Image source: Monsterkoi on Pixabay
Hello and welcome to the The Ink Well weekly fiction prompt. 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.
Important FAQs about The Ink Well!
Before we get to the prompt, we have answers to some Frequently Asked Questions about The Ink Well.
What Is The Ink Well all about? The Ink Well is a short story community. We do not accept essays, poems, chapter stories or other content. Just short stories! And we are all about creativity, quality, community, and engagement. This means that just dropping by to post some stuff is not acceptable. 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 you post in our community, please be sure to read the community rules (right side of the page) where we outline the "do's and don'ts" for posting in The Ink Well. If you only use a mobile phone and can't see 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.
We invite you to use the #creativecoin prompt. We are pleased to announce that we are getting some curation attention from the Creative Coin Fund. You can read about it in our recent newsletter.
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, dialog, or a story arc. (See our catalog of fiction writing tips for information on these important aspects of short stories.)
- Your story appears to be a retelling of an old folk tale. There's nothing wrong with folk tales, but here in The Ink Well, we are looking for 100% original fiction. We want to see fresh new stories from your imagination, not age-old stories with well-worm themes.
Okay! Let's review fiction entries from last week's prompt and launch a new one.
Stories From the Previous Week
Thank you to everyone who posted a story for last week's prompt, “Jack-o-Lantern." You guys came up with some great jack-o-lantern stories!
Here are the week's stories. Be sure to read and support these authors for their work!
- See Through Colors, by @sonofremi
- A Trip to the Village, by @milezofplay
- Happy Halloween Dr. Smith, by @sunnyag
- Bishop's Cuse on Halloween Carnival Eve, by @mrenglish
- Ghost in the White House, by @dwixer
- Hello Harbinger, by @generikat
- My First Halloween Experience, by @oscarpower55
- The Ink Well Prompt Round 37, by @iyimoga
- A Scary Moment, by @cool08
- The Hallow's Eve, by @ji33y
- Death Calls: Trick or Treat?, by @katleya
- Captain of My Heart, by @kaerpediem
- The Jack-O-Lanterns and the Mysterious Small Shop, by @yuki-nee
- The Flame in the Hollows, by @litguru
- The Last Halloween Trip, by @khaleesii
- Vertran and Louisa Find Their Own Pumpkin Patch, by @deeanndmathews
- The Halloween Princess, by @jayna
- Unexpected Visit, by @jadams2k18
- Happenings in a Mental Asylum, by @diebitch
- The Ancestor, by @kei2
- The Right Guy, by @ricardo993
- Night of Sugary Hell, by @vincric
- A Different Kind of Halloween, by @wrestlingdesires
- Crazy Old John, by @emeka002
- Trick or Treat, by @b0s
This Week’s Prompt
Okay, we've spent an entire month writing about ghosts, ghouls, jack-o-lanterns and other creepy stuff. Time for a fresh start! The prompt for this week is: family ties.
If you're not familiar with it, the phrase "family ties" is about what binds families together. What keeps them connected through thick and thin? Perhaps it's wedding vows, or it might be a fear of starting over. For some people, even when their relationship is falling apart they won't call it quits because they simply don't believe in divorce. And many families are bound together by an unwritten code that family always comes first.
Get creative! We look forward to reading your stories!
Note: As always, please avoid gory, bloody, brutal, sexist or racist themes and language, NSFW (not safe for work) themes, and stories featuring abuse of women, children or animals.
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.
- 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 (NEW!): We request that story word counts are 1,000 to 1,500 words maximum length. This is just a guideline. Longer stories tend to get fewer readers. Additionally, The Ink Well admins appreciate keeping to that maximum story length for our time management!
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
Thank you for being a part of The Ink Well!
@jayna, @agmoore and @gracielaacevedo
We would like to invite lovers of creative writing to visit The Ink Well, a Hive community started by @raj808 and @stormlight24 and run by @jayna, @agmoore and @gracielaacevedo.
We also invite you to follow The Ink Well curation trail on the Hive blockchain, at https://hive.vote/. Simply navigate to the curation trail section and search for theinkwell (all one word with no @ symbol) and our trail will pop up as an option.
Similarly delegations are possible on Hive using the fantastic https://peakd.com/ Hive Blockchain front end. If you wish to delegate to @theinkwell, you can do this from the wallet section of https://peakd.com/
@jayna, @agmoore, @gracielaacevedo, @iamraincrystal, @generikat, @marlyncabrera, @owasco, @preparedwombat, @marcybetancourt, @zeurich, @barge, @lacrucita, @stormcharmer, @adncabrera, @vision-of-esca, @josemalavem, @morey-lezama, @sayury, @rypo01, @evagavilan2 and @bertrayo.
