February 2023 News, Updates and New Contest from The Ink Well

in The Ink Welllast year (edited)

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Image source: Pixabay

Hello Beautiful Community!

First, a word of appreciation for all in the community who have been posting stories, providing feedback on one another's posts, and helping our community to grow and thrive! Thank you!

Okay, onto the news. Here are the topics in this newsletter:

  • HUGE Changes in The Ink Well Admin Team!
  • Housekeeping Notes and Reminders
  • Winners from the January Contest!
  • February 2023 Contest — 10-Hive Prize + 2nd and 3rd Place Prizes
  • Find Us on Discord
  • Creative Inspiration
  • Delegate to The Ink Well / Follow Our Curation Trail

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HUGE Changes in The Ink Well Admin Team!

Well friends, you know what they say:

There is nothing so constant as change.

Things are ch-ch-ch-changing around here!

Admin Announcement #1

Our first announcement is that our wonderful, beloved, fabulous curator, @agmoore, is ready for the next chapter of her life. She is moving on. "Retiring," as she puts it!

What? She doesn't want to stay with The Ink Well forever and ever??

Nope. She has other interests too, of course, and she will be pursuing those, and cheering us all on from the sidelines.

@agmoore has given this community her heart and soul. She has nurtured budding writers who want to learn and grow. She has provided caring and sensitive feedback to so many! And so it is with love in our hearts that we bid her adieu!

Thank you for everything you have done for The Ink Well over the years, @agmoore!!

Admin Announcement #2

But never fear! We have added two new admins to The Ink Well admin team.

We are absolutely thrilled to announce that @millycf1976 and @grindan have joined us in recent weeks, and are already actively curating. They both bring wonderful skills and knowledge to the admin role, and we are so pleased and excited that they have joined the team.

Please give them a warm welcome!

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Housekeeping Notes and Reminders

There are a few things that we'd like to provide as reminders, as these are common issues.

Please be sure to use the appropriate tags:

This is important because a) it's not always easy to tell the difference between fiction and nonfiction (and readers consider its merit accordingly), and b) it makes it possible to search for those tags when we review stories for winning entries.

Remember to add your story link to a comment on the prompt post

If you are entering a story into one of our fiction or nonfiction contests, you must add a link to your story in the comments.

We try to catch all entries as we list the participants and winners, but it is extra work for us to find those who have not added their link to a comment on the prompt post and we do not always find them. If you miss this step, you may miss out on being considered for contest prizes.

Please follow these important image rules

We have three important rules around images:

  1. All images must come from license-free or creative commons sites, such as Pixabay, Unsplash, Pexels, or Wikimedia Commons. Or they can be your own images. (You may not use images you find on Google, Pinterest or a website. Those are copyright protected.)
  2. You must provide attribution for ALL images — even if they are your own.
  3. For any image that is not your own, you must link to the image. For example, if you find an image on Pixabay, the source link you provide must be the URL of the page on which that image appears.

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Winners from the January Contest!


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Image source: Pixabay

Thank you to everyone who participated in our January fiction contest, with stories and comments. As always, we received some great stories!

The contest rules involved writing one story in The Ink Well during the month of January inspired by the prompt Fortress.

Winners!

Here are our three winners for the January, 2023 contest.

All three of these are absolutely exceptional stories! We are so proud of your writing achievement, @samsmith1971, @popurri and @kemmyb!

Honorable mentions:

Thank you, all!

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February Contest!

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Image source: Pixabay

Get ready to put your creativity to work! For January we will award a first place price of 10 Hive, second place of 5 Hive, and third place of 4 HBI for the monthly contest.

For the month of February, 2023, the fiction prompt is storm!

What can you do with this prompt? Here are a few ideas:

  • Tell the story of a winter snowstorm that caused a family to be housebound for a week. How do they survive?
  • Write about a character who has super powers whenever there is a lightning storm.
  • Tell a story of a ship captain who is certain he was guided to safety by mer-people in a terrible storm at sea.
  • Or write about a character's emotional storm — perhaps after hearing bad news, getting fired from a job, or discovering his spouse is cheating on him.

