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Dear community, Welcome to Prompt #14 in our creative nonfiction initiative. Thank you to everyone who contributed a nonfiction story last week. You guys continually wow us with your amazing stories! Here's a quick overview of how it works: Each week, we 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. To be curated, your content should follow our guidelines, be at least 350 words (but ideally 750 -1500 words), be written in English, or another language as well as the English translation, and — as much as possible — free of errors. We also expect everyone who posts stories in The Ink Well to read and comment on the work of at least two other community members for each story published. (Thank you!) 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. And illustrate the ideas you share with real world experiences, memories and observations. Here’s what we are NOT looking for: What will be muted: Thank you to all who participated in last week's prompt: Heritage! Our honorable mentions for last week's prompt are: Our third place winner is @dreemsteem, with her story, Wrath of McGrath. I could have been assigned to Father Laherty - a smart, young, chipper math teacher who had a warm smile and a laidback attitude. Perhaps, Mrs. Cosgrove? The gentle, motherly French professor who let everything slide. Maybe, Mrs. O'Bryan? The quick-witted English teacher who always had a joke at the ready - her dry humor effortlessly evoking eye-rolls and snickers from her students. Any one of those - and more - would have been acceptable for my 13 year old frailties. But no, I was sitting in the 5th aisle, FIRST row, directly in front of this tiny Tasmanian devil of a man! I suppose that might sound irreverent to call a priest a devil - but fret not, it was only his shape. Massive rounded back, broad shoulders, full chest, pregnant-looking belly - all balanced on teeny little legs. Our second place winner is @popurri, with her story, My Mother and Sister, Family Chroniclers. She was a young girl spoiled and protected by a very respected and well-known family in the parish of The Valley, an old colonial area of Caracas, where the houses were the typical red-roofed mansions, with a central patio and in the living room, balconies with seats where young people used to chat through the window. The streets had old names I lived in: royal street, back street and Cajigal street, still remain in my childhood memories. And I have not lost that taste for the traditional, for the villages and their houses of yesteryear. Our first place winner is @owasco, with her story, My Inheritance. Everything was bigger than I was in that kitchen. Several copper kettles that could have held me easily were cooling along the side wall. A huge marble work bench in the center of the room was large enough for six people to have a picnic on, and it was covered in recently filled chocolate molds in a variety of animals and shapes. There were racecars and bulldogs and pigs rowing boats; there were roosters and turkeys and lambs and horses and rabbits galore. Trays of colorful mints filled a cooling rack - pink, green, blue and white. The white ones, peppermint, were my favorites. My father pulled one off the tray, still warm, and placed it on my tongue. There were trays of peanut clusters, peanut brittle, ribbon candies, nut barks, and much more, everywhere I looked. These were the fruits of that day's labors. It would all be left to cool and set overnight, then packaged for sale in the morning. Congratulations, @owasco, @popurri and @dreemsteem This week, we are going to have some fun. We'd like you to use your story telling skills to combine some fiction with your creative nonfiction story. Are you game? This writing prompt idea comes from a traditional ice breaker game used at parties and business events to get people talking about themselves and interacting. Here's how it works: You will know how convincingly you wrote the "fictional" piece about yourself from the comments on your story. Have fun and good luck! We look forward to reading your stories. Please use the tags #creativenonfiction and #inkwellprompt on these posts. And please remember to add your post link to a comment on this post! NOTE: Please refrain from providing advice, guidance, or suggestions to others about their life choices in your post. Creative nonfiction is about storytelling. 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 1,000 Ecency points
Second Place: Wins 3 Hive
First Place: Wins 5 Hive
The Ink Well Creative Nonfiction Writing Prompt #14: Two Truths and a Lie
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