The Ink Well Prompt #54 - Plus Weekly Challenge and Prize Announcement

in The Ink Well2 years ago (edited)

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Image source: Darksouls1 on Pixabay

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 peruse the work of our community members.

Note: We always launch our prompt posts with important information. So be sure to check it out first! Then we invite you to read on and see what we have in store for this week's prompt.

Important FAQs about The Ink Well!

Here are 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. This means we only accept short fiction. (Fiction means stories that came from your imagination, not from real life.)

It also means:

  • No novels, chapter stories or multi-part stories
  • No poems
  • No introduction posts
  • No essays or other non-fiction
  • No memes

Just fictional short stories!

The Ink Well is all about creativity, quality, community, and engagement. As such, 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 publishing.

What are the community rules?

You can find our community rules at the top of The Ink Well community (right side of the page).

Please read the rules before posting in The Ink Well, as we outline the "do's and don'ts." If you can't find 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 do not allow stories depicting violence, brutality, or abuse of women, children or animals. If you have questions, please read this article explaining our stance on violence.

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, scene details or a story arc. (See our catalog of fiction writing tips for information on these important aspects of short stories.)
  • Your story lacks originality or does not follow our community rules.

Weekly Challenge and Prize Announcement

As we announced in our February newsletter, we are now running a weekly challenge to generate some fun and excitement while also helping our members to work on the different skills involved in story telling. Last week's challenge was to work on story hooks to entice readers into your story.

You guys are amazing! There were some really enticing story "hooks"! This is a great skill to develop. The opening of your story should grab attention so people want to keep reading. Because this is such an important skill, we'd like to include a few good hook examples as "honorable mentions":

  • @joalheal: The human mind is that space of fascination which may be light or total darkness. It is an unfathomable sea whose mysteries we prefer to ignore, perhaps for fear of getting lost in them.
  • @idlemind: My last memory as a human was a glimpse of two flickering headlights, and two different voices asking each other, “Will she make it?”
  • @itsostylish: “...and it’s deadly poisonous and so very common.”
  • @iyimoga: What do we do in a case like this?
  • @deeanndmathews: Thomas Stepforth Sr. woke up in a cold sweat, every vein on his bronze face and neck standing out, his heart rate pounding to the point that it recalled the heart trouble of previous years and reminded him that, at 66, he would not live forever and the time might be nearer than he thought.

And the winner of the story hook challenge is... @diebitch, with her story Ex-it Strategy. Here's an excerpt from the story:

I was standing in the middle of a baseball field waiting to propose marriage to my ex-boyfriend.

Like a deer caught in headlights.

Thousands of expectant eyes looked on as I stood in my oversized jersey with a hole that I was currently hiding by tucking it in my armpit.

These opening lines beckon us into the world the author has created for us. We need to know why she's the one proposing. And why on a baseball field? Be sure to read the story, because it is has some great surprises!

Congratulations to @diebitch, who will receive 5 Hive as the winner.

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, “Headlights."

Here are the week's stories. Be sure to read and support these authors for their work.

What a great collection of stories. Thank you, everyone!

This Week’s Prompt

At last, the prompt of the week!

This week's prompt is Tomorrow. And your skill challenge for the week is the story arc.

What should you do with this prompt? And what does this skill challenge mean? Here are some additional details:

Tomorrow: This is a word that conjures up anticipation. Perhaps tomorrow something good will happen. Or maybe your character has been warned of something that will happen tomorrow. Or your main character is up against an impossible deadline.

Story arc: A story arc is an important element of a successful story. It simply means that your story should build suspense and then come to a good resolution. Good stories have conflict, and this is what helps you build your suspense.

For example:

  • Some relatives have announced they are coming to visit tomorrow, but the house is a mess.
  • A family is preparing to leave on the trip of a lifetime tomorrow, but one of the children falls ill.
  • The traveler must get to the next town by tomorrow to deliver some news, but his car has broken down.

We have a great resource for you. Read the article What Is a Story Arc? in our catalog of fiction writing tips to learn more about the art of a story arc and why it's so important.

A week from now, we will select a winning story that includes a great story arc. Of course we will also be looking for overall quality in the winning story. Good luck!

Note: As always, please avoid violent, gory, bloody, brutal, sexist or racist themes and language, erotica and other NSFW (not safe for work) content, and stories featuring abuse of women, children or animals. (We have a complete article about The Ink Well stance on violence and brutality for more information.)

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:

  1. 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.)
  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 and #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.
  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 the source link.
  7. Length: We request that story word counts are a maximum of 1,500 words maximum 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!

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:

Thank you for being a part of The Ink Well!

@jayna, @agmoore, @gracielaacevedo, @wrestlingdesires and @yaziris

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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, @gracielaacevedo, @wrestlingdesires and @yaziris.

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/

A big thank you to all of our delegators:
@jayna, @agmoore, @gracielaacevedo, @iamraincrystal, @generikat, @marlyncabrera, @preparedwombat, @marcybetancourt, @zeurich, @stormcharmer, @adncabrera, @josemalavem, @morey-lezama, @sayury, @evagavilan2, @bertrayo, @deraaa, @rayt2 and @fantom22.

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Congratulations to the winner @diebitch, and the others selected
@joalheal
@idlemind
@deeanndmathews
@iyimoga

Many thanks to The Ink Well for hosting this awesome contest and thank you for the mention. ❤️💕🤗

Thank you!

Thank to you!!
!PIZZA

Thanks, friend.

Congratulations to all winters in the house. I wish you more success

A very beautiful prompt "Tomorrow" will give rise to many ideas and possibilities.
I had delegated 30 hive power to the community 8 days ago but my name is not listed in the delegators list, please kindly modify it.
Thanks.