Remember to include the important elements of good fiction, including character building, conflict, a story arc, and the important storytelling skill of integrating action, dialogue and narrative.

Contest Rules

  • Write one story this month in The Ink Well inspired by the word "storm."

  • Post a link to your story in a comment on this post.

  • Use the #inkwellprompt and #fiction tags on your post.

At the end of the month, we will choose three winners.

Hint: We are looking for a high-quality story. Don't rush. Be sure to use the skills we highlight in our weekly fiction prompts — great settings, good character building, strong dialog (which is often missing from stories we receive), and a good story arc that resolves well in the end.

And finally, we recommend using our tips in the article Help for the Grammatically Challenged to identify errors in your story before posting.

Good luck!

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Find Us on Discord

Our Discord server is a great place to chat with other community members about the craft of writing.

Please pop into our Welcome channel, read our guidelines for conduct, and then feel free to interact with other community members or ask The Ink Well Team a question in the #ask-theinkwell channel.

Discord invitation link: https://discord.gg/Bng7mMsaQj

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Creative Inspiration and Skill Building

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Source: Myriams_fotos on Pixabay

In The Ink Well, we're not just about posting content and getting rewards. We are about building skills that help you earn the best possible rewards because your readers love to read your stuff!

We are here to nudge you to strive for greatness. You know how it feels when someone says, "Wow, just wow! I loved your story!" That's what it's all about. And the good news is that the rewards follow. If people love your work, they give you great upvotes. They seek you out. They want more of your creative content. And curation accounts like Curie, which we utilize and support, will give you the best possible upvotes too.

So what are you waiting for? Use our resources to build your skills and improve your writing. Here are some of the resources we provide:

  1. Creative inspiration
    We encourage and support ideas and creativity by publishing a weekly fiction contest prompt on Monday nights, and a weekly creative nonfiction contest prompt on Saturdays. Additionally, we have a nearly inexhaustible list of ideas to spur your writing. And these resources are included in every weekly prompt for reference: 50 Loglines, 50 Story Ideas, and 50 Imagination Ticklers
  2. Skill building opportunities
    We have a great catalog of fiction writing tips that can help any writer learn and grow. You can learn about characters, conflict, scene building, dialog and more. We hope you take advantage of it. And here are some important tips that can help you improve your writing craft:
    -- Draft your content in Google docs, or use Google docs for spell checking and syntax checking. It is very easy to do and it is explained in the post Help for the Grammatically Challenged.
    -- Make sure your story has the key elements of a story, including character development, scene setting, dialog, action, a conflict, and a resolution. (A story arc is especially important for fiction, of course.) We provide resources to help you with all of these important fiction elements in our catalog of fiction writing tips.
    -- Review your work before posting. You will most likely find a missing word, a grammatical error, a misspelling or a sentence that does not start with a capital letter, etc.

Thank you for reading our newsletter! We are here to encourage you and help you on your writing journey.

Delegate to The Ink Well / Follow Our Curation Trail

Want to support our community, our contests, and our rewards for great quality content? See the table below. We have made it super easy. Thank you, thank you, thank you! We have a goal to continue increasing the support we give to our wonderful, hardworking and dedicated authors!

How to Follow Our Curation Trail

You can follow our curation trail by going to our hive.vote curation trail page and clicking the follow button.

How to Delegate to The Ink Well

We welcome delegations! These support our community in many ways, including helping us to provide support to quality content creators through curation and contests.

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A big thank you to all of our delegators:
@jayna, @felt.buzz, @zeurich, @marcybetancourt, @agmoore, @marlyncabrera, @stormcharmer, @generikat, @iamraincrystal, @preparedwombat, @gracielaacevedo, @chocolatescorpi, @samsmith1971, @grindan, @stuartcturnbull, @itsostylish, @josemalavem, @morey-lezama, @evagavilan2, @popurri, and @mrenglish.

