The Ink Well Fiction Prompt #149

Welcome to the Weekly Fiction Prompt

Hello community members. As we mentioned recently post, we are phasing out the weekly contests and converting them to writing prompts. So here we go!

Stories from the Previous Week

Thank you to who posted a story for last week's prompt: "Anticipation":

Author Shout-outs

We'd like to call out a few stories that got high marks from our curators.

@teknon

Frozen Hearts, Warm Endings

Curator comment:

@teknon writes a very well narrated story that reveals the doubts and insecurities of the narrator. It has a well thought-out ending that engages the reader in the emotions of the protagonist couple in this love story.

@gabmr

Snow Falls Different Sometimes

Curator comment:

@gabmr writes a very imaginative story that explores magical events that can happen in the dimension of fantastic beings. A little girl goes through a portal and helps rescue Santa Claus from the power of an overbearing mother who prevents him from fulfilling his beautiful mission. Overall, nicely told.

@jessicaossom

Eagerly Awaiting Eagles

Curator comment:

@jessicaossom writes a story that is so good. I think the piece is perfect. It has symbolism, character definition, a compelling arc. The ranger on a nature preserve waits for the birth of eaglets in a nest he has been guarding. It's like a poem. I can almost imagine it with soaring music.

@kei2

The Mystery of Elm Street

Curator comment:

Kei2 offers a lovely, sentimental piece, rich with the magic of a fantasy Christmas. Children follow a bottle down a stream and discover the secret to their mysterious benefactor. In discovering the secret, they become part of the magical tradition that grants wishes to other children. At the end of the piece, as these two (now mature) women are readying for Christmas, they spy a young child in their window. This child is destined to adopt the mantle of gift giving, a mantle they have worn since childhood. The story works really well.

Fiction Writing Prompt of the Week

This week's prompt is: "Holiday Memories."

What to do with this prompt?

First, we must acknowledge that the word "holiday" does not mean the same thing to everyone. For example, people in many counties say they are "going on holiday," where people in the U.S. say they are "going on vacation."

And in the U.S. people talk about "the holidays" which is generally the period of time between Thanksgiving and New Years.

Whether you want to write about your character's travel and vacation memories, or memories of Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa, or any other special holiday, it is completely up to you. The important thing is that your character is looking to the past for meaning, joy and inspiration.

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:

Writing Prompt Guidelines:

See The Ink Well FAQ: 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.
Story link: Please be sure to 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 — as well as #dreemport, if you are also posting your story to the DreemPort site.
Community support: When you post in The Ink Well, please be sure to 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. Please do use the prompt word(s) within the story.
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.
Length: We request that story word counts are a maximum of 1,500 words in length and a *minimum of 350 (ideally 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!
Translations: If you post a story that has been translated from another language, please include both the English version and the translation.

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.) And do NOT use AI tools to write your stories. You must provide your own unique content.

Tips for Getting Curated by The Ink Well

There are some important elements of storytelling that make a story stand out, and make people want to read it, and keep reading. These include:

Great first lines.
Good settings.
Well-developed characters.
Integration of action, dialogue and narrative.
A conflict that intrigues the reader.
A "story arc" which results in the resolution of the conflict and brings the story to a satisfying conclusion.
And of course, we are looking for well-edited stories that are not littered with typos or grammatical errors.

You can find more on all of these topics in the catalog of fiction writing tips.

Past Prompts

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; #121 Soul; #122 Scuttlebutt; #123 Recall; #124 Doorway; #125 Beacon; #126 Seagull, Market, Box; #127 Window; #128 Terrified; #129 Dance; #130 Two endings; #131 Ghosted; #132 Treasure; #133 Taste; #134 Reunion; #135 I miss you; #136 Wonder; #137 Ruins; #138 Beach memories; #139 There was something in the wind; #140 Mask; #141 Halloween; #142 [Photo album]; #143 Dreams; #144 Crayon box; #145 Back of beyond; #146 Intuition; #147 Delight; #148 Anticipation}

Thank you for being a part of The Ink Well!
@jayna, @gracielaacevedo, @yaziris, @itsostylish, @samsmith1971 and @agmoore

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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 and @samsmith1971.

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.

Note: The Ink Well is now paying out curation rewards to our delegators!

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, @itsostylish, @agmoore, @marcybetancourt, @selftheist, @marlyncabrera, @stormcharmer, @iamraincrystal, @preparedwombat, @gracielaacevedo, @timix648, @samsmith1971, @jackdeathblack, @josemalavem, @riverflows, @generikat, @mineopoly, @hazmat, @treasuree, @innfauno12, @kingsleyy, @popurri, @nancybriti1, @marynn, @jjmusa2004, @universoperdido, @juniorgomez, @rinconpoetico7, @morey-lezama, @evagavilan2, @moneykeep, @mrenglish, @stuartcturnbull, @marilour, @funshee, @amiegeoffrey, @balikis95, @cool08, @rukkie, @raymondpeter, @emreal, @tomiajax, @osomar357, @nathy33, @ricurohemi28, and @benwesterham.

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