Creative Nonfiction in The Ink Well: Prompt #3

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Dear community,

Welcome to Prompt #3 in our creative nonfiction initiative. Thank you to everyone who contributed a nonfiction story last week! In case you missed the announcement about The Ink Well opening up to nonfiction stories, you can see it here.

We began the initiative as a trial. It's going well, and we are excited to continue! (And yes, we plan to update our rules soon to include non-fiction.)

Here's a quick overview of how it works:

Each week, we will provide a creative nonfiction prompt. You are also welcome to post other creative nonfiction pieces that are not based on the prompt. See the guidelines below.

In opening up our community to a broader range of content, we will take the stance that not every post will be curated. To be curated, your content should follow our guidelines, be at least 350 words, be written in English (or another language as well as the English translation) and — as much as possible — free of errors.

What Is Creative Nonfiction?

There are many guides and resources online for getting to know this wonderful genre. It is truly about storytelling. The simple difference between creative nonfiction and fictional work is that it is not made up.

We like this definition from an article on creativenonfiction.org:

Simply put: Creative nonfiction is true stories, well told.

With creative nonfiction, you are using the literary and storytelling tools of a fiction writer to craft stories from real life experiences. Set the scene. Give the details. Profile the characters. Give us the dialog, as best you can remember it.

Ideas and inspiration:

• Creative nonfiction stories can be snippets from your life autobiography — moments in time you want to capture in words, whether they were frightening, enlightening, bittersweet, or life-altering. They can be observations about life, about a time you connected at a profound level with a perfect stranger, or something you have learned along the way that made you a better person.

• Do you love podcasts? One of the greatest sources of creative nonfiction is The Moth Radio Hour. Listen to a few of the stories from The Moth, and we guarantee you will be inspired.

• Here are some additional resources for learning more about the creative nonfiction genre:
  -- Reedsy blog: What is Creative Nonfiction? The Unputdownable Truth
  -- Writers.com: Understanding Creating Nonfiction: What It Is and How to Write It

• Check out this list of creative nonfiction stories. For example, one of the stories is about a funeral for a lizard named Rango.

We hope you are inspired!

Guidelines for Creative Nonfiction Articles in The Ink Well

1. Write creative nonfiction stories about real life, memories, or experiences.
2. As with our fiction guidelines, we ask that articles be at least 350 words in length. Optimal length is 750-1500 words.
3. Please read and edit your content before posting. It makes a big difference in how we reward work published in The Ink Well. (And we have some great guidelines for improving your grammar and fixing errors before you post in this article.)
4. Please post directly in The Ink Well community, and post your link in a comment on this post.
5. Please use the tag #creativenonfiction on these posts.

Here are some examples of what we are looking for:

• Explore an idea that interests you, such as how childhood experiences shape us as adults.
• Write about the study of dreams and what they mean, along with your own experience.
• Tell about an experience from your life that profoundly changed you.
• Write about a teacher who inspired you to overcome obstacles.

In other words, tell a story from real life.

Here’s what we are NOT looking for:

• A picture of a flower or other posts focused on photography
• A few paragraphs about what you ate for lunch
• Recipes and how-to articles
• Essays about religion or politics
• Poetry

What will be muted:

• Spam posts or plagiarism
• Graphic violence
• Lectures or proselytizing about religion, politics or morality

Last Week's Creative Nonfiction Winners

Thank you to all who participated in last week's prompt: Food and Family!

• @buezor
• @tozill
• @cool08
• @volleyren20
• @itsostylish
• @diikaan
• @abigail04
• @kingsleyy
• @pjpavan
• @rammargarita
• @mrenglish
• @fantom22
• @jayna

Second Place: Wins 1000 Ecency Points

• Our second place winner is @diikaan, with his story, Reigniting with Mom's Food:

As I stepped into the house, mom was already furious with me as I was the closest to home but only came around on the evening before the occasion. I set out at once to fix the lightings to aid in cooking in a bid to soothe her anger. The night went smoothly with my siblings eventually trickling one after the other later in the night.

First Place: Wins 5 Hive

• Our first place winner is @buezor, with his story, Life in the Swamp - A tale of fish, crabs and eels:

Despite being a Nigerian from the south, I haven’t used the triangular fishing tool before but tales of it still fill my head, one such is the fishing of crabs both hairy and non-hairy of which my father was an expert.

He told me how they’d make the cone-like trap from strings of raffia palm and keep it just close to the muddy floor of the swamp.

Congratulations, @diikaan and @buezor!

The Ink Well Creative Nonfiction Writing Prompt #3: The Music in You

We are all shaped in one way or another by music, whether it is the songs our mothers sing to us in childhood, the singing voice we discover in the shower some foggy morning, or a musician that reached out and touched your soul and made you wake up to the power of music. Tell your story. Give us insight into the way music moves you, gives you joy, or helps you to connect with an otherwise dormant part of yourself. What is your music story?

Please use the tag #creativenonfiction on these posts.

Prizes!

• The top creative nonfiction story of the week will receive 5 Hive
• The second place story will receive 1,000 Ecency points

Deadline

You have a week, until the next prompt is posted, to post your creative nonfiction story in The Ink Well community.

See you in The Ink Well!

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, @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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