Image source:mirkosajkov 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 create an attention-grabbing 'hook' for your story.
You guys are amazing! There were some really good demonstrations of this skill. The first line, the 'hook', pulls the reader in. You want readers to be curious about what comes next. A great first line can have this effect. Because developing a great hook is so important, we'd like to include a few examples of stories in which this skill was clearly evident. This week, selection of winner and honorable mentions was strongly influenced by the power of the hook. (Examples below.) See what you think of these first lines as attention grabbers.
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. Pay attention to the 'hook' quoted for each author.
@philomenob with the story, The Rainmaker's Daughter
Today is the day they kill my father.
@zyzymena with the story, The Unexpected
“George! No! Don’t take me away from him! Don’t take me away from my husband! No! No!”
@restcity with the story, How to Break a Curse
What would you do if everything you touched turned to gold.
@ghost.queen with the story, If I'm to Die Today I Don't Want to Die Smelling
A black raven perched on the window croaking noisily, the five dogs in my yard started barking fiercely, in the same minute all the lights in the house turned off simultaneously.
@hdprinter with the story, The Last Warrior
The last thing he remembers was the smile on their face as he waved goodbye on the day of his departure.
And the winner of the create a strong hook challenge is... @diebitch with the story Rage Against the Machine. Not only did @diebitch have a really great first line, but she also had a very strong story. Here is her first line, her 'hook':
The nuclear blast rose like an ethereal cloud of smoke with its edges trimmed by fire and humanity became extinct.
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, Fortune. Here are the authors who posted stories in response to the prompt.
@smilejerry
@hopestylist
@matyr
@iyimoga
@merit.ahama
@abigail04
@theawesononso
@gracielaacevedo
@popurri
@daniella619
@smokyice
@nasfyneboy92
@kei2
@diikaan
@kingkenny44
@hazmat
@buezor
@assegai
@thequizshow
@katleya
@anonymouse02
@philomenob
@repayme4568
@yhuddee111
@lordtimoty
@dwixer
@nurudeen081
@zyzymena
@gi-de-on
@ghost.queen
@hdprinter
@isabelpena
@cool08
@fantom22
@restcity
@zeraton
@raymondpeter
@young-boss-karin
@meitanteikudo
@ddn688
@itsostylish
@merrymay22
@lightpen
@artworkers
@luckydrums
@davidbright
@lenaspiritual
@diebitch
Thank you, everyone who posted a story!
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 one, 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 Worry. The skill challenge this week is essential for developing a well-structured story. We are going to look at the subject of character types. The character type we will focus on is the antagonist. Simply put, an antagonist is someone who presents a serious challenge to the main character (protagonist). Read on to learn more about the role of an antagonist. You may also refer to @jayna's essay on developing character types (in the Inkwell's catalog of Fiction Writing Tips.)
What should you do with the prompt, worry? And how do you handle the skill challenge? Here are some additional details:
Worry: We all have worried. The ability to worry seems to be both essential and necessary to human beings. Worrying is a way of heightening awareness. However, this word may have meanings other than to be concerned. For example, there are worry beads, which some people use to help them relax, or pass the time. Or, we may 'worry' a piece of fabric and wear it down. A dog may worry a bone. Worry may be noun, a verb or an adjective. Use your imagination. Come up with something surprising.
Character type: antagonist. This sounds complicated, but it's not. We all know that the lead character in a story is the protagonist. Opposing the protagonist, prompting action from the protagonist, is the role of the antagonist. For example, a young woman may have a boss at work who is acting inappropriately. He is her antagonist and will prompt her to take some action. Or, perhaps there is a woman in the neighborhood who keeps picking apples from the protagonist's tree. This will prompt the protagonist to take action. A good story with conflict (every story needs conflict) benefits from a worthy antagonist.
Details about character types, and antagonists in particular, may be found in @jayna's excellent essay on the topic, Character Types in Fiction.
The examples below of antagonists may be familiar to you from popular movies, or stories.
- In Star Wars, Darth Vader is the main antagonist.
- In Ghostbusters, Gozer (the demonic entity), may be the main antagonist.
- *In Breaking Bad, Gustavo Fring may be the main antagonist.
Think about your own story. Think of the protagonist, and then carefully choose your antagonist and the main character's reaction to that antagonist.
If you read @jayna's article, you will get a clearer idea about how to create your antagonist. Mastering this concept will help you to become a better story writer.
A week from now, we will select a winning story that has a clear antagonist. 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
Thank you for being a part of The Ink Well!
