March 2023 News, Updates and Monthly Contest from The Ink Well

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Hello Beautiful Community!

First, a word of appreciation for all in the community who have been posting stories, providing feedback on one another's posts, and helping our community to grow and thrive! Thank you!

Okay, onto the news. Here are the topics in this newsletter:

• The Ink Well's Stance on AI Content
• Notes and Reminders to All Writers in The Ink Well
• Winners from the February Contest!
• March 2023 Contest — 10-Hive Prize + 2nd and 3rd Place Prizes
• Find Us on Discord
• Creative Inspiration
• Delegate to The Ink Well / Follow Our Curation Trail

The Ink Well's Stance on AI Content

Our stance on content generated by machines (AI) is fairly simple: No. It is not allowed in The Ink Well.

As we announced on Discord recently, we have noticed a spike in machine generated (AI) content recently. This is becoming a serious issue in The Ink Well and across Hive. It is important to clarify that neither The Ink Well, nor most communities on Hive will tolerate this.

We have always asked for original content only, generated from the inner workings of your imagination — or, in the case of creative nonfiction, from your life experiences and memories. As a creative writing community, we want to read YOUR writing, not some machine-generated text.

Here's a quick FAQ:
Q: What about using online tools for drafting and editing grammar?
A: Using tools such as Google Docs or Grammarly is fine, and we recommend these tools to improve the quality of your post. However, if you use paraphrasing tools to switch words around, or generate any of your content with AI apps, that is NOT your original writing anymore, and it can be detected! So unless you decline the rewards on that post, it can and will get you in trouble.

Q: I write in a different language and then post my auto translated version. Does that make it machine generated?
A: No, translation is also fine. We require an English version to be included if you publish your story in another language.

In other words, just don't use tools to do the writing for you.

Here are our strong suggestions for translating text:

• Avoid using Google Translate. It does not produce high quality translations. Use something else, like Deepl. The best tools vary by language, so you should look for the one that gets the best reviews for your language.
• Provide the source for the translation tool you used in the post. This transparency will help readers and curators to know how you created the English version.
• Include the original version of the text written BY YOU in the post in its original language, along with the translated version.

If you have questions about this, please visit us in the ask-theinkwell channel in our Discord server.

Notes and Reminders to all Writers in The Ink Well

There are a few things that we'd like to provide as reminders, as these are common issues.

Avoid morals, lessons and author intrusion

When we read stories, whether they are fictional or creative nonfiction stories, we do NOT read to be taught something. We do NOT read to find out what the author has to say about the story at the end. We do not read to learn lessons about kindness, thoughtfulness, God, politics, or anything else.

We read to be entertained, and to experience something outside of our own daily lives — just as we do when we watch a movie or a TV show. And, we want to draw our own conclusions at the end of the story.

When the author provides a summary of the lesson to be learned from the story at the end, this is called author intrusion. You can read our article on author intrusion in our catalog of fiction writing tips.

So — please do not add a lesson or moral, or write a story or creative nonfiction piece for the purpose of instructing, teaching or preaching. Thank you!

Please be sure to use the appropriate tags:

• #fiction for fictional stories
• #creativenonfiction for non-fiction stories
• #inkwellprompt for all stories written for prompts in The Ink Well

This is important because a) it's not always easy to tell the difference between fiction and nonfiction (and readers consider its merit accordingly), and b) it makes it possible to search for those tags when we review stories for winning entries.

Remember to add your story link to a comment on the prompt post

If you are entering a story into one of our fiction or nonfiction contests, you must add a link to your story in the comments.

We try to catch all entries as we list the participants and winners, but it is extra work for us to find those who have not added their link to a comment on the prompt post and we do not always find them. If you miss this step, you may miss out on being considered for contest prizes.

Please follow these important image rules

We have three important rules around images:

1. All images must come from license-free or creative commons sites, such as Pixabay, Unsplash, Pexels, or Wikimedia Commons. Or they can be your own images. (You may not use images you find on Google, Pinterest or a website. Those are copyright protected.)
2. You must provide attribution for ALL images — even if they are your own.
3. For any image that is not your own, you must link to the image. For example, if you find an image on Pixabay, the source link you provide must be the URL of the page on which that image appears.

Winners from the February Contest!

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Thank you to everyone who participated in our February fiction contest, with stories and comments. As always, we received some great stories!

The contest rules involved writing one story in The Ink Well during the month of February inspired by the prompt Storm.

Winners!

Here are our three winners for the February, 2023 contest.

• We have selected @jhymi's story, Maybe She Should be Called Stormy as the prize winner! Congratulations! You will receive 10 Hive.

