The Ink Well Prompt #79 - 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 brilliant and the skill target was to create a memorable character. This community really came through with many amazing stories!

The prompt 'brilliant' brought to life some truly memorable characters. 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.

Honorables

• A particularly ordinary story about a unique and unforgettable character.@lordtimoty with the story

He winked at his own reflection in the mirror and spoke in a way which he imagined women might think was suggestive, ‘Hello, my name is Lionel. Yes, I would like you to buy me a drink’. He winked again at his reflection and he was struct by a fantastical thought: one day he would be sitting on his couch, and next to him, would be sitting his new lady friend. Driven by the fantasy, Lionel walked briskly from his wardrobe mirror to his front door, where he stood, breathed in and then breathed out. He was on the precipice of changing his world. But would the world take note of him?

• Why Is Everyone So Dull?@wrestlingdesires with the story

Following in silence, David felt something that he hadn't experienced in a long time - hope. "Maybe this is it? The best college on the East Coast must have at least one real scientist, someone who is still interested in new discoveries." he thought, his steps becoming quicker until he was beside Professor Clumitz.

• Being Brilliant Is not Enough@ricardo993 with the story

I got to know the people and their weaknesses. I learned that the second officer was still hurting from her father's death and was still in love with her ex-boyfriend, that the waiter was once a kitchen steward and his son had leukemia, and that the captain loved his wife very much until she died for Covid. Just like that, each person had something to talk about.

• The Golden Man@stellageorge with the story

A figure walked out of the light. A figure with four legs with golden hooves.
As the figure approached, she saw the figure divide in two. It was a horse and it's rider.

• The Reality of Rollie@abigail04 with the story

After three months, the room of education became her area of thought. She has gone far in her tailoring work but needed to fulfil her dream. She was not the same struggling student any longer but has made it so high to climb to the top of the ladder. She took the primary school final exam when she was 14. At this age, she was supposed to be in Junior Secondary School 3 or 4.

Third Place: Wins 2 HBI

• Revelation at the Caspian Sea@kemmyb with the story

He slowly turned to stare at her, his gleaming jade-green eyes brilliant against his olive skin. His hands gently stroked the water as he smiled hesitantly. Right before her eyes, tiny pale scales began to cover his skin as his eyes sparkled brighter. The tip of his ears grew pointy.

Second Place: Wins 3 HBI

• Oh Grow up, Thomas Fakland@restcity with the story

As fun as all this was, nothing lasts forever. Soon Thomas was in middle school, but he still got up and ran around sometimes, pretending he was in his own story world. When Aiden was playing basketball outside, Thomas would sit on the bleachers with a notebook and pencil, writing his stories to life.

And the winner of the brilliant/memorable characterDunes. Congratulations. You will receive 5 Hive! challenge is...@kei2 with her story

Azalea was almost obsessed with the great dunes. It was the biggest and most mysterious phenomenon she had ever seen in her entire life. She wanted to know more and decipher anything at all about the spectacle. It angered her so much why the people of her tribe, the Zordans didn't share her plight.

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

Stories From the Previous Week

@mcaspectacular @maryjacy @fantom22 @lordtimoty @mrenglish @kemmyb @famous01 @fashtioluwa @stellageorge @princess-dara @lightpen @bettyhandayani @mjvdc @emeka002 @gi-de-on @bornben @ezegburugburu @ricardo993 @fibre1 @restcity @popurri @dapomolaaaa @madamnaomi @rifedig @abigail04 @humor0404 @idlemind @khaleesii @kei2 @offia66 @diikaan @cool08 @yuki-nee @chincoculbert @treasure-joshua @merit.ahama @nelson-george @wrestlingdesires @iyimoga @deraaa @ipexito @amaponian

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 sinkhole. Sinkhole can be literal, as an opening in the ground, or it can be a metaphor, as in 'a bottomless pit of debt'. The word has been chosen to help writers meet this week's skill challenge: insert action into their stories.

Writing Tip #26: Action, Dialog and Narrative - The Dynamic Trio in the Inkwell's Catalog of Fiction Writing Tips. An excerpt from that essay:@jayna describes the role of action in her essay,

Writing too much action into your story is kind of hard to do. We want action. We want to see characters in movement. So more action is generally good.

and

Use action to bring scenes to life, and to show us how your character behaves and what is happening in the story. Things must happen, right before our eyes, for your story to be effective.

The Editor's Blog, online.Read @jayna's essay in its entirety to get a better idea of how to use action. Further discussion of this skill target may be found in

Here is a brief example of how to use sinkhole as a metaphor:

Unopened letters covered the scarred Formica tabletop. Each envelope was stamped overdue. His wife glared at him, then stormed out of the room. She was leaving. He plummeted into a sinkhole of despair as he realized that all was lost.

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
  Thank you for being a part of The Ink Well!

@jayna, @agmoore, @gracielaacevedo and @yaziris

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, a Hive community started by @raj808 and @stormlight24 and run by @jayna, @agmoore, @gracielaacevedo, @yaziris and @itsostylish.

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How to Delegate to The Ink Well

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

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