Image source: Pexels 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
Time for the prize announcement and new challenge!
Last week's prompt was impression and the skill target was to create a character that transforms.
Great work, everyone! There were some very interesting character portraits in the stories submitted. Our selections of this week's winner and honorable mentions reflect how well writers dealt with this prompt and skill challenge.
Selecting honorable mentions and the winner is never an easy choice. A significant factor that influences the decision is quality of engagement with others in the community.
Here are this week's honorable mentions, all of which provided strong character transformations in response to the prompt.
@radenkusumo666 with the story Punk Group and Andre
How surprised Andre was to see a group of punks who had helped him this morning, are now helping the community get rid of a large fallen tree in the middle of the road. Andre immediately ran to them and helped the punk group. "Hey everyone, let's help them so that the traffic jam doesn't get longer" Andre shouted inviting the others to help. One by one the community worked together to get rid of the big tree. Now, thanks to the cooperation of punk and society, the public roads that are passed are running smoothly again.
@bettyhandayani with the story Momentary Meeting
I'm not used to chatting with the opposite sex, I feel confused about what to do. Arghh, in my mind, "If I was confident, this young woman might be fun to talk to." But, as if being interrogated, this beautiful and friendly woman kept asking me questions. Asking me where I'm from, what my job is. How old am I, and so on. I got used to it and followed the direction of the chat. Until finally he offered to listen to the song he used to listen to while traveling. We were both engrossed in listening to music by sharing headsets.
@itsostylish with the story A Better Bet
When the night was dim, Danny could shoot the light like the Star Spangled Banner. When the day was dreary, he had a risqué adventure up his sleeve. Danny, had soul in his shoes and spunk on his tongue, he could conjure a party on a sidewalk and carry the moon on his shoulders like the universal light.
@mrenglish with the story In Whom I Am Well Pleased
The next morning, Izu woke up earlier than ever and washed in the bathing room made with bamboo. This is probably the last time he would be taking his bath in this kind of bathing room. As he poured a bailer of water on his head, the thoughts of how his father, Mazi Okonkwo had exchanged the only family land for his school fees. Again, the double thought of joy and pain flashed through his mind as he rushed out of the bath.
@popurri with the story The Meaning of My Life
“I am so sorry Luisa, I wanted to get away from everything that reminded me of that moment, I felt I needed to reflect on what happened. God gave us another chance to continue living, but life has to have a meaning and I have understood it that way. The book I wrote is my reflections and an instrument to do other things. With the proceeds I have created a foundation to help children who have no family, for their education. And I would like you to help me... to work together. What do you think of the idea?
And the winner of the impression, character transformation challenge is... @wrestlingdesires with the story The Mystery of the Scratches
Julie sat in the parlor, sun streaming into the big bay window. She concentrated on the door and it closed, then with a small click, locked.
Then she looked at the book which was on a small end table nearby. The big white whale was visible despite the awkward angle. She smiled, and soon the book was in her lap, open.
Congratulations to @wrestlingdesires, 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
@samdove
@gabmr
@jadams2k18
@abdul-qudus
@restcity
@fantom22
@lordtimoty
@madamnaomi
@mrenglish
@lightpen
@bettyhandayani
@abigail04
@kingobonnaya
@fragozar01
@gi-de-on
@cool08
@mjvdc
@iyimoga
@katleya
@smokyice
@radenkusumo666
@popurri
@assegai
@jadams2k18
@stellageorge
@nurudeen081
@merit.ahama
@peazy001
@giftjames
@buezor
@diikaan
@dennmarc
@cli4d
@itsostylish
@wrestlingdesires
@young-boss-karin
@diebitch
Thank you to everyone who posted a story for last week's prompt!
This Week’s Prompt
The inkwell is fortunate to have many members who are eager to write. However, the curation team does not have infinite resources. In order to be fair to all writers, we have decided to ask our members to publish only one story per week. If members choose to publish more than that, they may. However, only one story will be curated.
It would be wise to use talent on the best story you can write so you can receive the optimal curation. Remember, Quality over Quantity. Moving forward the Ink Well Team believes this will provide a better experience for writers and curators.
At last, the prompt of the week!
This week's prompt is lost. In her essay, What is Your Story's Setting, Jayna discusses setting, the place and time of a story. As @jayna explains, story settings "help us feel immersed in the story through important clues about where the story is taking place, and what that place looks like, feels like, and sounds like". You can read @jayna's essay in Inkwell's Catalog of Fiction Writing Tips.
