The Ink Well Prompt #100 - 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 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.

Special Reminder: In addition to the weekly fiction challenge we offer a monthly challenge. Check out January's Prompt Post. 10 Hive to the winner!

Important FAQs about The Ink Well!

What Is The Ink Well All About?
The Ink Well is a creative writing community. Here are answers to some Frequently Asked Questions about The Ink Well.

• No novels, chapter stories or multi-part stories
• No poems
• No introduction posts
• No memes

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.

Important tips!

• Among the factors we look at is quality of engagement with others in the community
• Please make sure your story is clearly inspired by the prompt.
• Remember to link your story to the prompt post.

Weekly Challenge and Prize Announcement

Time for the prize announcement and new challenge!

Last week's prompt was Fate and the skill challenge was to create a strong story arc. This community really came through with surprising, amazing stories!

Many of our writers created original, memorable stories in response to the prompt. Our selections of this week's winners and honorable mentions reflect how well writers dealt with this prompt and skill challenge.

Update! We are excited to share that in addition to our first place winner, we are awarding a second and third place. We also will be selecting honorable mentions. For second and third place we are awarding Hive Basic Income (HBI). The third place winner receives 2 HBI and the second place winner receives 3 HBI.

Here are this week's honorable mentions, all of them writing in response to the prompt and skill challenge.

Honorable Mentions

• @popurri with the story Route 32

Maritza tries to look for the person with her eyes, but does not see her. She is lost in the crowd. Maybe it doesn't matter, she thinks as she hurriedly eats her ham and cheese sandwich with mayonnaise and a lettuce leaf that her mother has prepared for her.

• @atomz with the story Fated to Love You

He had been sitting in his studio, working on a portrait of a woman who had recently passed away. Asger had been planning to paint her face white and give her transparent wings. He had taken several photographs of her before starting work on the painting, but they hadn't given him enough information. Her features had remained indistinct.

• @kei2 with the story The Missing Link

Before the mysterious human plague a few decades ago, humans and simians had been cohabiting in harmony and respect for one another. Then the plague hit earth affecting only the human race. It devasted the human population leaving only children as survivors.

• @lazythoughts with the story Livi

When he reached the end of the tree line, he rested for a bit and walked as carefully as he could. In that way, he believed he would at least save himself from being attacked by animals he might come across.

• @iskawrites with the story The Right to Rule Andor and Rescue the Forsaken

Nynaeve took a seat near the head of one of the tables, where a woman who looked to be no older than twenty-five sat waiting. Her hair was pulled back into a tight bun, and she wore an expression of boredom. Nynaeve wondered if she had ever smiled or laughed. She would have bet good money that she hadn't.

Third Place: Wins 2 HBI

• @lrscarmen with the story A Real Challenge

He heard a sound like the one his parents made when they jumped in the undergrowth, tach, tach, tach, tach, tach. He jumped towards them with the hope of finding them but it was a drop of water that filtered between the rocks.

Second Place: Wins 3 HBI

• @diebitch with the story Hate for Fate

Ah people! Alia loved to hate them. The airplane had an abundance of humans moving about as if they had purchased the airline.

And the winner of the Comfort/create a descriptive character challenge is...@universoperdido with the story The Siren. Congratulations, @universoperdido. You will receive 5 Hive!

My eyelids won't let me demand rest, but my heart doesn't slow down; it's still as young as those days when I faced the fury of the high seas. Neptune and one of his daughters drove me mad, but I'm not ready to faint yet.

Okay, let's review fiction entries from last week's prompt and launch a new one.

Stories From the Previous Week

@marriot5464
@arduilcelebren
@marynn
@tere.alv
@fantom22
@treasuree
@loveah
@stellageorge
@mrenglish
@lrscarmen
@abdul-qudus
@atomz
@jetta.amaya
@deraaa
@kei2
@iskawrites
@universoperdido
@elentiyaroberts
@maam.sammy
@kemmyb
@merit.ahama
@chacald.dcymt
@itsostylish
@bahnhoft
@gabrieladifazio
@popurri
@amiegeoffrey
@lydiapauline
@lightpen
@balikis95
@aly.squid
@george-dee
@idlemind
@lazythoughts
@rammargarita
@diebitch
@abigail04
@cool08
@popurri

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

This Week’s Prompt

The Ink Well is fortunate to have many members who are eager to write. It would be wise to use talent on the best story you can write so you can receive the optimal curation. Remember, Quality over Quantity.

Please Note: The Inkwell curators read many creative submissions each week. Ideally, we would comment and curate each piece. However, there are physical limitations, which include time. It may be the case that stories are submitted and are not curated. We do try to curate every piece but that may not happen.

At last, the prompt of the week!
This week's prompt is To Create. Our skill challenge will be to work on the setting of your story. @jayna has written a great essay about story settings in the Catalog of Fiction Writing Tips.

**When you write for the prompt, you don't have to use the exact word. Derive inspiration from it. To Create has many applications. Use your imagination and come up with a original interpretation of this prompt.

Here are some ideas about how to use the prompt, To Create. You can probably come up with much more interesting ideas of your own.

1. Alice wondered if the Big Bang Theory explained Creation for her, or if she needed to look for a less scientific explanation.
2. Many people ask if creativity is inborn or if it can be taught.
3. To create means to make something new. Do artifacts made by AI qualify?
4. The child demonstrated great creativity in her writing.
5. Matthew was a creative child, even when it came to explaining why he had done something wrong.
6. Andrea felt most at home when she was among other creatives.
7. The marketing director encouraged his staff to come up with a new way of selling toothpaste.
8. Research shows that engaging in creative activities increases the neuroplasticity of the brain.
9. A work of art begins with inspiration. After that, it is all work and skill.
10. Brenda's boss glared at her. "You need to come up with original ideas, or you will not have a job," he warned.

A week from now, we will select a winning story that demonstrates this skill and utilizes the prompt. 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:

• 50 Loglines
• 50 Story Ideas
• 50 Imagination Ticklers

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:

• #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

Thank you for being a part of The Ink Well!
@jayna, @agmoore, @gracielaacevedo, @yaziris and @itsostylish

Interested in joining our community? Start by joining Hive!

Join here at Hive Onboard

Already a Hive member? Click Subscribe at the top of The Ink Well community home page.

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We invite lovers of creative writing to visit The Ink Well, a Hive community started by @raj808 and @stormlight24 and run by @jayna, @agmoore, @gracielaacevedo, @yaziris and @itsostylish.

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.

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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, @stuartcturnbull, @itsostylish, @josemalavem, @morey-lezama, @evagavilan2, @popurri, and @mrenglish.

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