@jayna, @agmoore, @gracielaacevedo, @wrestlingdesires and @yaziris
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/
@zeurich, @jayna, @felt.buzz, @marcybetancourt, @marlyncabrera, @stormcharmer, @generikat, @agmoore, @iamraincrystal, @preparedwombat, @gracielaacevedo, @chocolatescorpi, @kirlos, @semarekha, @adncabrera, @josemalavem, @morey-lezama, @sayury, @evagavilan2, @deraaa, and @rayt2.
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congratulations to the winner of contest 65 @diebitch and the honourable authors @philomenob @ghost.queen @zyzymena @restcity @hdprinter for their great hook.Also thanks to @theinkwell for their perfect judgement.
Thank you for that nice comment, @fantom22!
😃
Thank you! Wishing you all the best
Thanks :)
Congratulations to the winner. I am looking forward to participating.
Thanks!
Congratulations to the winners of last week prompt.
This week's prompt is a really good one, let's see how it goes.
All the best to all the writers in the house.
Congratulations @diebitch and all others mentioned. @theinkwell, you are doing a great job. Here is my entry;
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@lightpen/freedom-from-emotional-prison
Such a great story. I love the part where he was looking at the mirror and a reflection of his dad. You're too good please keep writing.
Thank you so much. I'll surely keep trying and hopefully will be improving. Cheers!!!
Congratulations to the winners.
@theinkwell , my post was not visited. I don't know if it was an omission but I think it was. Or is it that my write up does not meet up with the requirements?
Thanks a lot.
Sorry, @cool08. We attempt to curate every story, but sometimes we are not able to get to all of them. We've curated it now.
Congratulations to the winners.
@theinkwell My last story didn't have curation, I can just ask you for an opinion if you liked it or not. Thank you in advance. I love being part of this community I have great pleasure in writing and reading.
Hi @ricestrela. It is curated now. Have you seen our new guideline that we are only able to curate one story per writer each week? To make sure your stories are curated, please space them apart by 6 or 7 days. Thank you!
Thank you so I will.
Congratulations to the winner and all the mentioned, I hope my stories would climb up that ladder, one day
Here's my entry link for the week.
https://ecency.com/hive-170798/@yhuddee111/reformed
Good luck and keep writing, @yhuddee111. Be sure to read our writing tips in our catalog of fiction writing tips. Thank you for being a consistent and hard working community member! We appreciate you!
Great short story. Please keep up with the good works.
Congratulations to the winners for their dedication to their publications:
for @diebitch, @philomenob, @philomenob, @ghost.queen, @zyzymena, @restcity and @hdprinter
Please my post was not curated was it because I used gifs or because I didn't mention the people I commented on their post? Please @theinkwell I need to know, so I won't make the same mistakes next time.
Hi @hopestylist. It is curated now. We do not get to all stories each week (though we do try), and we are not always able to get to them right away.
Okay, I understand. Thanks for your understanding.
This is my story .
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@fantom22/disgusting-politics
They always offer a lot but rarely deliver. I see that the political issue is fashionable, right? Your writing is very good.
In fact, fulfilling the promises made to win, requires a lot of mental desire, but after winning, the same person gets surrounded by such unseen, unthinkable problems that he is unable to fulfil many of the promises made. But if he wants to fulfil it, then only he will get further opportunities. Thank you very much @isabelpena for reading and appreciating my story.
My entry friends:
https://hive.blog/hive-170798/@isabelpena/do-not-worry-be-happy
Here's my entry for the prompt. I hope you love it.
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@young-boss-karin/gaining-sanity
Here is my entry👇
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@mrenglish/worrying-on-the-brink-of-collapse-or-the-ink-well-prompt-66
Engaged the following work:
@lightpen
@fantom22
This is my entry to the prompt
https://hive.blog/hive-170798/@emeka002/the-enemy-you-know
Hello! It has been a while. I'm happy to post again on The Ink Well :)
https://hive.blog/hive-170798/@gabmr/the-future-alike
I have made the necessary changes to the story @theinkwell.
so you can go ahead and curate it.
https://hive.blog/hive-170798/@emeka002/the-enemy-you-know
Wow. Those are powerful examples of hooks. Congrats everyone. !LUV it. I just finished my story for the last prompt but the new one is already here. LOL. Not really good with deadlines. 😅
@juanvegetarian(1/1) gave you LUV.
H-E tools | discord | community | <>< daily
Here is my entry for the week.
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@zyzymena/obsessed
Supported @yhuddee111 and @fantom22
Hello, wonderful people!
It has been a week; I wasn't able to participate last time, but here's the link for my entry this week: https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@idlemind/metamorphosis
Thank you in advance to those who will read it.
I engaged with the following authors:
@lightpen
@yhuddee111
@fantom22
Team Inkwell where do we place the participation of the May contest (gardens)?