Thank you so much, @fantom22! I will do that. I run a check on delegations every few weeks as I have time, so I would have found it eventually. Many thanks!

Congratulations to the winners. Proud to be a community with great people like them.

@diebitch
@joalheal
@idlemind
@deeanndmathews
@iyimoga

Thank you @mosin-nagant 😊
You're a great one too. I've read some of your works; they're awesome!

This is a nice prompt word.
Congratulations to th winners. The inkwell has been trying a lot to build writers and to promote great writers. Welldone and I'm glad to always be here.

PIZZA! PIZZA! PIZZA!

PIZZA Holders sent $PIZZA tips in this post's comments:
joalheal tipped itsostylish (x1)
@joalheal(3/5) tipped @deeanndmathews (x1)
joalheal tipped theinkwell (x1)

You can now send $PIZZA tips in Discord via tip.cc!

I liked your rescue story. Read, liked, and commented ;)

Hello @haveyaheard , I'm glad you liked my story. Regards

Hello everyone, nice to read some interesting stories here. Below are the posts I read and commented on:

@dlmmqb
@kemmyb
@mrenglish

Here is my entry for the prompt "tomorrow":

https://peakd.com/@daveyjones7/the-revelation-the-inkwell-contest-54

Check it out.

Congratulations @theinkwell! You received a personal badge!

Happy Hive Birthday! You are on the Hive blockchain for 2 years!

You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking

Check out the last post from @hivebuzz:

Hive Power Up Month - Feedback from February day 22

My entry

https://ecency.com/hive-170798/@kirlos/value-of-life-and-grief

Congratulations to the winners. Proud to be a community with great people like them.

@deeanndmathews
@iyimoga
@idlemind
@joalheal

@kirlos Hello. Thank you for appreciating us. :)
I'm sure your output is great too.

Hello, everyone. This is my first entry into this contest. Please engage with me as it's my first time and don't know if I did it as required. I reply to all comments.

My entry:

Prompt: Tomorrow! Title: My Million Dollars!
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@dlmmqb/prompt-tomorrow-title-my-million

Congratulations to @diebitch, and fellow honorable mentions @joalheal, @idlemind, and @iyimoga -- keep writing well, everybody!

Hi! Thanks!
!PIZZA

You're welcome -- and, thanks for the lunch!

Thank you @deeanndmathews and congratulations as well. 😊

Thanks for selecting my story! It is all due to the encouragement and prompts received by you guys!

Congrats! 😄

Hooray for prompts and encouragement!

!PIZZA

Congratulations to all writers and The Ink well team who once again did an extraordinary enforcement to make all of us improve our writings skills!

Congratulations to all winters in thecommunity. I wish every one more success!

Great to see this community is going strong. So many talented writers that I remember and a ton that I'm reading for the first time. Thanks for hosting these prompts!

Great to see you, @steemitgraven29! I would love to have you join us.

Congratulations to the winners and to all participants. I would love to participate in this challenge. Regards

Thanks for selecting my story. Congrats to all others selected as well.

I hope that the friendship of the characters of your story remains like this in the future also. Beautiful story.

Here's my entry to this week's challenge: Tomorrow Never Knows.

Thank you and enjoy! 😄

I am so proud of all the writers who submitted stories this week, and especially those writers highlighted for special mention. There is such fine quality in many of the pieces, and there is growth. More than that, I see generosity in the comments and suggestions authors offer each other.

Congratulations of course to @diebitch who wrote a great story with a truly memorable punchline. But, congratulations to everyone. It's a pleasure to read your stories.

This week, what will you do with Tomorrow? Standing by....

I can't believe that a week has gone by already and we are at the new prompt!

I haven't even had a chance to read them all yet, so I'm very happy that you guys add the links in here! (so much catching up to do...) because I know that there are going to be so many brilliant and unique stories!

It's a treasure trove, @chocolatescorpi. I love checking for new stories every day. Thanks for being part of the community!

Yes it is and I love the way that there are so many unique takes on the same prompt!

Such a shame I can't read them all every day.....😔

And thanks for having me!😊

Congratulation to all guys, in special the winners. Good Job!! 🌺

Here is my entry

https://peakd.com/@mrenglish/a-flight-to-tomorrow

I have commented on the following works:
@princessbusayo
@iyimoga

I like how you are challenging us to think about elements of a good story and give thoughts to improving our writing techniques. Here is my entry:
Fatal Assumption

Congrats, @diebitch! 👍

Hello @theinkwell! My story for this prompt--
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@kemmyb/the-journey-of-a-goddess

Comments--
-Rayt2
-Blueeyes8960

My short story If Tomorrow Never Comes. Congratulations to the winners and featured authors from last week ❣️

I wondered why I didn't get a notification on this week's prompt. The name tagged was no where close to being my name.

I'm so sorry about that, @piratethanos. Sometimes when I'm putting these prompts together, it's very late at night and I make mistakes. I love the auto-suggestion for names, but it's easy to accidentally select the wrong one when it's 2 in the morning and one's eyes won't stay open! :-)

I totally understand. It's a whole lot of work.

Hello everyone, my entry to this week's prompt, thank you.
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@khaleesii/the-ink-well-prompt-54

Also, I have engaged with other authors.

Hello! Here is my entry:

Tomorrow's silence

Can't help but feel skeptical about it, I don't know...

@diebitch LOL @ your username damn

congrats for winning prompt 53!

It's her gamer tag

i know i know! It's just funny

haha thanks!

Hello here. I'm Rose making my debut on the inkwell platform. I hope I'm welcome here. Still trying to learn how things here, pardon any errors and please do enlighten me.

https://ecency.com/hive-170798/@dark-rose/tomorrow-is-my-birthday

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