The Ink Well Fiction Prompt #116 - 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 just peruse and enjoy the work of our community members.

Special Reminder: We will have a new monthly contest for the month of May, 2023, ending May 31! Stay tuned for the announcement. 10 Hive to the winner!

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Weekly Challenge and Prize Announcement

Time for the prize announcement and new challenge!

Last week's prompt was "phone call" and the skill challenge was character development.

Stories From the Previous Week

Thank you to everyone who posted a story for last week's prompt!

The Ink Well is fortunate to have many members who are rising talents! We would like everyone to think of these weekly prizes as a showcase of just a few of the very best stories, as well as an opportunity for our members to be inspired by reading some polished stories that demonstrate excellent storytelling skills.

• @arduilcelebren
• @kinganny
• @amiableamara
• @ricardo993
• @mrenglish
• @deraaa
• @pearlsuddy
• @wrestlingdesires
• @cool08
• @marynn
• @abigail04
• @rdsmas
• @rinconpoetico7
• @balikis95
• @smc.arike.oba
• @lenaspiritual
• @lightpen
• @princess-dara
• @kemmyb
• @emeka002
• @jjmusa2004
• @marriot5464
• @universoperdido
• @aloysiusmbaba
• @kei2
• @george-dee
• @jhymi
• @dianelson
• @amiegeoffrey
• @hazmat
• @lara-bee
• @marilour
• @rammargarita
• @kingsleyy
• @diikaan
• @vivaebony
• @mhizrutty

Honorable Mentions
Our honorable mentions of the week are:

• How the Tables Have Turned@arduilcelebren:
• The Call@rinconpoetico7:
• It's Been Five years@smc.arike.oba:
• Before Leaving@marilour:
• Cut Your Coat@diikaan:
• Andrea's Dilemma@vivaebony:
• It All Started with a Phone Call@lara-bee:

Third Place: Wins 2 Hive

• The Boredom of the Mortals@ricardo993, with the story

The worst thing about training the next immortal of the century was that I couldn't charm them.

"Why did you call, Dayana?" I said.

Dayana was a girl that anyone would see and fall in love with instantly. She was careful, attentive, very methodical, and too demanding of herself. She had the qualities to be immortal, but she talked too much.

Second Place: Wins 3 Hive

• Yokmi@deraaa, with the story

Papers are strewn all over my desk situated to face the window. I love the illusion of writing to the sun or serenading the moon with dancing words. In my mind, my words dance and that's because I want them to.

Taking the papers one by one, I sort out three different works written by yours truly. One is poetry, one is fiction and the other is...borderline chaotic. I have no idea what it is. It's unfinished but the words dance back at me. Like Alice in wonderland, I'm in awe of the strangeness of it all.

First Place: Wins 5 Hive

• The Realm Between@kei2 with the story

Anaya was born and raised in Kau but it never felt like home to her. She seldom had any friends. She would only walk the street at night and during the daytime, she'd almost get lost in the walls while outside. She learned to create a world of her own with the books she read and the images she conjured in her head. Her mother was her only solace and when the woman passed, Anaya was devastated. She felt like there was nothing left for her in Kau. She decided to go someplace, tour the world, and find a little closure. However, all that trip around the globe didn't do much to cushion her feelings. Anaya still felt alone. She felt like an outsider in a world full of people that looked like her.

Congratulations to @kei2, @deraaa and @ricardo993!

But WAIT! There's more! Cheers to our distinguished authors!

Each week The Ink Well admin team struggles with "the best problem" — we have more wonderful stories than we can possibly reward with prizes! We certainly do not want to award prizes to the same talented writers each week, because we want as many authors as possible who are writing high-quality fiction to have a chance to win the first, second and third place prizes and receive honorable mentions.

And so, in addition to our winners of the week and our honorable mentions, we'd like to congratulate two authors who have consistently shared stories that WOW us with their stunning writing. Shout out to:

• Ignotophobia@universoperdido: Be sure to read his beautiful story,
• Is Alice Pregnant@kemmyb: Be sure to read her excellent story,

Note: We have not decided yet if this will be a regular feature of our prompt post. But we wanted to give some applause to these talented writers, while also ensuring other writers have the chance to win those top prizes!

Okay, let's launch the new prompt!

This Week’s Prompt

COUNTDOWN NOTE: Be sure to submit your entries before the countdown ends. If you submit your story late, we will still include you in the list of that week's authors, but you must submit before the end of the countdown to be considered for the prizes and honorable mentions.

Prompt of the week!

This week's prompt is "date." Our skill challenge is dialogue.

What to do with this prompt?

So many possibilities! A "date" can be a night out with a love interest, of course. But it can also be a special calendar appointment or a date on the calendar that is particularly meaningful. (It can also be a piece of dried fruit!)

Don't forget good dialogue! The things your characters say to one another in the course of your story can tell us a lot about them. For example, a really nervous character might say five short sentences really fast and then look down in embarrassment. An unhappy character might say something like, "Well, what does it matter whether I go to the party or not? No one will notice me anyway." Read the article about writing dialogue to get inspired and be sure to get your characters talking!

Ready, set go!

A week from now, we will select winning stories that demonstrate the skills and utilize the prompt. Of course, we will also be looking for overall quality in the winning stories. Good luck! Be sure to read the contest rules below.

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 SIX DAYS to write for the prompt, and you must submit your story before the end of the countdown to be considered for prizes and honorable mentions. You can find the countdown timer at the bottom of the prompt post on The Ink Well home page.
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 — as well as #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(s).
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 all image source links.
7. Length: We request that story word counts are a maximum of 1,500 words in 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!

Reminders: Be sure to also read our community rules. As always, please avoid violent, gory, bloody, brutal, sexist or racist themes and language, NSFW (not safe for work) stories like erotica, stories with a political or religious agenda, and stories featuring abuse of any kind. (We have a complete article about The Ink Well stance on violence and brutality for more information.)

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; #89 Light; #90 Spirit; #91 Fire; #92 Tend/Tender; #93 Cheer; #94 Appearance; #95 Ambition; #96 Trust; #97 Fly; #98 Comfort; #99 Fate; #100 To Create; #101 Vision; #102 Sympathy; #103 A Special Time; #104 Suspense; #105 Bride, stairs, illusion; #106 Reality TV; #107 Things the Go Bump in the Night; #108 First line: Two strange things happened that day; #109 What if that loose floorboard was actually a hidden passageway?; #110 Footsteps; #111 Mess; #112 Cards; #113 Elephant; #114 Crystal; #115 Phone call}

Thank you for being a part of The Ink Well!
@jayna, @gracielaacevedo, @yaziris, @itsostylish, @millycf1976 and @grindan

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