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Wow. Such a great prompt we have here. The job begins immediately. Keep it coming @theinkwell
Looking forward to your story, @mrenglish!
Interesting prompt :) ...
My story is missing from the list by the way 😪
Oops. Did you add the link to the prompt post, @wrestlingdesires? That is where I go to get all of the links. I try to remember to go hunting for missing ones, but I'm generally writing the prompt post in the wee hours, and it's not top of mind. The links really need to be added to the comments under the prompt post. 😁
Just checked… I don’t see yours in the comments in last week’s prompt.
But I will find your story and add it to the list today.
Thanks, I sort of forgot 🤯
!PIZZA !ALIVE !LUV
You Are Alive and have been rewarded with 0.1 ALIVE tokens from the We Are Alive Tribe, and it's paid for by the earnings on @alive.chat, swing by our daily chat any time you want.
Hi @theinkwell my post for prompt #38 I am posting my comments on other posts in the community, (posted 4 so far) Thank you!
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@sunnyag/the-homeless
This is an interesting prompt word which one can dance within. I'm on my way to prepare my story...
I'm enjoying the stories on this prompt so far. Here is my entry https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@ozohu/to-the-younger-me
Comments on @sunnyag and @milezofplay
The link to my entry post https://ecency.com/hive-170798/@attentionneeded/family-ties
Here us my entry
https://peakd.com/@mrenglish/absentee-husband--inkwell-prompt-38
Commented on @attentionneeded and @ozohu
PIZZA Holders sent $PIZZA tips in this post's comments:
@wrestlingdesires(5/20) tipped @jayna (x2)
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Hi, here is this week's entry - thanks so much for everything ❤️
https://ecency.com/hive-170798/@wrestlingdesires/changes
You did it! You added the link to the prompt comments!! Applause, applause! Hee hee hee. Had to tease you.
🤣 I can be taught, here's the proof 😂
!PIZZA !ALIVE !LUV
You Are Alive and have been rewarded with 0.1 ALIVE tokens from the We Are Alive Tribe, and it's paid for by the earnings on @alive.chat, swing by our daily chat any time you want.
Interesting prompt, I'll get to it right away. It seems you forgot to add my last week's story to the list
Hello @b0s,
Sometimes the stories can be overlooked in the list if they are not linked under the prompt post. Please link your story to this prompt post when you write that story. Then we will be sure to include it in the magazine.
Thank you!
Ok, I forgot to drop the link. But I will for this weeks prompt
My entry...below...
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@cool08/the-prodigal-son
Commented on
@mrenglish
@sunnyag
Here is my entry: https://ecency.com/hive-170798/@repayme4568/why-my-family-is-important
This is my entry
https://hive.blog/hive-170798/@emeka002/my-brother-s-heart
Here I leave my publication, I hope it is to everyone's liking.
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@ricardo993/the-cold-house-or-the-ink-well-prompt-r2102j
Hello everyone, please check out my entry on this prompt.
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@khaleesii/inkwell-prompt-38-the-family-that-never-leaves-anyone-behind
Thank you.
My entry.
https://ecency.com/hive-170798/@iyimoga/family-ties
Comments
@sunnyag
@mrenglish
Hi readers
My comments to:
@sonofremi
@jayna
This week, for reasons beyond my control, I am participating with prompt #1: Heart and Soul.
I titled my story as: FARM TO DESK, THE STORY CONTINUES......
Here my entry:
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@katleya/the-ink-well-prompt-1-from-farm-to-desk-the-story-continues
Here is my entry, lots of great stories here already!
A Long Journey Home
My entry: When You Find Out You Have Six (Dozen) Brothers
My comments:
/@khoola/sleeping-with-a-princess-forever
The Ink Well Prompt #38
sorry very new to this... had problems with markdowns... unsure about everything really but here goes nothing 😁
Thanks for the interesting prompt. Here's my story: https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@yuki-nee/the-unpredictability-of-life-a-short-story
Sorry, this is my entry
My entry:
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@gracielaacevedo/iphigenia-the-first-born
Greetings to the people of #TheInkwell. Here's my first every entry in this community.
A Touch Of Horror
Comments on three other entries 🙏🏻
Hi @milezofplay. Thanks for being an early bird! But I would like to recommendation that you take more time. You have a week to post your story, so there is no rush. Your story could be improved with some editing to fix errors and improve grammar and punctuation. I recommend you take that step, as more people will read your story (rather than getting stuck on wording that is confusing) and you will receive better rewards.
Please see our post, Help for the Grammatically Challenged. It provides information on how to use Google Docs to draft your content, which helps you find and fix errors. Then you can copy the content and paste it into your post on Hive.
Google Docs is a free app available for PCs and smart phones.