Dear community:
Welcome to Prompt #22 in our creative nonfiction initiative. Thank you to everyone who contributed a nonfiction story last week.
Here's a quick overview of how it works:
Each week, we provide a creative nonfiction prompt. You are also welcome to post other creative nonfiction pieces that are not based on the prompt. See the guidelines below.
To be curated, your content should follow our guidelines, be at least 350 words (but ideally 750 -1500 words), be written in English, or another language as well as the English translation, and — as much as possible — free of errors. We also expect everyone who posts stories in The Ink Well to read and comment on the work of at least two other community members for each story published. (Thank you!)
What Is Creative Nonfiction?
There are many guides and resources online for getting to know this wonderful genre. It is truly about storytelling. The simple difference between creative nonfiction and fictional stories is that the story is not made up.
We like this definition from an article on creativenonfiction.org:
Simply put: Creative nonfiction is true stories, well told.
With creative nonfiction, you are using the literary and storytelling tools of a fiction writer to craft stories from real life experiences. Set the scene. Give the details. Profile the characters. Give us the dialog, as best you can remember it.
Ideas and inspiration:
Creative nonfiction stories can be snippets from your life autobiography — moments in time you want to capture in words, whether they were frightening, enlightening, bittersweet, or life-altering. They can be observations about life, about a time you connected at a profound level with a perfect stranger, or something you have learned along the way that made you a better person.
Do you love podcasts? One of the greatest sources of creative nonfiction is The Moth Radio Hour. Listen to a few of the stories from The Moth, and we guarantee you will be inspired.
Here are some additional resources for learning more about the creative nonfiction genre:
-- Reedsy blog: What is Creative Nonfiction? The Unputdownable Truth
-- Writers.com: Understanding Creating Nonfiction: What It Is and How to Write ItCheck out this list of creative nonfiction stories. For example, one of the stories is about a funeral for a lizard named Rango.
We hope you are inspired!
Guidelines for Creative Nonfiction Articles in The Ink Well
- Write creative nonfiction stories about real life, memories, or experiences.
- As with our fiction guidelines, we ask that articles be at least 350 words in length. Optimal length is 750-1500 words.
- Please read and edit your content before posting. It makes a big difference in how we reward work published in The Ink Well. (And we have some great guidelines for improving your grammar and fixing errors before you post in this article.)
- Please post directly in The Ink Well community, and post your link in a comment on this post.
- Please use the tag #creativenonfiction on these posts.
Here are some examples of what we are looking for:
- Explore an idea that interests you, such as how childhood experiences shape us as adults.
- Write about the study of dreams and what they mean, along with your own experience.
- Tell about an experience from your life that profoundly changed you.
- Write about a teacher who inspired you.
In other words, tell a story from real life. And illustrate the ideas you share with real world experiences, memories and observations.
Here’s what we are NOT looking for:
- A picture of a flower or other posts focused on photography
- A few paragraphs about what you ate for lunch
- Recipes and how-to articles
- Life lessons or advice
- Essays about religion or politics
- Poetry
What will be muted:
- Spam posts or plagiarism
- Graphic violence
- Lectures or proselytizing about religion, politics or morality
Last Week's Creative Nonfiction Winners
Thank you to all who participated in last week's prompt: "Daydreaming, mind flying.". We enjoyed reading how our writers reacted to this announcement. There was fantastic writing!
Writers who joined in the fun:
@dianelson
@chuksmeezy
@faitz007
@itsostylish
@elentiyaroberts
@timix648
@marriot5464
@lizizoo
@balikis95
@cool08
@princessbusayo
@arduilcelebren
@mrenglish
@marynn
@jetta.amaya
@dreemsteem
@lightpen
@jhymi
@deraaa
@lightpen
@lrscarmen
@jessicaossom
@abdul-qudus
@princess-dara
@funshee
@diikaan
@fantom22
@rukkie
@amiegeoffrey
@merit.ahama
@minhajulmredol
@joycealarapon
@idlemind
@george-dee
@kemmyb
Honorable Mentions of the Week
Our honorable mentions for last week's prompt are:
Third Place: Wins 2 Hive
Our third place winner is @deraaa, with his story Dare To Dream! .
