The Ink Well Prompt #94 - 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!

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 Cheer and the skill challenge was to create a vivid story setting. 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

• @innfauno12 with the story Imagined in Time

On the verge of surrendering to sleep, he fell into an imaginary labyrinth that he began to wander through to find the exit until he came face to face with time that was also lost.

• @grindan with the story Benevolent Vampire Cheerleaders?

Each pair of eyes that fell on the bare legs of the cheerleaders fed them. They ate lust, admiration, and bafflement equally. However, the main course was the frenzy of passion that would unleash as the second half began. This brief interlude had allowed them to set the snare for a bountiful harvest. Not all vampires drink blood.

• @wrestlingdesires with the story Evergreen and Everlasting Traditions (It's Time to Make the Holidays Bright for Others)

"I have a Christmas tradition that I would like to continue too," Lisa said after they had finally stopped the merrymaking. Snuggled on a huge plush couch, the young couple was enjoying a roaring fire in the old fashioned stone fireplace.

• @universoperdido with the story The Jet Necklace

When Sylvia was a child, she liked to lie on her father's lap while he read. He would tell her rather strange stories about distant worlds and characters with interesting lives. She listened to them and imagined those places, people, and situations with the limited mind of a child. She said nothing, for she always liked to listen to her father talk.

• @nichebezarius with the story Just a Dream...?

All of a sudden, a sound got my attention. It sounded like a cheer? No, perhaps a cheerful chant? I couldn’t tell. I turned around and took notice of the thick forest. There seemed to be a small pathway that led deeper into the dark forest.

Third Place: Wins 2 HBI

• @tozill with the story Single Push

Despite all the efforts Kira tried to convince me, all were in vain. There's nothing wrong with going to the get together but I didn't want to go back to people who I always felt inferior to. I wasn't bullied or anything but the way they carried themselves and the fact that their parents were richer than mine made me feel inferior.

Second Place: Wins 3 HBI

• @diebitch with the story Golden Boo

The woman in red had placed a hand on the shoulder of a man in a joker wig. The man had spun around, and his eyes had grown bigger. He had made a dash for it only to be brought back by the woman's hand on his t-shirt collar.

And the winner of the Cheer/create a vivid story setting challenge is...@warpedpoetic with the story Tomorrow Will Take Care of Itself. Congratulations, @warpedpoetic. You will receive 5 Hive!

Everything evaporated from Amin's mind. All of a sudden, she was back at the concert three years ago, the concert where she met Bayo and they sang and danced all through the night. It was the most beautiful night of her life and the last time she ever went out at night. Later, they were robbed and had to sit at the back of a truck loaded with rams in order to get home. It was still the most beautiful night of her life, filled with adventure and terror though.

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

Stories From the Previous Week

@arduilcelebren
@adhyaksaardaus
@bornben
@restcity
@nichebezarius
@tozill
@erh.germany
@marriot5464
@fantom22
@radenkusumo666
@merit.ahama
@marynn
@balikis95
@loveah
@wrestlingdesires
@lightpen
@cool08
@pjpavan
@amiegeoffrey
@rammargarita
@ricardo993
@george-dee
@mrenglish
@innfauno12
@diebitch
@abigail04
@hazmat

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 Appearance. Our skill challenge will be to work on the story's conflict. @jayna has written a great essay about adding conflict to your story. Creating a strong conflict will introduce energy to your story. Remember, though, if there is a conflict, there needs to be a resolution. Let us know how the character, or characters, resolve their conflict.

**When you write for the prompt, you don't have to use the exact word. Derive inspiration from it. Appearance can inspire many kinds of stories.

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

1. They could not arrive at a decision about getting in the cab. It looked so old and worn out.
2. Everyone expected a ghost to appear at the seance.
3. Andrea spent hours in front of the mirror. She loved to admire her appearance.
4. The match was cancelled when the former champion failed to appear.
5. All of a sudden, a spot appeared on Jane's forehead. Was it an omen? Nobody knew, but everyone wondered.
6. Alfred didn't understand that his appearance was ruining all his job interviews. He never wore a tie and his nails were not groomed.
7. The sleepy young girl looked up at her mother. The light in the room formed a kind of halo around the woman's head. The child was sure her mother was an angel.
8. "Look sharp!" the sergeant barked at the new recruits.
9. When a house is up for sale, its appearance is of paramount importance.
10. The students paid a great deal of money to the rock star. They wanted him to make an appearance at their prom.
11. The whole town was talking about the apparition that nightly haunted the old church.

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
• #93 Cheer

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, @samsmith1971, @grindan, @itsostylish, @josemalavem, @morey-lezama, @sayury, @evagavilan2 and @popurri.

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