The Ink Well Fiction Prompt #159

theinkwell (72)in The Ink Well • 11 months ago

Countdown terminated on Mar 6, 2024, 5:50 AM

Welcome to the Weekly Fiction Prompt

Hello community members. Thank you for joining our weekly writing prompt! If you're new, be sure to check out our community rules before posting in The Ink Well. (You can find them at the top of our home page. And you will find all kinds of great resources for fiction writers in our catalog of fiction writing tips.

Stories from the Previous Week

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

Author Shout-outs

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

@kei2

Shadow Weaving

Curator comment:

Kei2 delivers a wonderful (literally full of wonder) fantasy tale in response to the steal prompt. She creates a world where darkness is about to fall completely and permanently. It turns out, wizards have been stealing the light from the community for years and have been transporting it to another place, created for themselves alone. When the protagonist, Dinari, discovers that it is her betrothed is one of the wizards who has been doing this, she alerts the community. As the last bit of sun is stolen and the thief is about to leave, Dinari fools him into thinking she is leaving and going to the new place with him. However, when she begins to enter the wonderful world, people of the community come from the shadows. She declares that everyone will be leaving the darkness and entering the new, light place, because there is room for everyone. Really well written and well described.

@popurri

In the Valley of the Gods

Curator comment:

@popurri writes a lovely story about a family that dwells in the mountains, "In those times..." With this simple phrase at the very beginning of the story the author signals us that this story will have a mythic quality. We are introduced to a family that is starving because winter has taken all food sources from the natural environment. The family is forced to go down from the mountain and seek refuge with an uncle. This man works them hard and feeds them little. The children are hungry, especially Qata. He decides to take food from the kitchen, which has great stores of food. When he is discovered taking the food, his family is expelled and forced into the barren wilderness. Qata goes exploring and tries to find food for his family. He comes upon a bountiful valley, where trees are rich with fruit. However, he will not take what is not his, because he has learned his lesson. A goddess speaks to him and tells him all he has to do is ask permission from Mother Earth. Then he can have the fruit. He does this, finds his family and they all wait the winter out in the valley. This story is beautifully told. It is a twist on a traditional theme and it works well.

@iskawrites

One Day I Will Be Free of Kleptomania

Curator comment:

@iskawrites responds to the Steal prompt in this story. She describes the experience of a compulsive kleptomaniac, Sean Reynolds. While his behavior seems willful to those around Sean , and even to readers at the beginning of the story, eventually we come to see that Sean is in the grips of something beyond his control. He wants to stop, but is driven by an irrational compulsion to take what he sees. In the end, a compassionate house maid encourages him and he sees a way to overcoming his affliction. It is not a solution to his problem, but it is a possible path to solution. The story is extremely well written, with great conflict and great character insight.

@jjmusa2004

My Stolen Friend

Curator comment:

@jjmusa2004 writes a sensitive fiction from the POV of a female high school student. The story is simple, but demos complex emotions that are explored eloquently and thoroughly. A girl feels threatened by a newcomer who seems to have stolen the heart of her best friend. Said girl is shy and cannot speak her heart. New girl suspects her jealousy and resolves the triangle by pulling both girls in to a ring of friendship. Very sweetly resolved and well told.

Fiction Writing Prompt of the Week

This week's prompt is: "Sportsmanshipo."

What to do with this prompt?

Sportsmanship is all about playing a sport with grace and kindness — whether you are winning or you are losing. Some players get frustrated when they are not playing well. They might get angry or unnerved when the other team is being sassy, and respond badly. Sometimes referees on the field will throw penalties for bad sportsmanship.

There are many different angles you could take with this prompt! Another interesting one is how parents are always telling their kids to be "good sports" and to show good sportsmanship, but when they are standing on the edge of the field and don't like the call an umpire or referee made, they can show the worst sportsmanship of all!

We look forward to seeing what your imagination comes up with! Be sure to review the Writing Prompt Guidelines below.

Remember, as always, we are looking for the elements of story. 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.

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 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.

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; #149 Holiday memories; #150 Resolution; #151 Bicycle; #152 Flight; #153 Time Travel; #154 A trip to the fair; #155 Don't sell me a dog; #156 Gravity; #157 Love, wheelbarrow, dog; #158 Stealing}

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.

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