The Excellent Kids Network became more than just a dream. These kids that didn't have much suddenly began to do more than expected. They began to give back and there was always a reunion no matter how far away our jobs took us.
Waking up from that fantasy was the hardest because I was literally living one of my biggest dreams even if it wasn’t real. I was present through their ups and downs and through monumental stages in their lives. I was touching little lives.
I don’t hold back when I dream these things because somehow, the solutions and pathways make themselves known the more I ponder on these non-realities. The map just seems to become clearer. Then I act on it.
Second Place: Wins 3 Hive
Our second place winner is @rukkie, with his story DREAM OF BEING AN UNDERCOVER AGENT.
In my fantasy world I called myself "Agent Silver" and what I love about being an undercover agent is I can choose to be whatever I want. I know many would think it's a dangerous job as it could lead to loss of life if one is not careful enough but I love it all the same. The feeling I would get having solved a case that many would have found difficult to do and most of all saving people's lives as the job would require taking down bad people who would cause wreck and havoc for their selfish gain.
Another thing I love about the job is their training, I know their training might be very intense but I love it all the same and most times, these agents are always in shape, which means I will be physically fit. I would imagine myself jumping on buildings and chasing down a bad guy. I would also be trained on the use of weapons not only firearms but other weapons as well. I would imagine being the only female agent and being the best among other male agents.🙈🙈🙈
First Place: Wins 5 Hive
Our first place winner is @lightpen, with her story Governing Kogi State.
I see myself becoming the Governor of Kogi State and immediately I assume office, I will pursue a three point agenda namely, anti-corruption war, revamping the economy of the state and fighting insecurity.
Corruption is the greatest problem of my State. Other problems stem from corruption. There was a particular morning that I was sitting down in front of my house and I saw children roaming up and down the street with nowhere in particular to go. On their hands are plates they are using to beg for food. (...) I read in the news yearly how billions of naira is budgeted for providing education for school age children but it all ends on paper while the fund is disbursed into private pockets.
The Ink Well Creative Nonfiction Writing Prompt #22:
"Try, fail, try again."
We have all experienced failure. For some it is a source of embarrassment, but for others it is a good opportunity to reflect and learn.
Work on a story in which failure is the focus of the plot and narrate what events resulted from the experience of failure.
For this topic there are several possible approaches. For example:
You have lived and compromised your life for an activity ( family relationships, work, partner, etc.) that has nothing to do with your innermost longings.
Have you had the opportunity to meet someone who is not afraid of failure? Can you be influenced by someone like that?
On what occasions have you been afraid of failure and how did you get out of that feeling?
Can you tell the story of an impossible love, a failed love?
Have fun and good luck! We look forward to reading your stories.
Please use the tags #creativenonfiction and #inkwellprompt on these posts. And please remember to add your post link to a comment on this post!
NOTE: Please refrain from providing advice, guidance, or suggestions to others about their life choices in your post. Creative nonfiction is about storytelling.
Prizes!
- The top creative nonfiction story of the week will receive 5 Hive
- The second place story will receive 3 Hive
- Third place will receive 2 Hive
Deadline
You have a week, until the next prompt is posted, to post your creative nonfiction story in The Ink Well community. However, note that we sometimes do not get to all stories before posting the new prompt, so please try to get your story posted a day or two before the contest closes!
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, @gracielaacevedo, @yaziris, @itsostylish, @millycf1976 and @grindan.
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.
@jayna, @felt.buzz, @zeurich, @marcybetancourt, @agmoore, @marlyncabrera, @stormcharmer, @generikat, @iamraincrystal, @preparedwombat, @gracielaacevedo, @chocolatescorpi, @samsmith1971, @grindan, @jackdeathblack, @josemalavem, @riverflows, @itsostylish, @stuartcturnbull, @morey-lezama, @evagavilan2, @popurri, and @mrenglish.
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Thank you so much @theinkwell and congratulations to all. Looking forward to this week!!
Congratulations to you, sis 💕
congratulations to the winners - another great week - and more to come!!!
thanks for what you do @theinkwell!! :)
Congrats to all the winners this week was great 👏👏
Congratulations @lightpen, @rukkie, @deraaa, @jhymi,
@princessbusayo, @dreemsteem and @funshee! What exciting stories!
