The Ink Well Fiction Prompt #141 - 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 October, 2023, ending October 31! And be sure to honor the countdown timer! 10 Hive to the winner!

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Weekly Challenge and Prize Announcement

Time for the prize announcement and new challenge!

Last week's prompt was: "Mask". 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!

• @marriot5464
• @mrenglish
• @iskawrites
• @ayokunlehenry
• @nftseller19
• @nancybriti1
• @wongi
• @lenaspiritual
• @samiwrites
• @arduilcelebren
• @kilvnrex
• @rammargarita
• @rinconpoetico7
• @princess-dara
• @jjmusa2004
• @jazclassic
• @chm-writes
• @teknon
• @osomar357
• @balikis95
• @lightpen
• @sofs-su
• @amiegeoffrey
• @smc.arike.oba
• @kmichealson
• @aloysiusmbaba

Honorable Mentions

Our honorable mentions of the week are:

• @lenaspiritual: Norman Is Mine
• @seki1: Unmasked
• @wongi: Lessons from the Mask
• @jazclassic: Loveless Affection
• @marriot5464: Ballrooms and Masked Secrets

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!

This week we have two winners who tied for third place!

Tied for Third Place: Wins 2 Hive

• @nancybriti1, with the story A Society of Masks

It was the year 2050 and the entire world population was used to showing and seeing everything: the life of every human being was transmitted and followed through social networks. From the moment they woke up, ate, washed up and even slept, people reported everything through their cell phone screens.

Whoever did not do so, was considered a socially dead person. The more followers and views their videos had, the more important and influential they were considered. That's why Angela, a teenager, was concerned about uploading every second the things she was doing:

"Here I am eating a sandwich and I'm with my best friend," Angela posted on her networks, always looking presentable and beautiful.

Tied for Third Place: Wins 2 Hive

• @osomar357, with the story Diablos Danzantes de Yare

Daniel was fascinated to see the masks, which his uncle and cousins were going to use as dancers during the party.

When he got into conversation with his cousins about the holiday, he learned that his cousins firmly believed in the tradition and considered it sacred and true, and he couldn't help but tease them. He thought it was all just meaningless religious superstition.

His cousins, annoyed by his dismissive attitude, decided to confront him and told Daniel that his time away from Venezuela had caused him to lose his roots and his culture.

After that, they explained to him that the festival of the Dancing Devils of Yare was much more than a simple tradition, since it was the representation of a battle between good and evil at a cosmological level and that is why it was celebrated on the date of Corpus Christi, as a way of reaffirming faith and the triumph of light over darkness, in all areas.

Second Place: Wins 3 Hive

• @iskawrites, with the story Beneath the Mask

The grand dining room was just as she expected; elegantly furnished with exquisite china dinnerware and crystal glassware, some of which she recognized as heirloom pieces.

She smiled at the familiar faces of the professional waitstaff taking a pause while pretending to be admiring the scenery so the ache in her feet could pass.

"Tara" she knew the voice before she turned. Catherine Coyle, her mother.

"Mom" she tried a smile but it came out as a grimace.

First Place: Wins 5 Hive

• @rinconpoetico7, with the story, The Dance of the Masks

Lucila lived in a small town called Altamirano, where the houses stood in symmetrical rows and the bright colors cheered the passersby, the cobblestone streets made the wheels of the carriages pulled by beautifully decorated steeds jump.

Along those same streets Lucila walked, with her wicker basket, white linen dress, and a kerchief tied on her head that matched the rest of her attire, white silk gloves covered her silky hands, which carried a fan that she shook over her reddish hair.

Congratulations to @rinconpoetico7, @iskawrites, @osomar357 and @nancybriti1!

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: "Halloween."

What to do with this prompt?

Halloween is a wonderful tradition that celebrates all that is frightful and ghoulish. Children don costumes and parade about in them, imagining themselves as witches, ghosts, princesses, pirates, and super heroes. They walk from door-to-door saying "trick-or-treat" and receive candy in return.

There are so many possibilities for great stories around this tradition. You could develop a spooky tale about an old broken down house where the children dare one another to go trick-or-treating. Or a charming story about the child who is too sick to go out collecting candy on Halloween, but has a good friend who brings him some anyway. What about a story where some of those frightful costumes are not actually costumes?

Let's see where your imagination takes you!

Use Your Storytelling Skills

For many months we 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; #134 Reunion; #135 I miss you; #136 Wonder; #137 Ruins; #138 Beach memories; #139 There was something in the wind; #140 Mask}

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