The Ink Well Fiction Prompt #157

_{Source: Dziana Hasanbekava on Pexels}

Welcome to the Weekly Fiction Prompt

Hello community members. Thank you for joining our weekly writing prompt! If you're new, be sure to check out our community rules before posting in The Ink Well. (You can find them at the top of our home page. And you will find all kinds of great resources for fiction writers in our catalog of fiction writing tips.

Stories from the Previous Week

Thank you to who posted a story for last week's prompt: "Gravity":

• @marriot5464
• @iskawrites
• @reblogme
• @jazclassic
• @jemima1996
• @treasuree
• @ayokunlehenry
• @popurri
• @nancybriti1
• @abigail04
• @osomar357
• @rinconpoetico7
• @lightpen
• @balikis95
• @chuksmeezy
• @zyzymena
• @hamez
• @janaveda
• @jhymi
• @rare-gem
• @loveth97
• @sabrinah
• @idlemind
• @jjmusa2004
• @trexane
• @caithlyn

Author Shout-outs

We'd like to call out a few stories that got high marks from our curators.

@idlemind

The Crying Nymph

Curator comment:

@idlemind brings us a story from the gravity prompt. What a treat! A village is suffering the devastating effects of drought. A young man heads off to find the reason for the droughts and hopefully a solution. He discovers that the drought has been caused by one of the villagers offending the forest nymph by killing her pet raven. He returns home to put things right but discovers his whole world is floating in the air, defying gravity. All the villagers' homes are separated, joined only by anchor ropes. He calls a meeting of the village to identify the wrongdoer and in so doing uncovers another terrible secret; that the gravity challenge has been brought about by the theft of the nymph's gravity necklace. the necklace that holds everything together in nature. The nymph takes over his body for a short period to set things right and thereafter the villagers commit to never doing wrong against the nymph again. I loved that the nymph's necklace held all of nature together. Violate the laws of nature and face the consequences: destruction, separation, and untold challenges. This was a wonderfully crafted and polished piece, delivered with eloquence. A joy to read.

@nancybriti1

The Noise Things Make When They Fall

Curator comment:

This piece is exquisite. How do I describe it? Gravity is the prompt. The author offers us a story of love, of a partnership perfectly balanced. When the buoyant half of the partnership falls, the surviving partner slowly submits to gravity. The tears, the eyes, the posture, the head droop--until finally gravity claims its second victim and this half of the partnership is buried. The story is better than many I have read in professional publications. There is not one trace of pretension, not one bit of excess, no word out of place. This is absolutely brilliant.

@popurri

Back Home

Curator comment:

@popurri writes a really imaginative sci-fi story that involves people living on planet earth in the future when there are fires and devastation due to climate change. I will not pretend to fully understand it, but it seems people in the story are experiencing Einstein's theory of relativity and a gravitational change that is unique to them. I decided I didn't need to understand it to appreciate the imagination behind it and the quality of writing.

@trexane

Betrayed

Curator comment:

@trexane writes a really good story in response to the gravity prompt. He assumes the first person POV for a young woman, Melissa, who is disappointed in love. Her long-term boyfriend has strayed, and he has done this with her best friend to boot. Melissa is weeping as the story begins. She recalls the long and loving relationship. At the end of the story she pulls herself together and vows never to trust anyone completely, ever again. The story doesn't miss a note. Great that was credibly written by a man.

Fiction Writing Prompt of the Week

This week's prompt is three words: "Love, wheelbarrow, dog."

What to do with this prompt?

We sometimes provide three word prompts. These are often a fun way to kick your creativity into gear. In fact, there are even prompt generators online that will automatically create random three-word prompts for you. We generated this three-word prompt from this generator.

We hope you have fun creating a story that incorporates these three words!

Let's see what your imagination comes up with! Be sure to review the Writing Prompt Guidelines below.

Remember, as always, we are looking for the elements of story. These include:

• 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

You can find more on all of these topics in the catalog of fiction writing tips.

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

Writing Prompt Guidelines:

1. See The Ink Well FAQ: 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.
2. Story link: Please be sure to 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: When you post in The Ink Well, please be sure to 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. 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. 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.) And do NOT use AI tools to write your stories. You must provide your own unique content.

Past Prompts

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; #141 Halloween; #142 Photo album; #143 Dreams; #144 Crayon box; #145 Back of beyond; #146 Intuition; #147 Delight; #148 Anticipation; #149 Holiday memories; #150 Resolution; #151 Bicycle; #152 Flight; #153 Time Travel; #154 A trip to the fair; #155 Don't sell me a dog; #156 Gravity}

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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 and @samsmith1971.

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A big thank you to all of our delegators:
@jayna, @felt.buzz, @itsostylish, @selftheist, @blueeyes8960, @agmoore, @marcybetancourt, @marlyncabrera, @stormcharmer, @iamraincrystal, @preparedwombat, @gracielaacevedo, @timix648, @samsmith1971, @jackdeathblack, @josemalavem, @riverflows, @generikat, @mineopoly, @hazmat, @treasuree, @innfauno12, @kingsleyy, @popurri, @nancybriti1, @marynn, @jjmusa2004, @universoperdido, @juniorgomez, @rinconpoetico7, @nathy33, @marriot5464, @kingworldonline, @morey-lezama, @evagavilan2, @moneykeep, @mrenglish, @stuartcturnbull, @marilour, @funshee, @amiegeoffrey, @balikis95, @cool08, @rukkie, @raymondpeter, @emreal, @tomiajax, @kushyzee, @rare-gem, @ricurohemi28, and @benwesterham.

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