Thank you very much
Thank you so much 🙏🙏🙏
Thank you very much🙏🥰
Thank you so much.
@theinkwell
How funy it is that my name is shown in the winner list of the last prompt, but no one has ever seen my entry, I can accept it as your wish to curate or not, but now most of my stories are being ignored, that's why I'm leaving this community today.
Thank you for your cooperation so far.
Dear friend @fantom22 . I know how discouraging it can be when one's stories are unnoticed. But I will advice you should not give up on your passion for writing or let this experience discourage you from being part of this community.
I know curation, comments, reblogs and upvotes are encouragement and support that give us that confidence that we are good, terrific and improving and I know how discouraging it can be when we don't see any of these in a post after we have put in lots of efforts and time trying to craft out something.
We can't tell what exactly caused this issue of your posts not being appreciated but regardless I will only encourage you not to let this experience end your membership. You are I know that this community impacts lots of writing tips. It helps writers improve, give us privilege to connect with other terrific writers and many more. Keep the fire burning, write and believe in your creativity. I wish you best of luck in any way you choose, either to stay or the other way round.
@marynn Only a true well-wisher like you and one who thinks about my well-being can do the work of giving me advice by taking out so much of his precious time. Dear Maryann, I have taken this decision very carefully, and for this, I have thought for 3 whole months, I have a list of other eminent authors besides me, who were not being done full justice, but I have seen that out of these No one is ready to put forth their views on this matter, and thus lives in an atmosphere of despair.
Will be deeply grateful for your goodwill, thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Best wishes dear friend, I respect your decision.
We're sorry you're leaving the community, @fantom22. Thank you for being a member for all these months. We've really enjoyed your stories and seeing your writing improve so much! And you have contributed a lot to the community. That said, people change. Communities change. If we aren't meeting your standards or needs for attention on your posts, then we wish you the best, and hope you find what you are looking for elsewhere!
Good luck and best wishes.
@jayna Madam, actually I myself am sad to leave the community, but in the last 2-3 months I am seeing a huge change in the community activities, no old writer is getting attention, and new writers are being rewarded heavily.
I have learned a lot from you, to be honest, you have taught me to write all this.
I respect you from my heart, whenever you will be the admin of any other community, you will find me with you there.
with great respect.
Thanks for every thing.
Thanks @fantom22. I don't want to have a long conversation with you here about this, but I will let you know that I disagree completely with your assessment of how the community has changed. What has changed is that we have grown, and the quality of the work has increased. This has been a magical and wonderful transformation that we feel reflects our work as a community to help writers improve their craft.
Each time we put up a new prompt, we select the best stories we can find, and we try to reward different people each week so that everyone who is putting in a lot of time and effort on their posts and engaging in the community gets a chance at winning.
We are not focused only on new writers. You are entitled to your opinion, but it does not reflect the reality or focus in The Ink Well.
I took a glance at your posts. You have consistently been curated and rewarded in The Ink Well based on the increasing quality of your work, far above what you earn in freewriters. Are you leaving that community too?
We do not get to every single post, as you know. And we often don't get to posts right away. We are trying to improve our processes, as we sometimes don't get to every post written for the prompt before the new one is posted. That is a problem we want to fix.
Again, good luck and best wishes. I wanted to give you some more background on our side so you understand that you have not been ignored or left out, despite your view of what has transpired.
Great suggestions for the prompt. They really open doors....
Thank you so much @theinkwell.
Congratulations to our winners 🎉 looking forward to another great entries from this week's topic.
Thank you very much @theinkwell
Big congratulations @lightpen, @rukkie, @deraaa, @jhymi @princessbusayo, @dreemsteem and @funshee . I was able to read most of the stories and I must say, they were captivating and gripping.
Very true they all tried 😄👍👍
Thank you @marynn
Thank you🙏
I posted this in the wrong community, but here is a link to my cross post of it.
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@owasco/humiliation-and-failure-hive-170798
Thanks
This is my entry
https://ecency.com/hive-170798/@abrarhussain/failure-in-love
Congratulations to the winners!
