The Ink Well Fiction Prompt #110 - 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.

Special Reminder: In addition to the weekly fiction challenge we offer a monthly challenge. Check out our March fiction contest ending March 31! 10 Hive to the winner!

Important FAQs about The Ink Well!

What Is The Ink Well All About?
The Ink Well is a creative writing community. We only accept fictional short stories and creative nonfiction stories. This means:

• No novels, chapter stories or multi-part stories
• No poems
• No introduction posts
• No memes
• No photography posts
• No advice columns or self-improvement articles

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 suitable for all ages. We do not allow stories depicting violence, rape, brutality, or gore. 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, dialogue, 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!

• Only post 100% original content that does not appear elsewhere in any form.
• Engage with others in the community by reading and commenting on their work.
• 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: "What if that loose floorboard was actually a hidden passageway?" and the skill challenge was "creating a story hook."

Stories From the Previous Week

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

• @cool08
• @madamnaomi
• @timix648
• @universoperdido
• @mrenglish
• @dianelson
• @katleya
• @gabrieladifazio
• @jhymi
• @jadams2k18
• @littlepiggies
• @iskawrites
• @popurri
• @abigail04
• @kemmyb
• @lenaspiritual
• @yuki-nee
• @lrscarmen
• @wrestlingdesires
• @radenkusumo666
• @rammargarita
• @balikis95
• @george-dee
• @seki1
• @innfauno12
• @idlemind
• @rinconpoetico7
• @chuksmeezy
• @kingsleyy
• @itsostylish

Honorable Mentions
Our honorable mentions of the week are:

• @yuki-nee: Hidden Passageway: An Unexpected Discovery
• @kemmyb: The Formal Dining Room
• @jadams2k18 : Mixed Feelings
• @idlemind: Confession
• @jhymi: Where the Lost Things Go
• @dianelson: Welcome to Lemoria

Third Place: Wins 2 Hive

• @wrestlingdesires, with his story, The Legend of Witherston Castle

"Is there really a hidden treasure map in Witherston Castle, Jim?"

"Yes Mona, and a ghost protects it. If anyone finds it, the ghost hides it again before it can be memorized. At least that's what the brochure says."

Mona scrunched up her tiny nose. "Whose ghost is it? And that's assuming I believe it's real, and not just something they made up to get more tourists to book a room."

Second Place: Wins 3 Hive

• @universoperdido, with his story Cemetery Guard

Günther approached first and stretched out his arm toward the beautiful gem. Suddenly, a grotesque, bony hand with long, gnarled fingers emanated from the diamond and grabbed Günther by the arm and began to pull him toward the crystal. The beautiful diamond slowly began to lose its luster. Günther was just screaming desperately trying to free himself. I reacted and helped the boy, managing to free him from the trap. We ran to the stairs, climbed quickly until we were finally outside.

First Place: Wins 5 Hive

• @littlepiggies with her story The Writing Room

I held the rough draft manuscript in my hands as I continued to look around the room. An antique wooden clock, displaying the wrong time, sat on the small shelf. Next to it an old brass key tray, filled with receipts and loose change; nothing interesting. I heard light scraping against the wall, as though wind was blowing branches. But it’s not windy today? I looked the wall where the sound was coming from and realized it wasn’t a wall; it was a door that looked like a wall. It was a wall with a tiny slot where you could push up a button and unlatch the door to slide it open.

Congratulations to @littlepiggies, @universoperdido, and @wrestlingdesires!

Okay, let's launch the new prompt!

This Week’s Prompt

The Ink Well is fortunate to have many members who are rising talents! We would like everyone to think of these weekly prizes as a showcase of just a few of the very best stories, as well as an opportunity for our members to be inspired by reading some polished stories that demonstrate excellent storytelling skills.

Please Note: We try to curate as many stories as possible, but do not curate every story published in The Ink Well, due to the volume of posts.

Prompt of the week!
This week's prompt is "footsteps." Our skill challenge is avoid the info dump.

An "info dump" is a lot of narrative information at the beginning of the story. It is tempting for writers to provide background information and summary information, but what readers really want is dialogue and action.

To learn about these fiction concepts, be sure to have a look at the article about avoiding the info dump, and the article Action, Dialogue and Narrative: The Dynamic Trio in our Catalog of Fiction Writing Tips.

What to do with this prompt?

There are many possibilities. Footsteps can be creepy and disturbing, if it's something your character hears in the night. But you could also think about the meaning of the expression about following in someone's footsteps, such as a child doing the same job or working in the same company as one of her parents. You could also use another interpretation and write about footprints. Perhaps they will help to solve a mystery! Have fun!

A week from now, we will select winning stories that demonstrate the skills and utilize the prompt. Of course, we will also be looking for overall quality in the winning stories. Good luck! Be sure to read the contest rules below.

Note: As always, please avoid violent, gory, bloody, brutal, sexist or racist themes and language, erotica and other NSFW (not safe for work) content, 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.)

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: NEW: You have SIX DAYS to write for the prompt. We are now adding countdown timers to our contest posts so the contest ends one day before the new one is posted. This will give us more time to read all contest stories.
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(s).
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 (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
• #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?

Thank you for being a part of The Ink Well!
@jayna, @gracielaacevedo, @yaziris, @itsostylish, @millycf1976 and @grindan

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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, @gracielaacevedo, @yaziris, @itsostylish, @millycf1976 and @grindan.

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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, @samsmith1971, @grindan, @jackdeathblack, @josemalavem, @riverflows, @itsostylish, @stuartcturnbull, @morey-lezama, @evagavilan2, @popurri, and @mrenglish.

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