The Ink Well Prompt #83 - 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.

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 wishbone and the skill target was 'create a strong hook'. This community really came through with many surprising, amazing stories!

Many of our writers created original, memorable stories in response to 'wishbone'. 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, in addition to a few 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 written in response to the prompt and skill challenge.

Honorable Mentions

• @kei2 with her story The Heir

The priest came forth. He was handed a crown by my father. I stepped forward feeling exquisite in front of everyone. However, there was an uneasy feeling inside of me. Carefully, the priest tried to place the crown on my head but it fell off. Everyone exclaimed with eyes wide open. It was taboo for the crown to fall off the head of a royal. He tried three more times but the crown would not stay on my head

• @lordtimoty with the story When Flirtations End in Death

In response to her action, Lucas moved his hands to his forehead, allowing his fringe to drape through his fingers. He was planning something quite ominous which would seek to annihilate. He looked up, meeting her eyes and said one word, ‘QUAKE’, and it made her bottom lip tremble. She looked at the space between them, and then back into his eyes.

• @cool08 with the story A Wish Come True

After fifteen years, he was about to write a scholarship exam since he was seen as one of the best in his class. He had heard that when someone makes a wish in his or her parent's grave, such a person would be successful no matter what. Meanwhile, his parents who came in the form of spirit had told him when he fainted to always visit their graves whenever he is about to take a difficult step. They told him to make any form of a wish and it shall be granted.

• @mineopoly with the story Win a Magic Wishbone

Inside the supermarket it seemed like the items on the shelves were calling his name until he ended up in the chocolate isle. He didn’t want to be there. But he was surrounded by chocolate bars. One of the chocolate bars called out:
“Jimmy. I’m just a fraction of your allowance. After buying me you will still have four fifths of your money left.”
This chocolate bar seemed to be speaking a convincing argument.

• @kemmyb with the story Dinner at the Springs Prime

He wished he could give her the world but things never seem to work out the way he wanted. He shook his head in sadness and trudged to the supermarket where they'd both agreed to meet and buy some vegetables.

Third Place: Wins 2 HBI

• @grindan with the story Battered Bones, the Case of a Celestial Desk Worker

A twitch in his temple offset his ability to stay calm at all, as he tried to focus on how to file this new monstrosity. Suddenly feeling far too hot, he fled the office in a wave of agitation, kicking a garbage can that was within the walkway. He was completely unaware of the looks of shock from his coworkers, who had never seen him be anything less than pleasant.

Second Place: Wins 3 HBI

• @warpedpoetic with the story One Night, On the Lake; a Ritual

Chidera begins a speech. She has always loved to be the centre, not the head or the tail. She told me once, that the middle is the safest place to be. She read it in some archaic book by an ancient general, no one remembers.

And the winner of the wishbone/create a hook challenge is... @idlemind with the story A Bone's Wish. Congratulations, @idlemend. You will receive 5 Hive!

My phalanges moved from the pinky to the index fingers as I tapped the glass table. My mandible rested on my other hand while I wait for my sentence to be read.

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

Stories From the Previous Week

@mrenglish
@fantom22
@emeka002
@lightpen
@gi-de-on
@marynn
@zeraton
@talon12
@wrestlingdesires
@drstrings
@madamnaomi
@lordtimoty
@popurri
@merit.ahama
@bornben
@grindan
@greatguy083
@diikaan
@buezor
@cool08
@george-dee
@temileke
@nelson-george
@idlemind
@kei2
@mcaspectacular
@khaleesii
@kemmyb
@treasure-joshua
@abigail04
@iyimoga
@chincoculbert
@raymondpeter
@itsostylish

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. However, the curation team does not have infinite resources. In order to be fair to all writers, we have decided to ask our members to publish only one story per week. If members choose to publish more than that, they may. However, only one story will be curated.

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. Moving forward the Ink Well Team believes this will provide a better experience for writers and curators.

At last, the prompt of the week!
This week's prompt is chatterbox (chatter, box and chatterbox). As is often true, the prompt is a gift to writers because of the many possible applications. There are three words in this one prompt: chatter, box, and chatterbox. You may use one of the words, two of the words, or all three of the words for your inspiration. Have fun. Surprise us.

The list of ideas for this prompt may be very long, but here are a few to help you get started:

1. Vivid signs of fall were all around, but the most striking for Emily was the chattering of geese overhead as they migrated south.
2. Edward knew he had to quit because his work cubicle had begun to feel like a box to him, as though he was locked every day in a coffin.
3. Kindergarten children were a delight to teach, but Stephen wished they were not such irrepressible chatterboxes.
4. She could no longer resist the unopened box that had been sitting in her living room all afternoon.
5. Jose's teeth chattered as he waited in the cold drizzle for the morning bus.
6. His back pained him, but there were so many boxes left to carry that he had to grit his teeth and press on.
7. To Johanna, the pillbox style hat was an absurd design concept.
8. Igmar was at his wit's end after sitting next to a chatterbox for the ten-hour train ride.
9. He looked at the program schedule to see if there were any interesting shows on the box that night.
10. Gertrude had researched dog breeds and decided that a Boxer was the best for her family.

These examples for the prompt are only suggestions. You can use one of these as a take-off point, or use your imagination and come up with a unique idea.

The skill challenge should go nicely with the prompt: writing character descriptions. This part of story writing can be a lot of fun. Think of someone colorful, someone interesting, and describe that person. @jayna offers advice about writing character descriptions in her essay on the subject in the Inkwell Catalog of Fiction Writing Techniques. Here is an excerpt from the essay:

It’s important to take care in describing the appearance of your main character. Why? Because what the reader sees is what the character sees, and the character does not see himself or herself.

and

It is also possible for characters to describe themselves, such as their own physical or emotional states or how they believe they are perceived by others. But it must be done thoughtfully, without stepping out of the character’s perspective, whether it’s told in first person or third person POV..

For further information on this topic, read @jayna's essay in its entirety. You can also refer to an online essay, How Do You Write Good Character Descriptions: 5 Techniques, for an expanded explanation.

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

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

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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, @zeurich, @felt.buzz, @marcybetancourt, @marlyncabrera, @stormcharmer, @generikat, @agmoore, @iamraincrystal, @preparedwombat, @gracielaacevedo, @chocolatescorpi, @kirlos, @josemalavem, @morey-lezama, @sayury, @evagavilan2 and @popurri.

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