Hi, here is my entry
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@lenaspiritual/my-story-of-losing-dollar400-worth-of-shiba-inu-inkwell-nonfiction-prompt-21
Hello everyone this is my entry for this prompt...
https://ecency.com/hive-170798/@timix648/embracing-failure?referral=timix648
This is my entry.
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@mrenglish/it-is-just-the-beginning--creative-nonfiction-22
I have supported @hiverdrive and @lenaspiritual
Hello everyone... This is link to my entry
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@dianelson/maybe-its-okay-to-not-be-okay
Wooow. Thank you @theinkwell for this opportunity. It's a whole lots of motivation to me. My appreciation goes to all that celebrated the win with me.
My entry
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@hiverdrive/fastlane
Hi,
Kindly find here my entry, thank-you.
https://ecency.com/hive-170798/@funshee/get-to-know-her-fear
Here is my entry to the prompt of the week...
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@princessbusayo/creative-nonfiction-prompt-22-oror-rejected-but-i-kept-trying
I supported @funshee @dianelson and @mrenglish
Here is my entry;
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@lightpen/resilience
https://ecency.com/hive-170798/@abdul-qudus/my-supervisor-gave-me-a
Supported @princessbusayo @funshee
There is not a comment from you on either of @funshee's stories this week from you @abdul-qudus, perhaps it did not post?
My post entry
https://ecency.com/hive-170798/@marynn/my-path-the-ink-well?referral=marynn
I engaged and supported these authors
@lightpen @mrenglish @riz611 @abdul-qudus
Congratulations to the winners
This is a great topic to write about, thanks @theinkwell.
Hi! This my story: https://ecency.com/hive-170798/@yuki-nee/rising-from-failure-a-new-phase-a-creative-non-fiction
Congratulations o the winners. I've been o busy that I couldn't submit my link here on time.
Here it is;
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@jessicaossom/from-failure-to-success-my
I supported @princessbusayo @diebitch @lenaspiritual
Good morning 🤗
This is my entry below
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@chuksmeezy/unforgettable-moments
Thank you ♥️
Hi @theinkwell I did support @jessicaossom66 and @lightpen
Here is my participation in this new meeting:
https://ecency.com/category/@fragozar01/fail-to-live-better-or
My support in the post of @marynn, @timix648, @princessbusayo and @abrarhussain
my entry:
https://ecency.com/hive-170798/@rammargarita/lenten-year-the-ink-well
Here's my entry:
https://ecency.com/hive-170798/@jhymi/am-i-resigned-to-failure
I supported @jessicaossom , @yuki-nee
My entry
https://ecency.com/hive-170798/@lrscarmen/university-love-creative-nonfiction-in
Here is my entry of the week
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@ricardo993/a-living-example
Here's my entry!: https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@restcity/fight-fail-keep-fighting
I commented on @universoperdido and @riz611
Hello everyone. Here is my entry;
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@rukkie/failing-a-chance-to-re-evaluate-oror-creativenonfiction-22
I engaged @lenaspiritual and @hiverdrive
Congratulations to the winner. Here is my entry.
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@lizizoo/no-longer-a-failure
Lovely reads I must say. 😍
You do a great job @theinkwell
This is a nonfiction story I planned to post here since last week a night to remember I must warn you (It's spooky) enjoy.
My entry
https://ecency.com/hive-170798/@marriot5464/creative-nonfiction-the-trials-and?referral=marriot5464
Here's my entry
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@diikaan/love-is-beautiful-but-wicked
Hi here almost forgot to summit my post.
https://ecency.com/hive-170798/@treasuree/when-you-fall-get-up
My entry
Here is my entry
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@merit.ahama/trying-too-hard-after-failing
Supported @amiegeoffrey @diikaan
Hello, everyone! I hope I'm not too late to participate.
This is my entry of this week's CNF: https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@idlemind/never-stop-believing
Thank you in advance for reading.
My entry 👇
https://ecency.com/hive-170798/@kingsleyy/my-streak-of-failures?referral=kingsleyy
Here's my entry
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@amiegeoffrey/i-didnt-give-up-on-my-journey-of-learning-a-new-language-even-though-i-failed-at-first
Supported @kingsleyy and @merit.ahama