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: "Resolution":
- @rdsmas
- @iskawrites
- @kinganny
- @mrenglish
- @abigail04
- @ricardo993
- @timix648
- @katleya
- @emeka002
- @rare-gem
- @sabrinah
- @zino01
- @rinconpoetico7
- @lightpen
- @george-dee
- @nancybriti1
- @amiegeoffrey
- @oyebolu
- @alovely088
- @omolayo
- @kingsleyy
- @jjmusa2004
- @rammargarita
- @amakauz
Author Shout-outs
We'd like to call out a few stories that got high marks from our curators.
@katleya
Curator comment:
@katleya offers a gem of a Christmas tale. It could have been a traditional Christmas story, but Katleya goes one step further. She blends science fiction elements into a classic tale. Two kingdoms are in conflict over how to make earthlings 'behave'. These kingdoms are in the Andromeda galaxy. One kingdom wishes to impose peace by force. The other wishes to allow earthlings to evolve. Representatives from the kingdoms visit earth at Christmas. The spirit of the holiday affects them and they fall in love. They return to the galaxy and decide to give earthlings five years to evolve. The story is beautifully told. Dialog and arc are good. The spirit of the holiday is certainly rich in this piece.
@iskawrites
My Art Made Me Liberal But I Almost Lost My Family in the Process
Curator comment:
@iskawrites offers a story in which a classic rite of passage takes place. A young girl rebels against family rules in the most conspicuous ways — hair color, clothes, piercings. Time passes. As she looks around she realizes others have gone through the same passage, but they have grown out of it. She comes to an understanding that the thing she was running away from is the thing she values most — her mother and her community. A well-written story.
@ricardo993
Curator comment:
@ricardo993 writes a story about conspiracies. He builds tension slowly and creates a credible plot line. The protagonist is going through old emails with the resolution of cleaning up unfinished business. He comes across a website called BioWatch and tries to open files there. He is blocked. Eventually he realizes the government and interested parties have blocked the site. Our protagonist decides to join forces with BioWatch. A really good story.
@sabrinah
Curator comment:
@sabrinah writes a deliciously clever story. She introduces us to Estelle, who is dressed in "all black with devilish matte red lipstick." Lest we think the choice of adjective is accidental, she lives up to her lipstick. She is completely devoid of conscience. She goes about her day and blithely steals from any available target. Her specialty is pickpocketing, but she does not limit herself to this skill. In the end, one of her targets catches her as she lifts his cell phone. She is humiliated and resolves never to get caught again... though the implication is that she will certainly continue to steal. The ending is so cleverly contrived that we almost miss it. Great use of dialog. Great pacing. Great arc.
Fiction Writing Prompt of the Week
This week's prompt is: "Bicycle."
What to do with this prompt?
You can do whatever you wish, as always! As long as your story is inspired by the word "bicycle," and you include it in your story, it's fine.
Bicycles are perhaps the most versatile vehicles on earth. A person does not need a lot of money to own one, and it can take them to a job, on errands, on pleasure trips, or to visit a friend.
What story might you tell that involves a bicycle? Perhaps a child is envious because a friend or an older sibling has a bicycle and he doesn't. Or maybe your character is just about to jump on a bicycle to deliver an important package, but the bike is not there because it has been stolen. We look forward to seeing what you come up with!
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 a *minimum of 350 (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.
Tips for Getting Curated by The Ink Well
There are some important elements of storytelling that make a story stand out, and make people want to read it, and keep reading. 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.
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
Thank you for being a part of The Ink Well!
@jayna, @gracielaacevedo, @yaziris, @itsostylish, @samsmith1971 and @agmoore
Interested in joining our community? Start by joining Hive!
You can follow our curation trail by going to our hive.vote curation trail page and clicking the follow button.
Note: The Ink Well is now paying out curation rewards to our delegators!
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, @itsostylish, @agmoore, @marcybetancourt, @selftheist, @marlyncabrera, @stormcharmer, @iamraincrystal, @preparedwombat, @gracielaacevedo, @timix648, @samsmith1971, @jackdeathblack, @josemalavem, @riverflows, @generikat, @mineopoly, @hazmat, @treasuree, @innfauno12, @kingsleyy, @popurri, @nancybriti1, @marynn, @jjmusa2004, @universoperdido, @juniorgomez, @rinconpoetico7, @nathy33, @marriot5464, @morey-lezama, @evagavilan2, @moneykeep, @mrenglish, @stuartcturnbull, @marilour, @funshee, @amiegeoffrey, @balikis95, @cool08, @rukkie, @raymondpeter, @emreal, @tomiajax, @osomar357, @kushyzee, @ricurohemi28, and @benwesterham.
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