The Ink Well Prompt #54 - 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.

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 enticing story "hooks"! This is a great skill to develop. The opening of your story should grab attention so people want to keep reading. Because this is such an important skill, we'd like to include a few good hook examples as "honorable mentions":

• @joalheal: The human mind is that space of fascination which may be light or total darkness. It is an unfathomable sea whose mysteries we prefer to ignore, perhaps for fear of getting lost in them.
• @idlemind: My last memory as a human was a glimpse of two flickering headlights, and two different voices asking each other, “Will she make it?”
• @itsostylish: “...and it’s deadly poisonous and so very common.”
• @iyimoga: What do we do in a case like this?
• @deeanndmathews: Thomas Stepforth Sr. woke up in a cold sweat, every vein on his bronze face and neck standing out, his heart rate pounding to the point that it recalled the heart trouble of previous years and reminded him that, at 66, he would not live forever and the time might be nearer than he thought.

And the winner of the story hook challenge is... @diebitch, with her story Ex-it Strategy. Here's an excerpt from the story:

I was standing in the middle of a baseball field waiting to propose marriage to my ex-boyfriend.

Like a deer caught in headlights.

Thousands of expectant eyes looked on as I stood in my oversized jersey with a hole that I was currently hiding by tucking it in my armpit.

These opening lines beckon us into the world the author has created for us. We need to know why she's the one proposing. And why on a baseball field? Be sure to read the story, because it is has some great surprises!

Congratulations to @diebitch, 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, “Headlights."

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

• Ex-it Strategy, by @diebitch
• Customer and Barber, by @ricardo993
• My Dear (Plus One) in the Headlights, by @deeanndmathews
• Are You Alright, Honey?, by @mosin-nagant
• Fate, by @myztiqakusuk
• He Could Not Believe His Eyes What He Saw In The Headlights of The Bus, by @rayt2
• In the Headlights, by @itsostylish
• Narrow Escape, by @ozohu
• Cave of Mysteries, by @cool08
• Starved, by @kennysplash
• A Cloudy Fall, by @piratethanos
• The Blackout, by @princessbusayo
• Bright Lights, by @kingobonnaya
• The Haunting at Mable Road, by @zeraton
• The End, by @fantom22
• The Eyes That See Ahead, by @iyimoga
• The Deal, by @jerryzikko
• Blinding Lights, by @khaleesii
• Headlights on the Ceiling, by @agmoore
• The Cross-Road, by @kirlos
• The End, by @fantom22
• Flash Romance, by @mrenglish
• Findlife: Just One Night!, by @deraaa
• Sir Lawrence's Last Voyage, by @katleya
• Billy the Dancing Ghost, by @emeka002
• Letting Him Go, by @restcity
• Phone Call, by @b0s
• 16 Minutes in Suburbia - With a Serial Killer on the Loose, by @lordtimoty
• I'll Ask Them, by @idlemind
• Tank Michael, Son of the Beast, by @sonofremi
• In 1999, by @dwixer
• Shoe, Mood, Adventure, by @raymondpeter
• Another Life, by @abmakko
• The Last Thought of Jimmy Joe, by @chocolatescorpi
• Tired, But Not Retired, by @wrestlingdesires
• Joy Was Lost, by @farahikram
• Deja Vu, by @joalheal
• Silent Night: An Encounter with the Unknown, by @yuki-nee
• Marriage of Greed, by @milezofplay
• Pharos, by @gracielaacevedo
• Dungeons and Turrets, by @jayna
• The Phishing Call, by @merit.ahama

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 Tomorrow. And your skill challenge for the week is the story arc.

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

Tomorrow: This is a word that conjures up anticipation. Perhaps tomorrow something good will happen. Or maybe your character has been warned of something that will happen tomorrow. Or your main character is up against an impossible deadline.

Story arc: A story arc is an important element of a successful story. It simply means that your story should build suspense and then come to a good resolution. Good stories have conflict, and this is what helps you build your suspense.

For example:

• Some relatives have announced they are coming to visit tomorrow, but the house is a mess.
• A family is preparing to leave on the trip of a lifetime tomorrow, but one of the children falls ill.
• The traveler must get to the next town by tomorrow to deliver some news, but his car has broken down.

We have a great resource for you. Read the article What Is a Story Arc? in our catalog of fiction writing tips to learn more about the art of a story arc and why it's so important.

A week from now, we will select a winning story that includes a great story arc. 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

Thank you for being a part of The Ink Well!

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

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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