The Ink Well Prompt #61 - Plus Weekly Challenge and Prize Announcement

in The Ink Well3 years ago

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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 good stories that skillfully handled the challenge, create a character who is faced with desire in the face of danger. Resolving this essential conflict in the character gives tension to the story and helps to drive it forward. People keep reading. They want to learn how the conflict is resolved. Because this is such an important skill, we'd like to include a few examples as "honorable mentions":

At that moment, the smell of dew soaked wet grass emanating from the atmosphere was mesmerizing me. The nearness of Rita was another factor that was disturbing me, as I was not sure what was attracting me more, the smell of dried autumn leaves or the fragrance coming from Rita's lovely body.

Franklin nodded as his words were getting more interesting by the second, the cold drink sitting at the table now looking more inviting as he took another brief glance at it.
"You can still take the drink if you want, feel free" James smiled as he observed Franklin was eyeing the bottle of cold drink.
Franklin stretched his hands and picked up the cold drink on the table, he couldn't any longer resist as he nodded his head in response to the enticing words from James.

She looked at his face wondering if he didn't recognise her or perhaps he did but didn't want to show it. She battled with the desire to wrap the stethoscope around his neck and pull it so hard until he was breathless. Perhaps, during surgery would be the perfect time to rid the world of his kind.

Jeremy stared at Solace. He could be with her now but he would lose everything that mattered to him. He nodded. "Can I hug you at least?" They both laughed and held each other.

she felt overwhelmed as she imagined with a silly giddiness, that infatuation had stolen her sensibilities. But what of decorum? She had stopped listening to half of what he had said, in order to just be in the moment, losing herself in the hard wrinkles by his eyes.

And the winner of the challenge to create a character who is faced with desire in the face of danger is...@vincric, with his story, Fool's Treasure. The quality of writing was quite high in many of the stories, certainly in the honorable mentions. In the end, though, @vincric took the prize because of his surprising and very original take on the prompt. An excerpt from his story is posted below.

I debated, the eyes of the invaders were not good at seeing in the dark compared ours, they need those tools that carry fire. I can still move fast, my wound was actually light after I inspected it there was no serious harm, I only need to wash it and rest for a few days. But still the danger was still there I could lose my life! But this is one of the rare opportunities another might never come! But the treasure was so shiny and it glimmered beautifully, it was still tempting nonetheless.

Congratulations to @vincric, 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, Temptation

Here are the stories that were posted in response to that prompt. Be sure to read and support these authors for their work.

The Great Hatred by @temileke
Gamble With Death by @adaopara
Ighodaro Street by @philomenob
Temptation and Fantasy by @sonofremi
Her Ride or Die by @young-boss-karin
A Work in Progress by @blackalbino1
The Eye of Zeus /by @nelson-george
OBO - 30 Billion Gang by @ghost.queen
Fate beyond Faith by @hopestylist
Mom by @deraaa
Macy's World by @idlemind
Succumbing to Temptation by @khaleesii
Phobia by @chidubem26
Four Temptations of Hulk by @the-last-elf
The Trials and Temptations of Bayo by @kingkenny44
In Search of Mercedes by @popurri
Dangerous Choices by @abmakko
The Forbidden Love by @chincoculbert
My Testimony by @ddn688
Dictator Rectified by @katleya
Rita by @rayt2
Misguided Emotions by @hdprinter
Ms Greta Baumgarten's Mithridatum of Despair by @lordtimoty
Irresistible by @iyimoga
Mercy Fell on Me by @cool08
Guilty Yet Innocent by @preshtrump99
Subtle Beguilement by @buezor
Temptations by @victorkachi
Drug Temptations by @nasfyneboy92
When a Change is Needed by @jmis101
Outta Space by @daniella619
In the Woods by @dwixer
Friendship Apart by @idspecial17
Mr Casanova by @artworkers
Jello by @milezofplay
Flower of Barnabas by @ogochi
Temptation by @repayme4568
Letting Go by @zyzymena
Poor Wife by @fantom22
Irresistible Temptation by @princessbusayo
The Deeper Side of Temptation by @abigail04
A Poor Man Finds Favor by @smilejerry
Her Ride or Die by @young-boss-karin
The Thieving Mary by @mrenglish
Innocent Woman, Unfair World by @kingobonnaya
Strawberry and Chocolate Cake by @marbrym
Kleptomania Spirit by @youngelder
Rekt by @b0s
The Herd of the Forest by @theawesononso
George Succumbs to the Temptation by @emeka002
Royal Temptation by @camerafanatic
Confidence by @alovely
Defeated in Weakness by @yhuddee111
Fool's Treasure by @vincric
The Saving Grace by @modifiers
Jeremy's Dare by @kemmyb
Salvation by @kei2
Say the Word by @joalheal
The Hipster Detective by @diebitch
Apple Strudell by @gracielaacevedo
The Reward for Overcoming Temptation by @raymondpeter
Bulls-eye by @samsmith1971