This would be a good place:
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@theinkwell/may-2022-news-announcements-and-new-contest-from-the-ink-well
Thank you very much @theinkwell ! I forgot to copy the link and I couldn't get it.
Sometimes we have more activities than usual. This season it was my turn.
I hope to publish my garden story soon
Congratulations for the winners!
My comments:
@idlemind
@popurri
My entry:
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@katleya/the-ink-well-prompt-66-history-has-a-price
Congratulations to the winners🎊❤️
Fantastic submission @diebitch🌟
Hello There😃
This is my entry to this weeks Prompt. Thank you
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@queenstarr/the-ink-well-prompt-66-beautiful-paranoia
My goodness. This is a great entry.
Thank you so much KingKenny😊
My submission
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@abigail04/unjust-hatred
I have commented on @fantom22
@lightpen
Hey guys. I hope we're all having a fruitful week so far.. Here's my entry for this week's prompt
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@diikaan/a-brothers-worry
Congratulations to the winner and honourable mention in last week's edition. You have done a great job! Yeah, Please continue with a good job!
Hello, my dear friends. This is the link to my entry for this week 👇
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@raymondpeter/forbidden-territory-the-inkwell-prompt-66
I have engaged myself in the works of the following people's posts:
I hope you enjoyed reading my piece.
Thank you for your time and effort to view my blog.
Regards,
@raymondpeter
Congratulations to the winners. Here's my entry for this week's prompt.
https://ecency.com/hive-170798/@buezor/the-inkwell-prompt-66-or-5a672dec405c6
Commented on @katleya and @ubani1
Thanks for reading me @buezor
@katleya it was a good read.
Again I encourage you to participate in this great initiative. Here my entry, I hope the community likes it:
https://ecency.com/hive-170798/@fragozar01/a-saving-read-the-ink
My support to the participants: @isabelpena, @yhuddee111, @buezor and @raymondpeter
Hello everyone and a happy weekend. Here's my entry below. I have also commented on others post as well.
https://hive.blog/hive-170798/@kingkenny44/joy-in-the-morning
Hi everyone! Ive benn away for a month! I let you my entry this week! Hoping you like it.
https://ecency.com/hive-170798/@joalheal/farewell-to-time
Welcome back, @joalheal!
Here is my entry:
https://ecency.com/hive-170798/@repayme4568/niha-the-inkwell-writing-prompt
Support the following writer's:
@filipz, @warpedpoetic, @kingkenny44
Here is my entry for the week.
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@smokyice/envy-rc97nb
Congratulations to the winner
My entry
https://ecency.com/hive-170798/@daniella619/the-firehorse
@raymondpeter
@lightpen
Here is my entry
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@merit.ahama/the-boss-game
Commented on
@filipz @felixmarranz @ramsyxafridi @daniella619
my entry for the prompt.
https://ecency.com/hive-170798/@iyimoga/the-ink-well-prompt-for-249afc489b423
This is my entry
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@hopestylist/dream-Achiever.
I commented on @merit.ahama and @daniella619.
Here is my entry
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@davidbright/olemas-tale-oror-the-ink-well-prompt-66
I engaged with the following writers;
@lightpen
@fantom22
Congratulations to the winner @diebitch and those who received honorable mentions.
My entry
https://hive.blog/hive-170798/@popurri/escaping-the-future
Support the following writers: @abigail04, @fantom22 and @katleya
Regards
A last minute entry for me:
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@lordtimoty/the-fear-was-ferocious-insecurity-her-foe
This week, engaging with hopestylist around the pros and cons of present or past tense, and popurri on transforming over-used dialogue into action.
here is my story
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@lenaspiritual/the-candy-land-inkwell-prompt-worry
Thanks for the prize :) Congrats to all writers. Here's my entry
https://ecency.com/hive-170798/@diebitch/embracing-worry
I engaged with Katleya and lightpen.
hello,
here is my entry:
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@ghazale64/the-inkwell-prompt66-queen-of-mirrors
https://hive.blog/hive-170798/@blackalbino1/the-power-of-words. I engaged in @katleya and @leyaspiritual 's posts. Here's my participation
Another late submission. Whew. Sorry guys. I wasn't able to finish up on time, but here it is - finally. I hope you still get to enjoy reading it. 😊 !PIZZA #worry #story-structure
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@juanvegetarian/erza-and-ezra-councilor-franco-or-a-short-story-or-prompt-66
PIZZA Holders sent $PIZZA tips in this post's comments:
@juanvegetarian(1/5) tipped @theinkwell (x1)
Please vote for pizza.witness!
Congratulations to all the winners and thank you for the wonderful stories.
Interesting your proposal on politics. Fortunately, the good guys won. he he
Simple, precise and straight to the point. I thank God maxwell later got successful.