The Ink Well Prompt #58 - Plus Weekly Challenge and Prize Announcement

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Image source: Alex Guilaume on Unsplash

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 work on story hooks to entice readers into your story.

You guys are amazing! There were some really outstanding examples of conflict that helped to drive the story and hold the reader's interest. This is a great skill to develop. It is conflict that keeps a reader tied to the story. What will happen? How will the conflict be resolved? Because this is such an important skill, we'd like to include a few good examples of stories that had powerful conflict. The "honorable mentions" for this week are:

They were running away from their home. Towards their own dreams. The two animals, believed to be incompatible with each other, once again proved that their prejudices were wrong with the friendship they established.

Audible gasps filled the room as everyone gazed at the exquisite artefact in awe. I alone knew it was the replica.

He had no idea how to go about this battle and frankly, he was more concerned of hurting his son than preaching about rules and qualifications.

On her way back to the place where she left her siblings, Marisela is paralyzed when she sees Isis running past, her siblings behind her and the park ranger further behind.

And he's falling for Danny. Hard. Except he's in the band. He can't kick himself out of his own band and he certainly not kicking Danny out because Danny is one of the best he has worked with. He's worked so hard for this, and he refuse to let his emotions get in the way of his success

And the winner of the adding conflict challenge... is @rayt2, with his story, Was He Sam? When we think of conflict usually we do so with a negative connotation. In this case the conflict is between truth and fiction and becomes the basis of a humorous narrative. Here are a few excerpts from the story:

Shan had told me this, and I had no reason not to trust him. I trusted Shan, as he told me many other things that always proved true.

With this statement, @rayt2 establishes the basic, humorous conflict that runs as a thread throughout the story. The question that lurks behind every assertion: Is that true?
Another excerpt:

I smiled, thinking about a ghost with a fake nose, but old Nathan didn’t seem to believe that.

The plot thickens. Or, in this case, the chuckles mount as statements and credible reality diverge. A final excerpt:

One sheet hit a person and injured him seriously. If someone else had told me this story, I wouldn’t have believed it at all. But Shan was not a liar. I took a sip of Johnnie Walker Blue Label.

If you are feeling grumpy and need a little pick-me-up, read this story. Not only will you chuckle but you will also get an interesting perspective on adding conflict to a story.

Congratulations to @rayt2, 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, “Making and Breaking Rules."

Here are the week's stories. Be sure to read and support these authors for their work.

What's Going on at the DnD Tavern by @ipexito
Small but Mighty by @hdprinter
Love at First Sight by @fantom22
The Perfect Couple by @hopestylist
The Switch by @didiee
Deterrent by @repayme4568
Story of a Marriage and Breakup by @rayt2
Marriage Crisis by @ghost.queen
Not an Option by @kingobonnaya
The Confessor by @mrenglish
Eye of the God by @cool08
Just Spontaneous by @restcity
God of Perfection by @raymondpeter
The Moon Seven Windows and the Lake by @rayt2
In a Brink of Death by @theimpostor
A Perfect Decision by @kirlos
Destiny Counts by @muba04
A Sad Life, A Happy Ending by @lrscarmen
Auction of the Zahhak by @kemmyb
Caging Is Not the Solution by @abigail04
The Law Doesn't Affect the Makers by @iyimoga
Family Conflicts by @emeka002
The Grand Parade in Pittsburg by @rayt2
Sour by @joydukeson
Folly of a Good Friend by @mrenglish
Luck by @fantom22
A Winning Affair by @itsostylish
Space by @mrnightmare.net
Beyond Control by @dwixer
Federica Violates Adoption Rules by @katleya
Rule to Continue or Not by @jmis101
The Child Rights Activist by @princessbusayo
The Legion by @cool08
Quite a success // Todo un éxito by @marbrym
Who Makes the Rules by @wrestlingdesires
A well-to-do little story about a polite conflict; despite references which could be accused of being immodest. by @lordtimoty
A Friend in Need by @artwirkers
Attention Kittizens!by @litguru
We Make Our Own Rules by @merit.ahama
Make, Break by @joydukeson
Am I Alive?--Is There Life After Death by @rayt2
My Grandfather's Cough by @amirtheawesome1
The Park Rule by @popurri
A Cure to a Land by @abigail04
Soothing Rage by @chincoculbert
When the Sky Meet the Sea by @joreneagustin
Was That a Favor? by @rayt2
The Rule Breaker by @khaleesii
The Band Rule by @nasfyneboy92
Ruining Dinner by @kingobonnaya
EnduranceTrek by @mrenglish
Be Safe, Be Happy... It Matters To Me! by @hasem91
Escaped From Heaven by @gracielaacevedo
Hate and Love by @fantom22
Max Starts a War by @kingkenny44
Let Love, Let Him/Deja Que El Amor, Lo Deje A El by @deraa
Beating the Odds by egboncass
Concrete Evidence by @cool08
Mistakes by @ozohu
Thank You by @mrnightmare.net
Rules or Stressful Field by @ddn688
A Tale of Two Best Friends by @joydukeson
Wrong Accusation by @abigail04
My Story "Moonlight" 🖋️ "Ay Işığı" Hikayem [ENG/TR] by @ipexito
James' Crazy Landlord by @snowflakesduke
Was He Sam? by @rayt2
The Lesson Learnt the Hard Way by @yhuddee11
Roch-A Boy's Best Friend by @sonofremi
The Experience of Jude by @raymondpeter
Broken But Glued by @youngelder
Clancy imagined he was a regular heighted, regular sighted, regular mighted man. by @lordtimoty
Kunle(Lover Boy) by @hazmat
The Role Model by @hdprinter
A Decision of Faith by @didiee
The Tamer by @boscohage
The Color of Magic: St. Patrick's Month Challenge by @itsostylish
Song of the Waves by @rayt2
Sugar High by @diebitch
The Unexpected Happened by @hopestylist
Too Nice by @milezofplay
Friends Are Forever by @fantom22
A Better Me by @repayme4568