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 Happiness. And your skill challenge for the week is the Writing Voice.

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

Happiness: We all know what happiness is, but our idea of happiness may change depending on circumstance. Winning a prize may make us happy, but if it's not first prize that may not be true. We can have happiness, or we can lose happiness. In your story, that is your choice. We can feel happiness, see happiness in others, or aspire to happiness. Your story, your choice.

Writing Voice: In her essay, What Is Writing Voice, @jayna describes how every story has a voice. The voice of a story told from the perspective of an elderly woman facing a terminal illness would be different from that of a young girl on her wedding day.

This week we would like you to adopt a voice. Try to be consistent, and tell us at the beginning or end of the story what that voice is.

Examples of using a voice with the prompt Happiness:

  • Elderly woman looks back on her life with sorrow because it seems happiness always eluded her, although it favored others.
  • Elderly woman looks back on her life with happiness because she feels she has lived fully and richly.
  • Young woman faces her wedding with dread. There are secrets she has never told anyone and she fears her new husband will not love her if he finds out.
  • Young woman looks forward to her wedding with joy because her mother and father have managed to attend, although she has not seen them for five years.

We have a great resource for you. Read the article What Is 'Writing Voice'? in our catalog of fiction writing tips to learn more.

A week from now, we will select a winning story that demonstrates a consistent writing voice. 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:

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:

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

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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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Congratulations @vincric and all the mentions. This weeks prompt sounds very inviting. I can't wait to read the amazing stories yet.

Thanks!😀

Your content has been voted as a part of Encouragement program. Keep up the good work!

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Delegate HP and earn more

Congratulations for the winner and all the mentions.

Congratulations to everyone who entered this prompt. Everyone is a winner first and then the overall winner.

No doubt, this week prompt is good enough to be venture and the task of Writing Voice is such a great idea.
Thanks to the community @theinkwell for always bringing prompts that pushes writes out from their shells.

Have a great time writing, you all.

Congratulations to all the winners for the last week prompt.

And this week's prompt is looking so interesting, I can't wait to read the entries of others and also put my own out there also.

All the best writers.

Hi, My story is not mentioned here

As stated in today's post:

Thank you to everyone who posted a story for last week's prompt, Temptation
Here are the stories that were posted in response to that prompt.

Did you write your story in response to the prompt and did you post a link to that story under the prompt post? The list was derived from the response to the post.

The list for this week's stories will be assembled in the same way. If you want your story included, link to the story under this post.

OK, thanks for your response. I didn't post mine under the post prompt. ❤

My story is not in the list, either.
I posted a link here a little after they cured me.
I wonder if we could also lose a place in the mentions.

I think they warned about the late posts having a risk of not appearing in that list. Post your link here but, also, try to avoid delaying it to the last day.

Greetings from Venezuela.

thanks for your good information and response to my comment. Much appreciated ❤️.

Hello @amaponian,
You are correct. That story came in just 15 hours ago and this post was published two hours later. Remember, please, it is humans who do the work. Humans need time.

