The Ink Well Fiction Prompt #135 - Plus Weekly Challenge and Prize Announcement

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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: Check out our monthly fiction contest for the month of September, 2023, ending September 30! And be sure to honor the countdown timer! 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: "reunion". And we encouraged authors to integrate all of the storytelling skills that make stories compelling and readable.

Stories From the Previous Week

Thank you to everyone who posted a story for last week's prompt!

• @princess-dara
• @marriot5464
• @george-dee
• @jjmusa2004
• @rammargarita
• @lenaspiritual
• @edystringz
• @seunruth
• @ricardo993
• @teknon
• @marynn
• @jhymi
• @kemmyb
• @lightpen
• @azss
• @kilvnrex
• @balikis95
• @lara-bee
• @rinconpoetico7
• @kingsleyy
• @cool08
• @nelson-george
• @hazmat
• @amiegeoffrey
• @clemenp
• @seki1
• @popurri
• @kei2
• @lizizoo
• @do777

Honorable Mentions

Our honorable mentions of the week are:

• @edystringz: Reunion
• @teknon: Reunion's Hope
• @kemmyb: Silver Linings
• @balikis95: Lydia's Heart
• @popurri The Quilt

The Winners!

All of these authors wrote fantastic fiction using the prompt, and did an excellent job with the storytelling skills we look for in the best-told stories!

Third Place: Wins 2 Hive

• @marynn, with the story Family Saga

Immediately, he stormed out, followed by Kenneth whose phone rang, and he left to answer it. Mena, burning with anger, hissed and walked out of the parlor, straight to her room. One by one, the invited guests began to leave, and invited family members covered their faces in shame and disappointment, each vowing never to accept a reunion invite from the Andrews' family.

At night, the family gathered for supper. With sad faces, everyone ate in silence. Mr. Andrew, on the other hand, understood that the silence wasn't due to table manners but rather regret for their embarrassing display in the afternoon.

Second Place: Wins 3 Hive

• @ricardo993, with the story The Ocean Plan

In a dark place where light doesn't reach, unimaginable beings gathered to discuss the latest important decisions regarding humans. These creatures produced their light, a sinister bioluminescence of reddish and greenish colors. There were three creatures whose appearance could frighten any human to death.

These figures could be described as enormous beings with tentacles, whose features were amorphous. The first one resembled a ram with a jellyfish, but only in shape, as it had no eyes but a huge mouth full of teeth. It had two enormous tentacles that it used as arms, which emitted light resembling bloodied arms. It had no legs, only countless suckers. The only solid parts of its body were the two long horns, as its body was composed of the same material as a jellyfish, giving it a ghostly appearance.

First Place: Wins 5 Hive

• @jhymi, with the story, Her Chance at Happiness

“He’s here, Trace,” Maxine called out in a whisper. I gave her that look that said that I wasn’t blind. I walked outside confidently, deciding not to let the fact that my heart was beating so fast, I could hear it or the fact that I was clearly about to throw up due to my worked-up nerves, show on my face.

And there he was, stepping out of the car, with poise and confidence. He had sunglasses on. And then he saw me, and halted, taking the sunglasses off his face. And that’s when I gasped and felt my resolve weaken. Mom had said rather offhandedly once that I was the spitting image of my Dad. And now I could see it. Eyes, nose, mouth, even the beauty spot that was at the exact place above my lips. It was like he gave birth to me himself

Congratulations to @jhyi, @ricardo993, and @marynn!

This Week’s Prompt

FIRST: A COUNTDOWN NOTE
Be sure to submit your entries before the countdown ends.

You must submit before the end of the countdown to be considered for the prizes and honorable mentions.

Please observe the timer below this post. If it's purple, and the COUNTDOWN time is in the future, you can submit and be eligible for prizes and honorable mentions.

If the countdown is gray, and the timer has expired, you can submit, but your story will not be eligible for prizes or honorable mentions.

When the timer expires, we get busy reviewing all the stories, and no further submissions are considered.

Prompt of the week!

WAIT! Did you read the information above about the countdown timer? Okay, proceed!

This week's prompt is: "I miss you."

What to do with this prompt?

We are looking for stories of missed loved ones and friends. Perhaps they moved on to other places or other opportunities. Or maybe they are temporarily away.

Bring us love stories, stories of lost loves, friends who have been separated, children missing a traveling parent... anyone who is missing someone!

There are many possibilities for the reunion prompt! Let's see where your imagination takes you!

Use Your Storytelling Skills

For many months we have asked our community members to focus on a skill each week, such as character development or dialogue. Going forward, we are looking for all of these skills as we identify winners and honorable mentions:

• 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.

To be eligible for prizes, you must write a story based on the prompt (be sure to use the prompt word(s) in your story), and demonstrate the fiction writing skills we have been encouraging everyone to practice. Be sure to turn to our catalog of fiction writing tips for guidance!

Ready, set go!

A week from now, we will select winning stories that demonstrate these qualities and utilize the prompt. Good luck! Be sure to read the contest rules and reminders below.

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:

• 50 Loglines
• 50 Story Ideas
• 50 Imagination Ticklers

Weekly Prompt Rules:

1. Deadline: You have SIX DAYS to write for the prompt, and you must submit your story before the end of the countdown to be considered for prizes and honorable mentions. You can find the countdown timer at the bottom of the prompt post on The Ink Well home page.
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 — as well as #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. But please do use the prompt word(s) within the story.
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 all image source links.
7. 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!
8. NEW — 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.)

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}

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