May 2022 News, Announcements and New 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:

• Weekly Prizes Continue!
• Winner from the April Earth Day Contest!
• May 2022 Contest!
• Our Discord Server is Open
• What's This New Rule About Posting Frequency?!
• Creative Inspiration

Weekly Prizes Continue!

Remember to watch our community each Monday night (Tuesday for everyone East of the U.S.) for a new writing prompt, which includes the contest of the week, and a specific writing skill, or important fiction element to make sure you include. At the end of the week, a winning entry is rewarded with 5 Hive.

Winner from the April Earth Day Contest!

Thank you to everyone who participated in our April contest, with stories and comments. You guys did great!

The contest rules involved writing at least one story this month in The Ink Well related to Earth Day, ecology, sustainability, or appreciation of nature.

Thank you to all participants:

@itsostylish, @jmis101, @mrenglish, @doubleworld, @rayt2, @idlemind, @kei2, @katleya and @popurri

Winner!

Several of these stories were truly wonderful, and of course it is always SO hard to choose. We have selected @popurri's story, South of the Orinoco as the prize winner!

Congratulations to @popurri! You will receive 5 Hive.

May Contest!

The month of May — at least in some parts of the world — is a month when gardens are in full color. So, let the garden be your muse this month for your entry to the May contest.

Here's how to participate:

• Write one story this month in The Ink Well inspired by gardens. Let's see how you can incorporate drama, character development, dialog and a story arc into a garden-themed story. Bring us garden gnomes, garden ghosts, gardening in space, garden statues that come to life in the night... or whatever your imagination conjures up.
• Post a link to your story in a comment on this post.

At the end of the month, the author who produces the best story will receive 5 Hive!

Hint: We are looking for a high-quality story. Don't rush. Use all of the skills we have been emphasizing in our weekly prompts — great settings, good character building, strong dialog, a good story arc that resolves well in the end, etc.

As a reminder, The Ink Well has some great resources in our catalog of fiction writing tips. For example, we have tips on developing characters in your stories, integrating action, dialog and narrative, and including the all important story arc.

Our Discord Server Is Open!

Last month we launched our public Discord server. It's 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.

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

What's This New Rule About Posting Frequency?!

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Our New Once-a-Week Posting Guideline

So, here's what happened. We got bombarded with stories. Somehow the word got out that The Ink Well likes to reward content, it brought the masses.

We had many new people with no interest in our community showing up to drop links. We had people publishing a story every single day. We also had spammers, plagiarists and other unsavory characters!

So we did some serious cleanup. We ousted the spammers and the plagiarists and reported them to Hivewatchers.

And to make sure that we have the resources to curate all the wonderful work that our true community members publish, we asked that members publish no more than one story weekly in The Ink Well.

What this means for you: Please use the once-a-week rule as a rough guideline. In other words, you do not need to wait a full 7 days to post again. If it's 5, 6, or 7 days, that's fine.

Refresher on The Ink Well Community Rules

We add this refresher to all of our monthly newsletters as a reminder.

If you're new, or you're not aware of our rules, please take the time to read them. If you are on a desktop or laptop computer, you can find them at the top of our community home page. You will also see them at the top of your post in The Ink Well if you hover over the blue "Rules" button. Can't see them? You can find the rules here.

The following are some of the rules that we commonly re-explain to unaware members:

• Do not post violent content. No stabbings, rapes, shootings, murders, brutality of women or children, etc. etc. And do not post anything NSFW (not safe for work). Why? Because we are a community that is open to anyone and everyone. And these topics and images are unpalatable or even traumatizing for some people (including The Ink Well admins). We also have no way of preventing children from viewing our community content. Please read our article on violence and brutality where we spell this out in very clear language.
• Please only post short stories in The Ink Well. That is the sole focus of our community. There are other communities for poetry, essays, freewriting, etc.
• Please do not post chapter stories or "multi-part" stories. The reason for this rule is so that readers do not need to have read a preceding or future piece in order to read and enjoy the current piece they are reading. Each piece must stand on its own, with a beginning, middle and end.
• We require images to be non-copyrighted (e.g. from sites like Pixabay, Pexels or Unsplash) and for your story to include a linked source for every image. If the images are your own, please be sure to make a note of it.
• Plagiarism and re-posting are not allowed. We only accept 100% unique, original content in The Ink Well. This is to ensure that The Ink Well community follows the highest standards for content, and that rewards go to those who have developed and shared their own creative work in the community.

Rules Support and Protect Our Community

The goals of The Ink Well are to foster creativity and growth, and to help writers develop their writing skills and earn an income for their work. We want The Ink Well to be a safe and welcoming place for writers and readers. As community admins, we are staunch defenders of truth, honesty, and creative integrity.

Be sure to check out The Ink Well Manifesto, if you have never done so. It provides the mission of The Ink Well, information about rewards and income, and more information on our policies.

Community Involvement

No community is a true community without involvement and engagement! We ask that you read and comment on at least two other writers' work each week, or two for each story you publish in The Ink Well.

And remember that the rewards for Hive posts are split between the writer and the curators! You are paid to read and support other writers, just as you are paid to publish. Your support of others also builds your following.

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 prompt. Watch for them in The Ink Well on Monday nights. 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, a conflict and a resolution. 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.

Thank you for reading our newsletter. And thank you for being a part of our community. We are here to encourage you and help you on your writing journey.

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:
@zeurich, @jayna, @felt.buzz, @marcybetancourt, @marlyncabrera, @stormcharmer, @generikat, @agmoore, @iamraincrystal, @preparedwombat, @gracielaacevedo, @chocolatescorpi, @kirlos, @semarekha, @adncabrera, @josemalavem, @morey-lezama, @sayury, @evagavilan2, @deraaa, and @rayt2.

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