• In second place, we have selected @edystringz story, Anya, the Captain, and the Storm. Congratulations! You will receive 5 Hive.

• In third place, we have selected @kingsleyy's story: Battle of Rainmakers. Congratulations! You will receive 4 HBI.

Well done, @jhymi, @edystringz and @kingsleyy!

Honorable mentions:

• @fantom22: Fake Storm
• @wrestlingdesires: Donna's Journey

Thank you, all!

March Contest!

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Get ready to put your creativity to work! For March we will award a first place price of 10 Hive, second place of 5 Hive, and third place of 4 HBI for the monthly contest.

For the month of March, 2023, the fiction prompt is lock!

What can you do with this prompt? Here are a few ideas:

• Tell a story of someone who has been locked out of another person's heart.
• Write about a character who has an obsession with picking locks, even though he has plenty of money and does not need to steal from others.
• Tell a story of a locked gate. Who is on the other side, and why have they locked themselves behind a gate?
• Or write about a secret garden, locked away behind a garden wall.

Remember to include the important elements of good fiction, including character building, conflict, a story arc, and the important storytelling skill of integrating action, dialogue and narrative.

Contest Rules

• Write one story this month in The Ink Well inspired by the word "lock."

• Post a link to your story in a comment on this post.

• Use the #inkwellprompt and #fiction tags on your post.

At the end of the month, we will choose three winners.

Hint: We are looking for a high-quality story. Don't rush. Be sure to use the skills we highlight in our weekly fiction prompts — great settings, good character building, strong dialog (which is often missing from stories we receive), and a good story arc that resolves well in the end.

And finally, we recommend using our tips in the article Help for the Grammatically Challenged to identify errors in your story before posting.

Good luck!

Find Us on Discord

Our Discord server is a great place to chat with other community members about the craft of writing.

Please pop into our Welcome channel, read our guidelines for conduct, and then feel free to interact with other community members or ask The Ink Well Team a question in the #ask-theinkwell channel.

Discord invitation link: https://discord.gg/Bng7mMsaQj

Creative Inspiration and Skill Building

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In The Ink Well, we're not just about posting content and getting rewards. We are about building skills that help you earn the best possible rewards because your readers love to read your stuff!

We are here to nudge you to strive for greatness. You know how it feels when someone says, "Wow, just wow! I loved your story!" That's what it's all about. And the good news is that the rewards follow. If people love your work, they give you great upvotes. They seek you out. They want more of your creative content. And curation accounts like Curie, which we utilize and support, will give you the best possible upvotes too.

So what are you waiting for? Use our resources to build your skills and improve your writing. Here are some of the resources we provide:

1. Creative inspiration
   We encourage and support ideas and creativity by publishing a weekly fiction contest prompt on Monday nights, and a weekly creative nonfiction contest prompt on Saturdays. Additionally, we have a nearly inexhaustible list of ideas to spur your writing. And these resources are included in every weekly prompt for reference: 50 Loglines, 50 Story Ideas, and 50 Imagination Ticklers
2. Skill building opportunities
   We have a great catalog of fiction writing tips that can help any writer learn and grow. You can learn about characters, conflict, scene building, dialog and more. We hope you take advantage of it. And here are some important tips that can help you improve your writing craft:
   -- Draft your content in Google docs, or use Google docs for spell checking and syntax checking. It is very easy to do and it is explained in the post Help for the Grammatically Challenged.
   -- Make sure your story has the key elements of a story, including character development, scene setting, dialog, action, a conflict, and a resolution. (A story arc is especially important for fiction, of course.) We provide resources to help you with all of these important fiction elements in our catalog of fiction writing tips.
   -- Review your work before posting. You will most likely find a missing word, a grammatical error, a misspelling or a sentence that does not start with a capital letter, etc.

Thank you for reading our newsletter! We are here to encourage you and help you on your writing journey.

Delegate to The Ink Well / Follow Our Curation Trail

Want to support our community, our contests, and our rewards for great quality content? See the table below. We have made it super easy. Thank you, thank you, thank you! We have a goal to continue increasing the support we give to our wonderful, hardworking and dedicated authors!

How to Follow Our Curation Trail

You can follow our curation trail by going to our hive.vote curation trail page and clicking the follow button.

How to Delegate to The Ink Well

We welcome delegations! These support our community in many ways, including helping us to provide support to quality content creators through curation and contests.

50 HP	100 HP	500 HP	1000 HP	5000 HP
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A big thank you to all of our delegators:
@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.

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.

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