plus Weekly Challenge and Prize Announcement

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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 just peruse and enjoy the work of our community members.

Special Reminder: Check out our monthly contest for the month of June, 2023, ending June 30! And be sure to honor the countdown timer! 10 Hive to the winner!

Before You Post in The Ink Well...

We ask that you read our FAQ post to familiarize yourself with our important community rules and guidelines.

Weekly Challenge and Prize Announcement

Time for the prize announcement and new challenge!

Last week's prompt was: "objets d'art". And the skill challenge was to focus on the "story arc."

Stories From the Previous Week

Thank you to everyone who posted a story for last week's prompt!

• @marynn
• @kinganny
• @blessworld
• @universoperdido
• @mrenglish
• @wrestlingdesires
• @lightpen
• @cool08
• @emeka002
• @dianelson
• @iyimoga
• @rinconpoetico7
• @ginika
• @marriot5464
• @fragozar01
• @nelson-george
• @balikis95
• @jjmusa2004
• @kemmyb
• @vivaebony
• @lizizoo
• @kei2
• @diikaan
• @smc.arike.oba
• @abigail04
• @rammargarita
• @clemenp

Honorable Mentions

Our honorable mentions of the week are:

• @popurri: Ashes
• @wrestlingdesires: The Cabinet Mystery
• @marriot5464: The Loved House
• @vivaebony: Fate
• @balikis94: Our Little Secret
• @fragozar01: Black Diamond

The Winners!

All three of these authors not only wrote fantastic stories, but did really well with the skill of the week: the story arc.

Third Place: Wins 2 Hive

• @diikaan, with the story The Lexlaw Collection

I was nervous inside the car. My palms slapped my knees. My back hunched more and more as the minutes passed. I clenched my teeth brushing them hard. I scratched my neck and head constantly until I half ruined my hairstyle.

We arrived at the meeting place and I automatically sighed. “Everything will be fine, everything will be fine,” I whispered as Colin got out of the car; luckily he couldn't hear me. We headed to the entrance where Beatrice was waiting for us impatiently.

Note: This week we could not settle on just three winners, so we chose two second-place winners! Congrats to @dianelson and @kei2 who tied for second place!

Second Place: Wins 3 Hive

• @dianelson, with the story Treasure in the Ruins

Memories flooded my head.
"Kayla has daddy issues."
"I wonder what it feels like to have a father that likes collecting junk."
"Is Kayla going to cry? Too bad she can't run to her daddy."

I yanked the painting off the wall and then smashed it on the ground. I repeated it over and over fighting back the tears.

"Kayla", my father rushed to me, "What are you doing?"

"What was so important about this painting?" I screamed at him. "You left us. You were never there. All you ever cared about were your stupid items. Now Mum is gone and I'm supposed to pretend like everything is okay?"

Second Place: Wins 3 Hive

• @kei2, with the story The Passage: More Spears than Fighters

Amena cleared her eyes. She had never paid any attention to her grandfather's work. She looked up at the tree that created a large canopy over their heads. Several hundreds of figurines were positioned all over the branches of the tree. Little wooden lanterns also scattered on the branches illuminated the figurines. It was the biggest tree Amena had ever seen in her lifetime. She admitted to herself that the sight of exquisite figurines spread across the tree gave it an air of spectacle and mystery that she liked. Goka had told her that it was the Tree of Life and had been alive right from the beginning of time. Amena didn't understand why her grandfather had to perform this ritual every time a member of the clan died. He called it the “passage”.

First Place: Wins 5 Hive

• @kemmyb, with the story The Latent Roar

I shivered in fear, remembering the folklore that our race possessed the Tòngkǔ, a figurine imbued with magical powers to force a member of the pack to turn if he refused to do so voluntarily. It was a tool used to enforce obedience many centuries ago. But it had gone missing for so long that it became a myth, one to scare children with.

Then it strode on all fours, walking in circles around me, purring like a cat. Every purr needled me with fear because I was stuck in a realm where I was powerless.

Congratulations to @kemmyb, @dianelson, @kei2 and @diikaan!

This Week’s Prompt

FIRST: A COUNTDOWN NOTE
Be sure to submit your entries before the countdown ends.

You must submit before the end of the countdown to be considered for the prizes and honorable mentions.

Please observe the timer below this post. If it's purple, and the COUNTDOWN time is in the future, you can submit and be eligible for prizes and honorable mentions.

If the countdown is gray, and the timer has expired, you can submit, but your story will not be eligible for prizes or honorable mentions.

When the timer expires, we get busy reviewing all the stories, and no further submissions are considered.

Prompt of the week!

WAIT! Did you read the information above about the countdown timer? Okay, proceed!

This week's prompt is: "soul." Our skill challenge is the action, dialogue and narrative.

What to do with this prompt?

Ah, the soul! It is something we presumably all possess, but it is understood differently in various belief systems, and moreover the word is used in many ways.

Here are a few to get you thinking:

• The soul is considered to be that part of a person that will transcend this life... and in some cultures is believed to return in the form of reincarnation.
• A person is said to "have no soul" if they are hard-driving, mean spirited or lack compassion.
• The word "souls" is used to describe spirits, or those buried in a graveyard.
• "Soul" is a type of music.

So many possibilities to consider!

Action, dialogue and narrative: We call these "the dynamic trio" because they should all be present in any good story. The narrative sets the tone and tells the story, while the action illustrates the story, and dialogue brings the characters to life and the speak to one another in the story.

Be sure to read the article, Action, Dialogue and Narrative: The Dynamic Trio in our catalog of fiction writing tips to learn more about this important fiction writing skill.

Ready, set go!

A week from now, we will select winning stories that demonstrate the skills and utilize the prompt. Of course, we will also be looking for overall quality in the winning stories. Good luck! Be sure to read the contest rules below.

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:

• 50 Loglines
• 50 Story Ideas
• 50 Imagination Ticklers

Weekly Prompt Rules:

1. Deadline: You have SIX DAYS to write for the prompt, and you must submit your story before the end of the countdown to be considered for prizes and honorable mentions. You can find the countdown timer at the bottom of the prompt post on The Ink Well home page.
2. Story link: Post your story in The Ink Well community, and post a link to your story in a comment on this post.
3. Hashtags: Please use these hashtags: #fiction #writing #inkwellprompt #theinkwell — as well as #dreemport, if you are also posting your story to the DreemPort site.
4. COMMUNITY SUPPORT: Visit the work of at least two other community members and comment on their work.
5. 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(s).
6. 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 all image source links.
7. 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!

Reminders: Be sure to also read our community rules. As always, please avoid violent, gory, bloody, brutal, sexist or racist themes and language, NSFW (not safe for work) stories like erotica, 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.)

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; #105 Bride, stairs, illusion; #106 Reality TV; #107 Things the Go Bump in the Night; #108 First line: Two strange things happened that day; #109 What if that loose floorboard was actually a hidden passageway?; #110 Footsteps; #111 Mess; #112 Cards; #113 Elephant; #114 Crystal; #115 Phone call; #116 Date; #117 Chocolate; #118 Three words: wish, button, sky; #119 RSVP; #120 Objets d'art}

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