If you are writing a story in response to this prompt (Happiness) please be sure to link it to this post or it will be overlooked. We will be collecting the list for next week's prompt post from the comments on this post.

Have fun writing!

It's nice being here...
My submission below:

https://peakd.com/@cool08/godfathers-secrets
I have commented on @merit.ahama @kirlos @mrenglish

This is my story for prompt "61"
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@fantom22/love-never-dies
I also commented on two other authors.

This is my entry for this week's prompt:

https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@piratethanos/the-ink-well-prompt-61

I commented on posts by @marbrym and @daniella619

Here's my entry for this week's prompt.
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@young-boss-karin/a-different-tale

I also commented on two other authors' posts.

Hello @theinkwell! Here's my story for this prompt--
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@kemmyb/the-special-bond-or-the

Comments--
-daniella619
-piratethanos

This is my entry

https://ecency.com/hive-170798/@justine619/please-forgive-me-but-don

I also visited and commented on @buezor and @davidbright work

My entry

https://ecency.com/hive-170798/@jmis101/the-ink-well-prompt-61

Commented on : @merit.ahama, @mrenglish, @cool08 , @modifiers and a couple of others.
I just love reading stories from other authors and interacting with them through comments.

Delighted to participate in this challenge. Here I leave my entry, I hope you like it:
https://ecency.com/hive-170798/@fragozar01/a-happy-moment-that-overcomes

I have supported the inputs of @justine619, @ddn688 and @daniella619

Happy to have joined this week! I thought my busy week would not allow for it, but I am here! I will of course be back to read lots of posts from fellow writers!

The Menu

Read the posts and wrote comments for:

@young-boss-karin
@kemmyb
@blackalbino1
@artworkers
@davidbright
@itsostylish

This is my entry to the prompt for this week

https://hive.blog/hive-170798/@kingkenny44/in-pursuit-of-happiness

I have commented on other authors posts @theinkwell.

Hey! Here is my entry:

The woman whom was Allergic to Kindness and all things Happy

A little different but ok.

Hello everyone! This is my first post and entry in this community:
https://ecency.com/hive-170798/@lazythoughts/on-the-couch
I know my story might be a little different, but I hope someone reads it. Thank you in advance.

I have left comments on @mrenglish's and @fantom22's posts.

https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@abdul-qudus/the-new-bicycle

Here is my entry to the prompt for the week.

Thanks so much for the opportunity.

Happy Easter y'all!

This is my entry https://ecency.com/hive-170798/@alovely/inkwell-61-good-karma-or

I engaged in the posts written by @itsostylish and @rayt2

Congratulations for the winner and all the mentions.
Here is my entry
https://hive.blog/hive-170798/@popurri/the-bird

Hello everyone, this is my entry to this week's prompt, thank you so much.
https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@khaleesii/a-chance-at-happiness

Also, congratulations to the winners, and I have engaged with other authors.

Here is my entry;

https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@theawesononso/family-and-true-happiness

I have engaged with the post of others as well.

Hello, my friends. I would like to share with you the link to my entry 👇
https://hive.blog/hive-170798/@raymondpeter/the-clever-raymond

I have dropped my comments on the following people posts:
@khaleesii
@kemmyb
I hope you enjoyed reading my post.
Thank you for viewing my blog.
Regards,
@raymondpeter

Hey guys, here's my entry link
https://ecency.com/hive-170798/@merrymay22/the-price-or-el-precio

I visited and commented on stories of @popurri and @wrestlingdesires

Hey guys, here's my entry for the weekly prompt.

https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@daveyjones7/undeterred-oror-the-inkwell-61-weekly-prompt

I read and made comments on the posts written by the following authors:

  1. @mrenglish
  2. @kirlos
  3. @daniella619

Congrats to all the winners!
https://ecency.com/hive-170798/@diebitch/for-sale-happiness
Engaged with kemmyb and lazythoughts

Congratulations to the winners. That was quite a list of entrants, I am glad I didn't have to decide the winner. Thanks for sharing.

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