What should you do with the prompt, lost? And how do you handle the skill challenge? Here are some additional details:
Lost: This word is an invitation to create a memorable setting. People can feel lost, can be lost. Why? How did this happen? What is the scene? Place us there and help us to feel the character's sense of displacement.
We have all felt lost at some time. Maybe we were in class, and could not follow the lesson. Maybe we were on a trip and couldn't find our way. Maybe we were in a relationship and lost our sense of where the relationship was going.
There are many ways to be lost. Use your imagination, set the scene, and let us feel the experience with your character.
Here are some ideas, or examples that might help you to get started:
- Henry watched his sister scour the snow-covered lawn. She walked slowly and pensively as the last bits of daylight lingered on the horizon. She had thrown her engagement ring away in burst of anger, and now it was lost.
- The carnival lights reflected with sinister brilliance in the muddy puddles. The child's feet were drenched, but she plodded on. The wind picked up and cut through her jacket. She was lost. Where, oh where was her mother?
- Angela regarded the young man through a fog of rose-tinted cafe lights. Coffee--it was all around her, and yet her own cup remained untouched. The words she had just spoken hung in the air: "I am lost in this relationship. It's over".
A week from now, we will select a winning story that demonstrates this skill and utilizes the prompt. 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:
- 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 and #dreemport, if you are also posting your story to the DreemPort site.
- 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: 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:
- #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
Thank you for being a part of The Ink Well!
@jayna, @agmoore, @gracielaacevedo and @yaziris
Interested in joining our community? Start by joining Hive!
We invite lovers of creative writing to visit The Ink Well, a Hive community started by @raj808 and @stormlight24 and run by @jayna, @agmoore, @gracielaacevedo and @yaziris.
You can follow our curation trail by going to our hive.vote curation trail page and clicking the follow button.
We welcome delegations! These support our community in many ways, including helping us to provide support to quality content creators through curation and contests.
@zeurich, @jayna, @felt.buzz, @marcybetancourt, @marlyncabrera, @stormcharmer, @generikat, @agmoore, @iamraincrystal, @preparedwombat, @gracielaacevedo, @chocolatescorpi, @kirlos, @josemalavem, @morey-lezama, @sayury, @evagavilan2 and @deraaa.
Click banner to visit our community page
Find us on twitter by clicking the banner above.
Thanks so much, I am honored ♥️ And thank you again for everything you do, each and every day 🙌 Without the prompts, many stories would never see the light of day.
This post has been manually curated by the VYB curation project
Well done to my mate WD ;)
I'm sure we'll continue to see your name up in lights in this fabulous community again in the not too distant future!
Thanks so much, it was truly an honor 🙌🙌🙌
!PIZZA !ALIVE
Congratulations!
Thank you 🙌
!PIZZA !ALIVE
You're welcome.
Wonderful prompt. And congratulations @wrestlingdesires, more wins man.
Thank you, I am honored 🙌
!PIZZA !ALIVE
Congrats to @wrestlingdesires and to others who were mentioned. You have all done extremely great to have showed up here...
This week topic is a great one and what we can all danced to. Lost can be written so well and has lots of topic deep in it.
@theinkwell , I just need to make a little observations:
Sometimes when I newly joined this Community, there were members coming out with tangible comment about words usage and also were there to correct every mistakes one has made. They even went to the extent of pointing out those words wrongly spelt or wrongly placed. Now I can't see anyone coming up to make such corrections in any post I have visited so far and if I do, I don't know what the writer may pour out to me because we are all bound to make mistake in one way or the other. We are not island of knowledge and cannot know all but we can at least know to our best knowledge.
@cool08 How deeply did you analyze that, it is established that you are a good writer, as I know about myself, it is possible that some spelling may be wrong or there may be a difference of tense, anyway every country Citizens may have a different writing style, their slang, their limitations, their environment, their systems, their preferences, their perspectives, but still we want to reach our feelings through these short stories and possibly have been reaching them.
I would warmly welcome you if you would like to tell me about my shortcomings.
There is a saying in our country that the one who criticizes us should be given a room in the courtyard of our house.
That is a wonderful saying. In order to grow we need to understand the ways in which we can grow.
I agree with your sentiment completely here. Of course broken style and poor grammar interfere with a reader's enjoyment of a story. However, I personally always ask myself, what does the story mean? Is this author trying to saying anything of value?
Writing is a vehicle. We share our lives, our experiences, our perspectives through writing. That is its value to me. When I read a story I hope to be moved in some way. If that happens, I consider the story to be 'good'.
