The Ink Well Prompt #93 - Plus Weekly Challenge and Prize Announcement

_{Jill Wellington 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 Tend/Tender and the skill challenge was to add action 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

• @loveah with the story The Truth About the Tend Book Series

Andrew was a man of great personal charm. He had the gift of making people feel comfortable and at ease in his company, but he also knew how to make them uncomfortable if they didn't do as he asked or failed to please him. That made him an excellent salesperson; he could get away with anything because he always left the customer feeling like a star

• @sofs-su with the story Dedication

After a hot bath Amy relaxed in her huge chair stuffed with cushions in pink and purple hues. She sank into the chair like a baby into her mother's bosom, secure and comfortable. Her dog Alpha sat at her feet licking her toes every now and then with his soft little tongue. She drew a deep breath, Alpha cocked his ears tilting his head from side to side looking intently into her face as if to ask, 'who is troubling you now?' Amy laughed a tinkling little laugh and said, "Don't you worry boy, I can handle this myself."

• @arduilcelebren with the story Living Forever in the Flower

"All the flowers here have a piece of my son in them. Earth takes and earth gives. Don't forget this. I take care of each one as if it were my own child, but some of them wither when winter comes. Some of them die. Just like my son...

• @riverflows with the story Tender Are the Ghosts

She winces a little with the memory of it, and the hairs stand erect on the back of her neck as if his wet fingers brush her there. A drowned man, still under the river, like so many of them. Back then what was left of state services were failing, and they had all had begun to realise there was so little help to be had.

• @lightpen with the story In Need of Love

Ever since then, the octogenarian was left on his own by his son, other family members and the entire villagers. His suffering began.
The years spent by Asuku in the city had disabused his mind regarding the archaic unfounded belief of the village. He tried as much as he could to explain to them that such accusations can't be proven.

Third Place: Wins 2 HBI

• @bornben with the story Fierce Love

I left the room quietly, closing the door behind me to calm myself before I went out there and did something that would get me in trouble for the rest of my life.

Second Place: Wins 3 HBI

• @zeraton with the story Escape From Planet Oblivion: A Short Captivating Sci-Fi fiction

The sky was no longer a series of fissures, but an all-encompassing glow. The scent of starvation, of trauma, of abandon... Ritz breathed it in, and willed it away. Her only duty was to tend the herd, to continue the practice... The wisdom of nature must be protected.

And the winner of the Tend,Tender/Add action to the story challenge is...@fragozar01 with the story Scarlett's Space Adventure. Congratulations, @fragozar01. You will receive 5 Hive!

Scarlett was treated as a heroine since if she had not been inside the cabin, the capsule's systems could not have been manually reactivated, which would have led to its inevitable fall and subsequent destruction. Although the trend in space travel is toward greater autonomy of spacecraft and control systems, with little or no human intervention, Scarlett's experience has served to demonstrate that anything can go wrong when it comes to space travel.

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

Stories From the Previous Week

@kemmyb
@mrenglish
@khaleesii
@restcity
@lydiapauline
@nichebezarius
@fantom22
@riverflows
@erh.germany
@edystringz
@wrestlingdesires
@merit.ahama
@arduilcelebren
@nelson-george
@treasure-joshua
@fantom22
@tozill
@cool08
@abigail04
@amiegeoffrey
@stellageorge
@loveah
@balikis95
@sofs-su
@marynn
@zeraton
@iskawrites
@balikis95
@lightpen
@bornben
@fragozar01
@pjpavan
@deirdyweirdy
@george-dee
@diebitch
@seki1
@iyimoga
@gracielaacevedo

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.

Please Note: The Inkwell curators read many creative submissions each week. Ideally, we would comment and curate each piece. However, there are physical limitations, which include time. It may be the case that stories are submitted and are not curated. We do try to curate every piece but that may not happen.

At last, the prompt of the week!
This week's prompt is Cheer. Our skill challenge will be to work on the story's setting. @jayna has writte a great essay about creating a story's setting. Creating a setting will go nicely with this week's prompt, Cheer.

Remember, when you write for the prompt, you don't have to use the exact word. Derive inspiration from it. Cheer certainly should inspire interesting story ideas.

Here are some Cheer examples to help you get started on a story. You can probably come up with much more interesting ideas of your own.

1. When people drink champagne they sometimes say they are drinking 'cheer in a bottle'.
2. It's hard to be cheerful when rain continues day after day.
3. Maurice's sisters cheered him on as he played in the chess match.
4. Andrew definitely has a cheery disposition. How fortunate for him!
5. Alicia decorated a Christmas tree to cheer up the party room.
6. The hospital corridor was grim, except for the one corner where Mandy sported the brightest, most inviting smile.
7. As the boat came into the harbor all the sailors let out a loud cheer.
8. At baseball games, the crowd often cheers on cue.
9. We painted the house in cheerful colors.
10. They say, Tis the season to be jolly. I say, Tis the season to be cheery.

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
• #89 Light
• #90 Spirit
• #91 Fire
• #92 Tend/Tender

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!

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

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