The Ink Well Prompt #98 - 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 Fly and the skill challenge was to create a strong story arc. 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. We also will be selecting 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 writing in response to the prompt and skill challenge.

Honorable Mentions

• He Named Me Devolo@maam.sammy with the story

Devolo hesitated for a moment, still unsure if this was all just a dream. But something about the monk's words and the way he looked at him made Devolo feel like he could trust him. So he got out of bed and followed the monk out of his room.

• The Trail of an Old Man@innfauno12 with the story

A car horn interrupted his words, but it didn't matter, the fly had been dead for a few minutes. When he reached the door he was met by his son and his son's wife, who greeted him with a big hug.
"Dad, I've come to get you, I don't want you to be here alone. I've already extended my house so that you can live with us".

• Remarkable Timing@littlepiggies with the story

While on the second page, he heard an unmistakable buzzing sound coming from across the room. The fly is back. But how? Bruce had taken pity on the fly the day before by opening the window to let it out. He thought for sure the fly had seen its way out yesterday. But no, it had quietly retired to the air vent in the ceiling for the rest of the day. The fly had come back, and Bruce was in no mood for distraction.

• The Visalock and Cyber Attack@jackdeathblack with the story

The luxury is so distinctive that the economy class alone puts any VIP of the other airlines to shame and the security is such that the system is more secure than that of the world's largest banks. This new airline really does not skimp on resources for passenger comfort.

• The Christmas Tree Fairy@george-dee with the story

Mr. Johnson insisted on staying at the entrance of the ICU even though he was told to stay at the reception. He had to rush to the hospital from work after he got the call from Stephanie's school and none of what the teachers said made any sense to him.

Third Place: Wins 2 HBI

• The Trials of Saint Nick: Finding Rudolph@seki1 with the story

At the loss of their leader, the reindeer began panicking again. It took a lot of grit and muscle, yet I managed to tame them on air.
We were approaching the roof of the house. We were coming in a bit too fast.
I pulled up with all my strength as I yelled against the winds.
Now Dasher and Dancer, Now prancer and Vixen.
You too Comet and Cupid, work with me Dunder, please Blitzen.
We must go up, you hear me. Slow down and circle the roof.

Second Place: Wins 3 HBI

• The Sea That Unites Us@jemima1996 with the story

After a few days, he went home, returned to his job and missed Ester, his granddaughter, every day. Mariela, when she turned one, started taking her to visit every weekend, wanting her to spend time with her grandfather, although Juan thought he was too cranky to want to be with him. Juaquin would feed them and always took them for a walk by the sea for a while.

The Tiger Birds of Heaven's CanyonAnd the winner of the Fly/create a strong story arc challenge is...@wrestlingdesires with the story . Congratulations, @wrestlingdesires . You will receive 5 Hive!

Even though I don't actually believe in the old legends, I have always respected my elders. They never expressly forbade us from coming here, but it was implied that if they found out, they would be unhappy. Even they rarely made the trip, and only for a spirit quest if the land became poor," Grandpa replied thoughtfully.

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

Stories From the Previous Week

@restcity @mrenglish @mbkumasi03 @marynn @faitz007 @marriot5464 @mineopoly @wrestlingdesires @kemmyb @lightpen @george-dee @fantom22 @balikis95 @agmoore @maam.sammy @innfauno12 @deathblack @pjpavan @kingsleyy @arduilcelebren @merit.ahama @cool08 @amiegeoffrey @universoperdido @seki1 @abdul-qudus @littlepiggies @bornben @abigail04 @hazmat @kei2

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 Comfortwriting character descriptions in the Catalog of Fiction Writing Tips.. Our skill challenge will be to focus on writing a character description. @jayna has written a great essay about

**When you write for the prompt, you don't have to use the exact word. Derive inspiration from it. Comfort has many applications. Use your imagination and come up with a original interpretation of this prompt.

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

1. A well-known line from the play A Streetcar Named Desire is, "I depend on the kindness of strangers".
2. She threw an extra comforter on the bed because the bedroom was so cold.
3. It was obvious that the chimpanzee was trying to comfort her distressed infant.
4. "Don't get too comfortable," Miriam called. "We're leaving in five minutes".
5. Alexis was on trial for giving aid and comfort to the enemy during wartime.
6. It is a comfort to know that home will always be there.
7. Passenger comfort does not seem to be a priority of most airlines these days.
8. Sometimes children with troubled homes grow up to be adults who cannot find comfort in the company of others.
9. The doctor asked if I was uncomfortable. I looked at him and screeched, "Uncomfortable? I'm in excruciating pain!"
10. Hillary tried to define the Buddhist term, 'dis-ease' for me. She explained that it is essentially a profound sense of discomfort with one's existence.

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
• #94 Appearance
• #95 Ambition
• #96 Trust
• #97 Fly

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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