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 just peruse and enjoy the work of our community members.
Special Reminder: In addition to the weekly fiction contest we hold a monthly contest. Check out our April fiction contest ending April 30! 10 Hive to the winner!
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.
Weekly Challenge and Prize Announcement
Time for the prize announcement and new challenge!
Last week's prompt was "cards" and the skill challenge was to develop memorable characters.
Stories From the Previous Week
Thank you to everyone who posted a story for last week's prompt! There were some terrific stories, and we could easily have selected many more honorable mentions.
- @garorant
- @timix648
- @marriot5464
- @ubani
- @ricardo993
- @mrenglish
- @restcity
- @wrestlingdesires
- @yuki-nee
- @universoperdido
- @bemier
- @rammargarita
- @dianelson
- @sublimethoughts
- @idlemind
- @popurri
- @kirlos
- @vikvitnik
- @giftmbaba
- @aloysiusmbaba
- @kemmyb
- @lara-bee
- @talon12
- @hazmat
- @seki1
- @abigail04
- @gracchiare
- @diikaan
- @emeka002
- @balikis95
- @bahnhoft
- @george-dee
- @lrscarmen
- @jjmusa2004
Honorable Mentions
Our honorable mentions of the week are:
- @ricardo993: Programmed Dreams
- @diikaan: Carded Up
- @marriot5464: Hearts and Cards
- @yuki-nee: The Quest for the Illusive Cards
- @kemmyb: Jess' Invitation Card
- @balikis95: Ria
Third Place: Wins 2 Hive
Aveline waved a hand to the window. “There’s nobody else out there! Her parents are long dead! She’s got nobody else. You may have lost faith in humanity, but I haven’t! She’s been with Grabers for so long, she was more scared of me than she was the spiders! She’s in bad need of human contact. Yonni, please. Just let her stay.”
Second Place: Wins 3 Hive
- @idlemind, with the story Hyde and Sick
'Take a train, not the usual one. It only appears between 12:05 AM and 2: 05 AM. Make sure to present your ticket to the conductor, but don’t tell him where you’re going. The name of the town is written on the first letter I sent you.'
'While traveling, don’t peek outside. Don’t be tempted, so close your blinds because you might forget who you are if you laid eyes on any creatures you’ll meet along the way.'
'I’ll be waiting for you at an old abandoned house made of moldy bricks.'
First Place: Wins 5 Hive
- @universoperdido with the story The Hand of Fortune
Caleb rose from the chair and left the tent. His hope now was to get to the secret apartment he had downtown. Once there, he let his body rest on the bed. His head was spinning, as if he were drugged. He began to have visions with strange colors he had never seen before in his life. In a one-hundred-and-forty-degree turn, everything seemed to return to normal. The night passed like a snap giving him dominion over the dawn.
Congratulations to @universoperdido, @idlemind, and @restcity!
Okay, let's launch the new prompt!
This Week’s Prompt
The Ink Well is fortunate to have many members who are rising talents! We would like everyone to think of these weekly prizes as a showcase of just a few of the very best stories, as well as an opportunity for our members to be inspired by reading some polished stories that demonstrate excellent storytelling skills.
Prompt of the week!
This week's prompt is "elephant." Our skill challenge is world building.
What to do with this prompt?
As always, there are plenty of options. For example, you can write a story based on the phrase "the elephant in the room." This expression refers to a topic that no one wants to talk about, and even though the topic looms large (like an elephant) everyone pretends it is not there.
Or... you could write about a child whose special toy is a stuffed elephant... that comes to life in the night.
Or... write a story about an African safari, where the main character falls in love with elephants for their intelligence and sensitivity, and decides to devote her life to helping to save them.
Or... write about someone whose last wish is to see elephants in the wild.
And what about the skill of the week — world building? The idea behind world building is that you are taking story setting to the next level. World building is an opportunity to create an even more immersive experience. For example, if you chose to write about the child with the toy elephant, you might populate the room with a Mickey Mouse night light, a glow-in-the-dark constellation of stars that Mama had pasted to the ceiling, a book shelf of well-worn books like Charlotte's Web and the sound of the radiator groaning in the night, like an old man grumbling in his sleep.
For inspiration, read our World Building article.
Ready, set go!
A week from now, we will select winning stories that demonstrate the skills and utilize the prompt. Of course, we will also be looking for overall quality in the winning stories. Good luck! Be sure to read the contest rules below.
Note: As always, please avoid violent, gory, bloody, brutal, sexist or racist themes and language, erotica and other NSFW (not safe for work) content, 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.)
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: NEW: 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. (In most cases, we will not be able to read stories that come in after the countdown.)
- 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(s).
- 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 (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; #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
Thank you for being a part of The Ink Well!
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