The Ink Well Fiction Prompt #134 - 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: Check out our monthly fiction contest for the month of September, 2023, ending September 30! And be sure to honor the countdown timer! 10 Hive to the winner!

Before You Post in The Ink Well...

We ask that you read our FAQ post to familiarize yourself with our important community rules and guidelines.

Weekly Challenge and Prize Announcement

Time for the prize announcement and new challenge!

Last week's prompt was: "taste". And we encouraged authors to integrate all of the storytelling skills that make stories compelling and readable.

Stories From the Previous Week

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

• @cool08
• @jjmusa2004
• @mrenglish
• @veryhappyday
• @iyimoga
• @selftheist
• @phyna
• @rinconpoetico7
• @blessworld
• @balikis95
• @lightpen
• @seunruth
• @jhymi
• @amiegeoffrey
• @kemmyb
• @kingsleyy
• @rammargarita
• @universoperdido
• @george-dee
• @jadams2k18
• @smc.arike.oba
• @kei2
• @sofs-su

Honorable Mentions

Our honorable mentions of the week are:

• @lightpen: Cooking Competition
• @phyna: Merlin's Success
• @rinconpoetico7: The Food Critic
• @george-dee: Taste of Victory
• @sofs-su:A Taste for Life

The Winners!

All of these authors wrote fantastic fiction using the prompt, and did an excellent job with the storytelling skills we look for in the best-told stories!

Third Place: Wins 2 Hive

• @universoperdido, with the story Companions

Why does everything come so easily to her? thought Katherine, referring to Marianne. Her perfect brown hair. Her candid girlish smile pleases everyone. Her beautiful clothes. Her flair for good taste. Her never-ending mania to have everything perfect. Everything is simple when Marianne does it, but when I do it, nothing goes right. What does she have that I don't?

That day, deep in these twisted thoughts, Katherine let her rage get the better of her. She walked over to where Marianne was working and purposely spilled her coffee on the dress her partner was working on.

"Oh no, my dress!" Marianne exclaimed with wild eyes. "I was just about to finish it!"

Second Place: Wins 3 Hive

• @kemmyb, with the story Theo's Storm

This was it, he thought. The end had come. The memory of seeing the stocks he'd invested in plummet in an alarming freefall on his computer screen made him shudder. He yelled out his rage and confusion that night in his office, refreshing the screen over and over, thinking it was a bad dream. But it was real. His phone buzzed with notifications and calls from some of his clients. He froze in shocking silence as his empire crumbled before his eyes.

Eighty per cent of the money was Dark Knight's. Yes, indeed he was doomed. It would take a miracle for him to ever get out of this debt, not with the ensuing death threats.

First Place: Wins 5 Hive

• @kei2, with the story, A Trip to Memory Lane

“Now we are stuck here. Two cozy lovers beneath a clear blue sky after a rainfall. We should be at the movies right now with some popcorn and ice cream. If only I could just remember where I dropped those damn tickets.” Dere smacked his forehead lightly. He was mad at himself for misplacing their movie tickets. It was supposed to be a fun weekend packed with adventure. First, it was the rain, and now the tickets.

“Dere! It is fine. We can go some other time. Besides, this isn't all that bad. I'm starting to love it like my grandma did after it rains. Do you smell the sand? I can almost taste it as I draw in the cool fresh air.” Lara propelled her legs forward as she let her body go on the swing.

Congratulations to @kei2, @kemmyb, and @universoperdido!

This Week’s Prompt

FIRST: A COUNTDOWN NOTE
Be sure to submit your entries before the countdown ends.

You must submit before the end of the countdown to be considered for the prizes and honorable mentions.

Please observe the timer below this post. If it's purple, and the COUNTDOWN time is in the future, you can submit and be eligible for prizes and honorable mentions.

If the countdown is gray, and the timer has expired, you can submit, but your story will not be eligible for prizes or honorable mentions.

When the timer expires, we get busy reviewing all the stories, and no further submissions are considered.

Prompt of the week!

WAIT! Did you read the information above about the countdown timer? Okay, proceed!

This week's prompt is: "reunion."

What to do with this prompt?

Reunions happen in many ways. A soldier comes home from war. An adopted child seeks his birth mother and is finally able to meet her. An adult attends a class reunion with their high school classmates.

High school reunions are particularly interesting. The classmates have grown up and changed. What happened to the person voted most likely to succeed? What about the most popular kids? And the bullies?

There are many possibilities for the reunion prompt! Let's see where your imagination takes you!

Use Your Storytelling Skills

For many months we have asked our community members to focus on a skill each week, such as character development or dialogue. Going forward, we are looking for all of these skills as we identify winners and honorable mentions:

• Great first lines.
• Good settings.
• Well-developed characters.
• Integration of action, dialogue and narrative.
• A conflict that intrigues the reader.
• A "story arc" which results in the resolution of the conflict and brings the story to a satisfying conclusion.
• And of course, we are looking for well-edited stories that are not littered with typos or grammatical errors.

To be eligible for prizes, you must write a story based on the prompt (be sure to use the prompt word(s) in your story), and demonstrate the fiction writing skills we have been encouraging everyone to practice. Be sure to turn to our catalog of fiction writing tips for guidance!

Ready, set go!

A week from now, we will select winning stories that demonstrate these qualities and utilize the prompt. Good luck! Be sure to read the contest rules and reminders 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. But please do use the prompt word(s) within the story.
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 and a *minimum of 350 (ideally 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!
8. NEW — Translations: If you post a story that has been translated from another language, please include both the English version and the translation.

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; #116 Date; #117 Chocolate; #118 Three words: wish, button, sky; #119 RSVP; #120 Objets d'art; #121 Soul; #122 Scuttlebutt; #123 Recall; #124 Doorway; #125 Beacon; #126 Seagull, Market, Box; #127 Window; #128 Terrified; #129 Dance; #130 Two endings; #131 Ghosted; #132 Treasure; #133 Taste}

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