Dear community:
Welcome to Prompt #25 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: "When one door closes, another door opens". We enjoyed reading how our writers reacted to this announcement. There was fantastic writing!
Writers who joined in the fun:
@princess-dara
@adaezeinchrist
@pinkchic
@dianelson
@etorobong
@nathy33
@arduilcelebren
@funshee
@marynn
@lightpen
@mrenglish
@princessbusayo
@whitneyalexx
@hazmat
@timix648
@diebitch
@abdul-qudus
@diikaan
@amiegeoffrey
@cypher09
@jjmusa2004
@rukkie
@kingsleyy
@treasuree
@merit.ahama
@george-dee
@whitneyalexx
Honorable Mentions of the Week
Our honorable mentions for last week's prompt are:
- @hazmat: Never Thought I Would Fail
- @diebitch Missed Connections
- @cypher09: Disappointed and blessed
- @jjmusa2004: Trusting the process: when one door closes, great patience is required to wait for another.
Third Place: Wins 2 Hive
Our third place winner is @arduilcelebren, with the story The Virus That Changed My Life.
And Now, A New Door
2.5 – 3 years have passed. I've played tabletop role-playing games almost EVERY WEEK. I've definitely watched a lot of RPG tabletop gaming episodes and podcasts every week, sometimes daily. I've become a dungeon master for many different groups and met new people. I've made new friends on Discord and we've shared fantastic stories for hours. I've managed to show my other friends how much fun this hobby is, and now many of my friends are playing dungeons and dragons. We think we have improved ourselves a lot.
Second Place: Wins 3 Hive
Our second place winner is @amiegeoffrey, with the story One door closed but a better one opened.
I was out of a job for two good months, it was the toughest months in my life but somehow I learned to make do with the little I had in my bank account which means I had to cut down on most of my budget. While being jobless I also job-hunted, offline and online.
One Fateful evening, I was on my way back from my many job hunts, when I stumbled on Deborah, who was my high school mate whom I had lost contact with, to see how God works.
We had a chit-chat and caught up for the lost time, in our random conversation I jokingly mentioned I was out of a job and how I needed a job soon.
First Place: Wins 5 Hive
Our first place winner is, @abdul-qudus , with the story Life is multidimensional.
Only time can tell. At times we think it’s all over when we get to face some challenges of life. But at times some disappointment is always a blessing in disguise. Only if we could see through what the future has in place for us.
After three years in the rented apartment, my parents were able to own their portion of land and also get something done. They gradually started building an apartment with time we got to pack in and leave the rented apartment. It might not look as cool as we wanted but the peace of mind it brought us after the hard time experience over the past years was something to be grateful for.
Congratulations @arduilcelebren, @amiegeoffrey, and @abdul-qudus!
The Ink Well Creative Nonfiction Writing Prompt #25:
" Where is it? I can't find it! "
Memory is a wonderful human condition. With it we recognise the world and we recognise ourselves. We depend on it to function, but sometimes we "lose it" and then many things can happen.
This week we ask you to write about a time when you felt lost because you couldn't find something, or someone, you cared about.
For this topic there are several possible approaches. For example:
You have a very important meeting and you forgot the clothes you would wear to that meeting.
A person who has been very close to you has changed so much that you can't recognise him/her and you long for what that person was with you.
You go to pay a bill and realise you have lost your purse.
Someone greets you in the street with great affection. You recognise the person but can't find their name in your memory.
Tell us about it!
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 SIX DAYS to write for the prompt. We are now adding countdown timers to our contest posts so the contest ends one day before the new one is posted. This will give us more time to read all contest stories.
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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