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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.

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Hello my dear friends on the Inkwell team. Hello community of writers. It's hard to read that 'good-bye'. The kindness and grace in the message is the glue that holds the Inkwell together. Thank you.

I am at a certain age, at a certain season in life. The richness of my experience at the Inkwell helps me to acknowledge change, and accept it. Last night I was reading about birthday celebrations in Bhutan. There aren't any, except once a year on January 1st, for everyone. It is not the number of years lived but how they are lived that matters, according to the Bhutanese.

My time with the Inkwell has made me rich, has added significance to my life. I thank all the writers who come back and offer their pieces for assessment. There has been such growth in some of these writers. It is rewarding to see.

I thank you @jayna for your leadership, for what you have taught me, for your patience and friendship. I thank you my dear friend @yaziris, for never giving up on me, for reaching across the decades and opening doors to a universe of technology and understanding that seemed impenetrable to me. @gracielaacevedo and @itsostylish: we shared our perspectives, our sensitivity, our world views. You opened my eyes. You were patient on those days when I was impatient. Thank you for your friendship and your forbearance. As for our young recruits: they are so bright. @millycf1976 and @grindan are gems, skilled writers with an acute sense of good writing. They will help to make the Inkwell even stronger in the future.

This is not good-bye. I'm here. It's just that, when I wake up in the morning I don't have to look and see if stories are read. When I go to bed at night, I won't have to check the community and make sure the 'work' is done. That's the idea of retirement, isn't it? I'll go at my own pace.

See all of you around. I'll be here.

With love,
@agmoore

You are a gem of a human being, @agmoore. My time with you admin-ing (to coin a term) The Ink Well community has been a delight. I've learned a lot from you too, my friend! I'm sure we will be seeing you around. And as a side benefit, you're now eligible for prizes in The Ink Well! 😍🤗😎

My guide, my teacher, my friend,
Thank you ⭐️🐝

Wish you the best my dear friend. Yes, we'll keep in touch for sure. ❤

🌹🌹💫
Yes, we will✨

Keep well my dearest @agmoore. You taught me how to look beyond my own perspective; to see the finer details and not let my own opinion get in my way. I love you muchness and know that TIW will poorer without you!

Thank you my friend, 🌹🍀

Great Respected Madam @agmoore,

the thought of your separation from this community saddens my heart. My life was blessed whenever I got love and appreciation through your comments. Budding writers like me were inspired to move forward and write well by the lessons given by experienced and patient great writers like you. Your separation from the community is giving me such a feeling as if an elder sister or mother is leaving us and going somewhere else. I will remain convinced of your sensitivity and tolerance for the rest of my life. You are right that now this community has got two new knowledgeable and diamond shining admins @millycf1976 and @grindan. I know one of them very well as a writer of this community and I have seen and read many of her stories. The other admin is also very experienced and proven, have had a virtual chat with her a couple of times, and her coffee community is very well known. That's why it is expected that with the cooperation of these two and under the leadership of @jayna , there will be more speed in the work of the @theinkwell community.
Yes, I must also say that this community and I will miss you very much.
Always your admirer,
Yours sincerely
@fantom22

This is a wonderful comment @fantom22 😊! Thank you for the time you took here, and for the incredibly warm welcome! 💚

Dear @fantom22,
How you have blossomed. Thank you🐝☘️

Thanks for your lovely words @agmoore 😊
Wishing you the very best in all you do, and I will see you around the blockchain:)

🌹🌹

Thank you so much Agmoore 😁! For EVERYTHING!! To follow in your footsteps is one of the coolest compliments I've ever received! 🤗 I'm honored to be passed the torch 💚

I'm smiling thinking of you easing into retirement and just having fun on Hive after all of your hard work. Soak. it. up! 😁💕

Thank you, @grindan ☀️🌸

Awesome. You'll have more time for ME! Hahahaha

Happy adventures with your "retirement."

