The Ink Well Prompt #89 - Plus Weekly Challenge and Prize Announcement

_{Yuri_B on Pixabay}

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!

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 Hunger and the skill challenge was to add conflict to your story. 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, 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

• @wrestlingdesires with the story The Hunter of Gharven Cemetery

A strong gust of wind suddenly blew, chilling Tammy. "Oh, my. I hope Jonathan gets here soon. Why did he choose such a spooky place to meet? I know we've taken many a sunlit stroll here, but there are more romantic spots than Gharven Cemetery for a Halloween date," she thought.

• @seki1 with his story Hunger for Hunger

With a look at his shadow he realized there is no hope for him. Although he hungers for Molly, he realizes that he can't ever be hungry in his house. As he lies down to sleep, his heart is heavy at the loss, but his stomach is thinking of the menu of tomorrow.

• @radenkusumo666 with the story Budi the Scavenger of Used Bottles

But the two scavengers were silent and looked at Budi cynically. When they passed each other, the two of them suddenly attacked Budi. Both of them are 18 years old, and their bodies are twice as big as Budi's. Of course, Budi was powerless against these two people.

• @abigail04 with the story Hunger Moment

The doctor after the long therapy session, made her know he was in no power to help her and referred her to another psychiatric hospital. She curtsied with a smile as she received the complimentary card.

• @madamnaomi with the story Pasta for Dinner

The sight was quite an interesting one. Mark was struggling to drink water from the sink tap while his face looked all red and tears were rolling from his eyes.

Third Place: Wins 2 HBI

• @stuartcturnbull with the story Meeting Mrs. Marmeyer

And journalism sent me, thirty-five years later, to Syria. After seven weeks in Aleppo, there were stories I couldn't write with the constant whoosh of rockets and rattle of gunfire. I decamped to Beirut, appreciating the irony of escaping the civil war to a place which still showed the bullets holes of its own.

Second Place: Wins 3 HBI

• @tozill with the story Terrified Me

"What must have happened to Mary?" I asked myself. I stood near a tree and cried so hard. I wished I had never starved myself in the first place or even gone to the kitchen to steal food from the pot. I had never been away from home and it scared me so. I had to hide at the back of a tree to protect myself even though I knew that was not also safe.

And the winner of the Hunger/provide conflict challenge is...@kei2 with the story Like Stars in the Sky . Congratulations, @kei2. You will receive 5 Hive!

Amina steadied her gaze. She watched the brighter star receive a hit that shot it with the speed of light straight from the sky to the bushes. Amina's eyes widened. She was petrified for a moment. She stood contemplating what to do next. “Should I call baba? No! He would not believe it”.

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

Stories From the Previous Week

@pjpaven
@mrenglish
@tozill
@billionz
@balikis95
@cool08
@drstrings
@wrestlingdesires
@kei2
@seeger
@chincoculbert
@adhyaksaardaus
@fantom22
@seki1
@lightpen
@khaleesii
@innfauno12
@aloysiusmbaba
@merit.ahama
@raymondpeter
@iyimoga
@diikaan
@madamnaomi

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.

At last, the prompt of the week!
This week's prompt is Light. Our skill challenge will be to create a vivid story setting. You will find a discussion about the story settings in role of conflict in @jayna's essay, What is Your Story Setting.

In writing for the prompt, you don't have to use the exact word of the prompt. Derive inspiration from it, and let your imagination go to work.

Here are some ideas to help get you started on your story.

1. Mary discovered the basket was lighter than it should have been.
2. Light is essential to promote many forms of life.
3. Axel tried to light the way in the tunnel.
4. The matron brought light into the lives of the orphans.
5. As the sun rose, the brilliance of its glow stunned the young girl.
6. Harold grabbed the matches from the table and lit a fire under the barbecue.
7. Andrea was awestruck as she watched the butterfly light on her hand.
8. Alfred put on a party record to lighten the mood in the room.
9. She woke up from the operation and noticed first the bright lights.
10. Jacqueline's eyes lit up when she saw the Shetland pony.

These are just some ways in which the prompt might inspire a story. You can probably come up with much more interesting ideas of your own.

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

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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.

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A big thank you to all of our delegators:
@jayna, @zeurich, @felt.buzz, @marcybetancourt, @agmoore, @marlyncabrera, @stormcharmer, @generikat, @iamraincrystal, @preparedwombat, @gracielaacevedo, @chocolatescorpi, @seeger, @itsostylish, @josemalavem, @morey-lezama, @sayury, @evagavilan2 and @popurri.

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