Exactly. If I felt something because of the story, it was time well spent ♥️
!PIZZA !ALIVE
I'm glad you are looking to always keep learning 🙌🙌🙌
I feel the same way :)
Hi @cool08. We used to provide more feedback on wording and grammar. But it takes too much time. Are you saying that you wish we would provide more corrections?
I have not been seeing that old time again. I have seen so many write ups with too many grammatical errors, I'm not perfect, but to my knowledge. Back in the days, you use to make corrections on write ups, but now everything has changed.
I now understand you better. You are right about the time factor. The Community is growing seriously.
Hello @cool08,
I am hoping you mean that you don't want us to micromanage your stories. I personally (and when I comment as Inkwell) don't see that as my function. Sometimes if I think a writer can benefit from technical advice about structure, or POV, I will try to help out. However, mostly we don't correct grammar. Perhaps one or two words in a story that otherwise is intact.
Many of our writers are new to the English language. Many use translators. It wouldn't be practical to try and correct usage and grammar in such situations. So, besides making general suggestions, and offering one or two tips, I will comment on readability, coherence, adherence to prompt/skill, and overall engagement value.
I hope this addresses your concern. We value your participation and interest. Looking forward to your 'lost' post this week.
Thanks for your keen explanations.
@jayna and @agmoore
I do wonder about some of the merits of what cool08 is getting at though. I feel that when I make constructive criticisms on the work of others, I get ready for a conversation. On one quite long comment I left recently, I asked for engagement back, and all I got was a 'Thanks'. That said, I don't think the responsibility should fall on the Ink Well team - but rather its members to be engaging in feedback processes.
To cool08, I went back and looked at the comments you left for others in The Ink Well last week - you made a general comment about the topic of the writer's post, but nothing concrete about the story or mechanics of the language itself. What an opportunity for you to offer something tangible moving forward, in the hope of being able to exchange ideas with others. I often do this by offering, 'I wonder...' - you're welcome to take on these words and make them your own.
That doesn't mean the comment didn't have value for the author. Hard to tell by a lack of response. Keep in mind that when you make a comment it is not only the author who reads it. Others may also benefit, so nothing is 'wasted'.
Keep them coming. Meaningful comments from the community are valuable.
I love this discussion! I think feedback designed to support others' development and understanding of different techniques in fiction writing is wonderful. We are not staffed to provide extensive feedback, unfortunately.
However, as you say, @lordtimoty, the community members should be supporting one another with feedback. (That said, some are open to it, and some aren't, so we will all come up against that.) One possibility is that now that we have opened our Discord server to the community, we could consider opening a workshop channel where people can request feedback on their content prior to posting. It would have to be in a Google doc. We'd also need to see active engagement on Discord to know this would work. The admin team can't take on more. We all have active, busy lives... some of us are working full time and also writing our own content on/off Hive, etc.
Thanks so much for your kindness :)
Personally, I only tend to give constructive criticism if I know it will be taken as the help it's intended to be. Otherwise, I fear it might discourage the author.
!PIZZA !ALIVE !LOL
Congratulations to our winner @wrestlingdesires,you deserve a standing ovation,hahaha. You really desire the honour. Also,@radenkusumo666 @bettyhandayani @itsostylish @popurri you all did great and interesting stories with the prompt "impression" . Also @samdove great to see your username on the list, you are doing amazingly well. I sight you brother, I enjoy your writings. More ink.
Thanks so much for the awesome comment, as well as the congratulations 🙌
Best of luck in this week's prompt, it looks to be a good one ♥️
!PIZZA !ALIVE
My pleasure 😊, We anticipate next week with full energy.
thank you very much. and I congratulate the winners.
Congratulations @wrestlingdesires ❤️🤗💕
Congratulations @radenkusumo666 @bettyhandayani @mrenglish 😍💕🤗❤️
I appreciate the mention.
Let's do it again this week.
Congratulations!
Congratulations!.
thank you very much. and I congratulate the winners.
Thanks so much 🙌
!PIZZA !ALIVE
The rewards earned on this comment will go directly to the people( @theinkwell ) sharing the post on Twitter as long as they are registered with @poshtoken. Sign up at https://hiveposh.com.
It looks like this week I managed to get in first! Well done to wrestlingdesires on your fabulous piece.
Will check back later in the week to comment on the work of others, in the absence of posts at the moment.
Tim
https://peakd.com/@lordtimoty/an-inkwell-prompt-the-ravens-field
Yay! 🤗
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Congratulations to @wrestlingdesires and others mentioned. The 'lost' is interesting, let's see what we have for our reading pleasure.