😆
Thank you, 🐝

Taking reality into kindness, you have been so great being here. No one would dispute the fact that you bring here is a blessing.

Saying goodbye would left a scar on the members and writers of this great Community.
You have been a good friend to every writers in theinkwell Community.

Goodbye and we will miss you...

🌸🐝
Very kind of you, @cool08

Thanks for the great work, for the example and for the momentum you've left in Hive through The Ink Well community window, @agmoore! We'll keep meeting again and again. A big hug with my best wishes to you.

🌹☘️
Thank you very much, @gracielaacevedo

Hello dear @agmoore, These last months I have been getting attached to the community, doing my best to follow the rules and be able to actively participate in @theinkwell.

Undoubtedly your work really motivated me to keep moving forward, as the Post says, your valuable comments and affection are not valued and I am a witness that it is so.

I know that we will continue reading each other in hive; I had not been able to read this farewell until today, (internet failures, common in Venezuela) but I am glad to do it today, thanks for the wonderful work and for all the advice, a strong virtual hug and I wish you a happy day.

🍀🌿
Thank you very much, @jackdeathblack. We will surely read each other on Hive.

Congratulations on finishing your season with TheInkWell for such a successful term! I can tell by the post above that you were well loved and appreciated - but when its time to head on, it's good to know that you did it at the time you thought best! so well done, and great success in the future to you!

and so glad that @millycf1976 and @grindan are coming in to close the gap!

have fun in your "retirement" heheheh enjoy it all!

☘️🦋
Thank you very much🐝

Glad your taking it easy @agmoore😍, would still love to read your stories and your comments on mine 🙂✨❤️

☘️🐝🎼
Thank you, @seki1

@agmoore ♥️ You'll always be with us, I'll see you around!

@millycf1976 & @grindan, welcome to the team. We're thrilled to have you two! 💞

Thank you Yaz!! 😁🤗

♥️🦋💫
Thank you, my friend.

Thank you very much @yaziris.
It's been great so far 😍

@agmoore thank you so much for everything ♥️ You've helped me so much more than you know :) I know I will see you around Hive, this isn't a goodbye...

@millycf1976 and @grindan welcome to the team, and thank you so much for helping to make this place keep working - it's not always easy :)

Congratulations to this month's winners as well, I'm honored to have been selected for an honorable mention 🙌

This post has been manually curated by the VYB curation project

Thanks very much 😊

I thank you for helping to keep this wonderful place running ♥️ How is your vacation going?

!LUV

Thank you very much. All is going very well 😊

🌿☘️
Thank you, @wrestlingdesires.⭐️

Thank you for the wonderful welcome 😁 My quill is sharp and ready hehe 🤗 !LUV !PIZZA

And I thank you so much for your work here ♥️

!LUV

Thank you so much @theinkwell for selecting my story as a winner! I'm grateful for the support of the community.

Congrats to @popurri and @samsmith1971! 🥳

Best wishes @agmoore in your future endeavours. I'll miss your critique and guide on my stories. Welcome to the admin team @millycf1976 and @grindan! 🙂

Thank you, @kemmyb 🍀

Thank you very much 😊

Thank you @kemmyb 😊

Thank you @kemmyb, I'm so excited to be added to the team! 💚

Best wishes to you @agmoore .
It's great to have you on the team @grindan and @millycf1976 .

Congratulations to the winners and honorable mentions.

Thank you for the warm welcome @stellageorge 😁

You're welcome. 😇

Thank you, @stellageorge 🌿

You're welcome. 😇

Thank you very much:)

You're welcome. 😇

Devastating that @agmoore has retired! I always appreciated their thoughtful, intelligent and perceptive critique. A true gem that really understood stories and literature - hard to find and big boots to fill!