What a great collection of stories. Thank you, everyone!

This Week’s Prompt

At last, the prompt of the week!

This week's prompt is A Reckoning. And your skill challenge for the week is Working on Dialogue

What should you do with this prompt? And what does this skill challenge mean? Here are some additional details:

A Reckoning: Reckoning can have a number of meanings. It can mean balancing accounts, such as happens in bookkeeping. It can mean taking stock of a situation, looking around and assessing the way things are in a current moment, such as: how is my relationship? How are my prospects at work? Have I been taking care of my health? Or, a reckoning may mean, receiving justice (punishment?) for an offense committed. There are limitless possibilities for what a writer may do with this prompt.

Dialogue: It is difficult to master the art of creating persuasive dialogue. The words that come from someone's mouth may vary by age, gender, education, culture. As writers, we have to be able to imagine how a particular character might speak. Readers generally appreciate dialogue. It breaks up the page and helps to focus attention. A few well-placed words can tell us a lot about a character. They may also help to fill in gaps that exist in our plot.

Examples:

  • A child comes home from school and greats a mother. What these two characters say to each other in that moment will reveal a great deal about their relationship.
  • A passenger on a boat strikes up a conversation with a stranger. The words that pass between these two may tell us a world about each one of them.
  • A man rushes into an emergency room with a wounded dog. What the man says in the first few moments will tell us much about him and about the circumstance in which the dog was injured.

We have a great resource for you. Read the article Action, Dialogue and Narrative: The Dynamic Trio in our catalog of fiction writing tips. For this week, focus only on the dialogue aspect of this article, although it would be good to keep the other skills in mind as you write.

A week from now, we will select a winning story that includes great, persuasive dialogue. 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:

  1. 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.)
  2. Story link: Post your story in The Ink Well community, and post a link to your story in a comment on this post.
  3. Hashtags: Please use these hashtags: #fiction #writing #inkwellprompt #theinkwell and #dreemport, if you are also posting your story to the DreemPort site.
  4. COMMUNITY SUPPORT: Visit the work of at least two other community members and comment on their work.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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:

Thank you for being a part of The Ink Well!

@jayna, @agmoore, @gracielaacevedo, @wrestlingdesires and @yaziris

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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/

A big thank you to all of our delegators:
@jayna, @agmoore, @gracielaacevedo, @iamraincrystal, @generikat, @marlyncabrera, @preparedwombat, @marcybetancourt, @zeurich, @stormcharmer, @adncabrera, @josemalavem, @morey-lezama, @sayury, @evagavilan2, @bertrayo, @deraaa, @rayt2 and @fantom22.

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