Thank you, I will definitely be back for this week's prompt 🙌
I am so excited to this week's prompt. I gained a lot of experience and things to do in writing from my first post.
Congratulations @wrestlingdesires for becoming the winner of last prompt. You deserved it!
congratulations to the great author @wrestlingdesires and others mentioned @radenkusumo666 @bettyhandayani @itsostylish @mrenglish and @popurri for their stories. Also, thanks to the team @theinkwell.🤣
thank you very much. and I congratulate the winners.
Congratulations to the winners.
It was an interesting previous week to say, still, we hope for the best in this week.
Thanks for the mention.
SUPPORTED: @lordtimoty, & @bornben
This is the link to my entryhttps://peakd.com/hive-170798/@gi-de-on/wasted-life-and-efforts-the-ink-well-prompt-74
thank you very much. and I congratulate the winners.
Here is my entry
https://ecency.com/hive-170798/@mrenglish/prodigal-daughter-the-inkwell-prompt
I have commented on @lordtimoty @humor0404 and @gi-de-on works.
Congratulations to the happy winner @wrestlingdesires! I am very happy to have participated, these challenges are a great incentive for my imagination. Thank you for this wonderful space.
Thanks so much for your good wishes 🙌
!PIZZA !ALIVE
😊
Here is my entry
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@lightpen/lost-in-an-imaginary-future
This is my entry.
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@fantom22/the-loyalty-of-lost-dog
My entry for the week
https://ecency.com/hive-170798/@iyimoga/the-ink-well-prompt-recovery
Comments
@mrenglish
@dwixer
Thank you very much for the mention and congratulations to @wrestlingdesires.
My entry: https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@greatideas/mr-stefans-dream
Comments: @fashtioluwa and @iyimoga
I will check it out
I will check it out soonest
My entry
https://hive.blog/hive-170798/@emeka002/crazy-and-lost
This week’s prompt https://ecency.com/hive-170798/@itsostylish/the-booth-the-ink-well
Congrats to the winner @wrestlingdesires and to other honorable mentions.
Here’s my entry;
https://ecency.com/hive-170798/@madamnaomi/an-inkwell-prompt-the-eve
I’ve commented on the works of @humor0404 and @lordtimoty
My entry:
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@katleya/the-ink-well-prompt-74-the-lady-of-the-casino
Comments:
@itsostylish
@fantom22
This is my entry
https://ecency.com/hive-170798/@bettyhandayani/human-powerlessness-before-love
I have participated by commenting on the posts @cooI08 and @madamnaomi
My submission below
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@cool08/the-lost-ring
I have commented on @ayane-chan ND @katleya
My submission here
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@abigail04/peace-and-unity
I have commented on @bettyhandayani and @cool08
My entry for the prompt.
https://ecency.com/hive-170798/@stellageorge/alternate-universe
Enjoy. ☺️
Hello everyone!
This is my story for the week https://ecency.com/hive-170798/@kelseyimoh/the-mushroom-house
@iyimoga
@greatideas
@samdove
Here's my submission for Lost - thanks so much for everything ♥️
https://ecency.com/hive-170798/@wrestlingdesires/the-last-snipper-dragon
First time to join the prompt
Here's my entry: https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@eunoia101/the-ink-well-prompt-74-amandas-long-lost-love
Comments:
@bettyhandayani "Human Powerlessness Before Love
@ayane-chan " A lost soul in the fire"
Here my entry
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@popurri/lost-in-her-reality
Comment on the stories of
@katleya
@abigail08
@mrenglish
Regards
Here's my entry for this week's prompt such a dicey one he he.
https://ecency.com/hive-170798/@buezor/the-ink-well-prompt-74
Commented on @itsostylish and @fantom22
Here is my entry
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@merit.ahama/ann-and-the-tower-house
Supported @eunoia101 @assegai @emeka002
Here's my entry.
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@dennnmarc/the-ink-well-prompt-74-the-exchange-of-miracles
Here's my entry for the prompt Lost 🙂
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@jane1289/he-s-lost-in-her
I almost didn't write for this week but I had to. I had a nice story in my mind and I hope I was able to deliver it as well as I had done in my mind.
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@young-boss-karin/haileys-elysium
I also left comments on stories by @dennmarc and @jane1289
Congratulations to @wrestlingdesires and a great job to all the honorable mentions.
Thanks so much for your kind words 🙌
!PIZZA !ALIVE
Thanks so much for the engagement 🙌