🍀🌿
Thank you, @riverflows 🌹

I am enlarging my feet as rapidly as possible! 🤣

Haha, hey River 👋🤗

I really love this comment, as someone who has benefitted from this as well on numerous occasions! As I develop as a writer, I find that the best thing I can do is read the work of others with consideration. A good eye for literature starts with a love for it. I hope my love will shine through as I get to know everyone on a deeper level, and offer my humble insights. 💚

Your amazing skills at writing will make you an amazing curator for The Ink Well too! 💚💚💚

😁💚

Thanks so much @agmoore for all your efforts to see this group active and waxing strong. I wish you all the very best in your life endeavor and will miss you dearly.

Thank you, @marynn 🦋

I wish you the best in life @agmoore , thank you so much for your contribution to the community! 🍦

Warm welcomes to @millycf1976 and @grindan! It is not easy to read all the stories and to make the evaluation. I wish you success in your new task🤗🤗😁

Thank you,arduilcelebren ☘️

Thank you very much:)

Thank you for the sweet welcome 😁

Thank you so much for everything you have done for us my dear @agmoore, we're gonna miss you!!

Welcome aboard @millycf1976 and @grindan, thanks for joining The InkWell and keeping the flame alive :D

🌹🦋
Thank you very much, @jadams2k18

So much change but I am sure that @agmoore deserves the break. It's so great to know that she will still be around though 💗 I have only been on Hive for 18 months and writing in the Ink Well for about a year (?) but @agmoore has been ever present and an Ink Well stalwart, so thank you for always giving so freely of your time, energy, and experience, and for the encouraging and supportive curation and guidance over the time that I have been here. And to @grindan and @millycf1976 welcome ... I have so much admiration for both of you as writers and people. I think you will be fantastic additions to the Ink Well curation team. Much love to you all !LUV 💗💞💗

Thanks for your sweet message 💕

Shucks Sam, this fantastic welcome put a big smile on my face! Thank you!! 🤗💚

Here is my entry to the monthly prompt.
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@mrenglish/the-storm-is-over

I have supported @edystringz and @iamraincrystal

Morning all!

Congrats for all the changes - @agmoore will be missed, but thanks to @millycf1976 and @grindan for jumping in! hehehe

I've visited
@rdsmas
@cool08

for this prompt! :)

and my post for this prompt is: The storms we choose

Thanks, @dreemsteem. It's been good so far:)

Thank you Dreem!! 😁😘🤗

@millycf1976 and @grindan, a welcoming hug to this source of stories. You are excellent readers and I'm sure you will make the writers' imaginations grow.

Thank you. See you around:)

Welcome on board to theinkwell team @grindan and @millycf1976.
Happy new month to all writers.

Thank you! 😁 Let's take this month by storm! 😉🙌

Thank you very much :)

Thank you @theinkwell for selecting my story as a winner

Congrats to @kemmib, @samsmith1971 and honorable mentions @wrestlingdesires, @abigail04.
Best wishes @agmoore and enjoy your retirement. Thank you for your dedication and affection.💖

Best wishes @agmoore and enjoy your retirement. Thank you for your dedication and affection.

@grindan and @millycf1976 , good to have you as part of the team 😊

Thank you so much for the welcome:)

Thank you for the warm welcome, and for the flair you share in your tales 😁

Gracias @grindan 😍

Thank you so much 🤗 This was a lovely surprise today. I have been off Hive for a couple of weeks spending time with special friends from... erm Hive !LOLZ ... congrats to the other winners and special mentions. When I am away, I miss this community and all the stories that are so beautifully written and shared here. Looking forward to getting stuck in again with another great monthly prompt for Feb. !LUV !PIZZA

@theinkwell, @samsmith1971(1/10) sent you LUV. | tools | discord | community | HiveWiki | NFT | <>< daily

Made with by crrdlx

I hope you had some happy Hive friend time, @samsmith1971. Congrats on winning the January contest. What a great story!

Thank you 💗!LUV

There are II kinds of people
Those who understand Roman numerals and those who don't

Credit: reddit
@theinkwell, I sent you an $LOLZ on behalf of @samsmith1971

Use the !LOL or !LOLZ command to share a joke and an $LOLZ
(1/4)

Your story was fabulous 😍!

And, a special time indeed! I need to check Dreem's blog! 😵😅💚 I hope to see some posts inspired from your experiences soon, I can only imagine it was an absolute blast! !LUV !PIZZA

Thank you 💞 - yeah it was wonderful... I will be writing a post or two !LOLZ ... just gotta get back into the swing of it hehe !LUV

What do you call a religious ceremony with one person?
Single service.

Credit: reddit
@grindan, I sent you an $LOLZ on behalf of @samsmith1971

Delegate Hive Tokens to Farm $LOLZ and earn 110% Rewards. Learn more.
(1/4)

woo hoo! congrats to you!!! heheeh

aw thank you 💗!LUV

🍕 PIZZA !

I gifted $PIZZA slices here:
@grindan(3/10) tipped @samsmith1971 (x1)
grindan tipped wrestlingdesires (x1)
samsmith1971 tipped theinkwell (x1)

Please vote for pizza.witness!

For our retired admin, thanks so much for all you did, God will bless you abundantly.

For the newly added, thank you for choosing to watch over us😍.

Congratulations to all the Winners and the honourable mentions.

I missed last month's contest, I'm sure I'm not gonna miss this

Hi, this my entry for the febraury contest, IS my first time here, thanks

https://peakd.com/inkwellprompt/@rdsmas/en-es-trapped-or-atrapado

My updated link to the contest
https://ecency.com/hive-170798/@cool08/the-storm

Welcome to the group of theinkwell admin @grindan and @millycf1976

My submission below
https://ecency.com/hive-170798/@abigail04/storm-of-love
I have commented on @cool08 and @marynn

Thank you for all you have done @agmoore ❤️❤️ , I wish you all the best in your next phase.

Welcome @millycf1976 and @grindan 🎊🎉

Thanks so much

Great news within the community, I have already had the pleasure of being visited by the new administrators and I really feel happy, I know they do an excellent job within hive. Thank you for sharing it with us greetings and happy day.

My ENTRY, for the STORM monthly, prompt:

Many Storms In My Life

 last year  

Good luck and wishing you the best @agmoore 💐✨
I'm not totally back, but I'm trying... just want to finish the chapter to this as I left it hanging..

https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@iamraincrystal/terminus-or-the-ink-well-february-2023-fiction-prompt--storm

Much success for everyone! 🎉🎉 May you have the best this 2023!

!ALIVE
!LUV

@theinkwell! You Are Alive so I just staked 0.1 $ALIVE to your account on behalf of @iamraincrystal. (1/30)

The tip has been paid for by the We Are Alive Tribe through the earnings on @alive.chat, feel free to swing by our daily chat any time you want.

This is my entry for Feb, 2023 prompt-storm
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@fantom22/fake-storm

Hello good evening, I have a question regarding story postings, one can no longer post two stories overnight, right? What is the interval for posting stories on The Ink Well now?

Example, if I want to participate in two of the prompts or post a separate story in a week.

Thank you for your answer, have a nice evening.

Hi @ricardo993. Don't worry about that. We no longer have a restriction. We just ask everyone who posts in The Ink Well to focus on quality, not quantity.

Ahhh ok ok I understand. And no yes of course it is something that is not discussed. Improving the story is the goal. Thank you very much

Hey, @agmoore,the community will miss you. But a transition to something new is a great step in the right direction. And I am sure you will have a lot of new experiences.

@millycf1976 and @grindan, it's a pleasure to meet you guys in the Inkwell community. I know I have been having fun with guys in the cinnamon cup coffee community. And I have a feeling, you'll both will bring as much fun to the Inkwell community. Welcome on board

Here is my entry for this months' challenge

https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@edystringz/anya-the-captain-and-the-storm

I have supported, @seki1 and @iamraincrystal