Creative Nonfiction in The Ink Well Prompt #51
Welcome to The Ink Well's weekly creative nonfiction contest!
In this post, we'll announce the winners from last week's contest and provide the prompt for the coming week.
Before You Write Your Creative Nonfiction Post...
We ask that you read our Creative Nonfiction Tips post to learn about the creative nonfiction genre and review our guidelines.
Important notes:
- Creative nonfiction stories are based on your real-life experiences.
- We are looking for real short stories! Not advice columns, reports on crime or corruption in your city, observations on nature, recipes, religion, politics, or any other nonfiction content. Just real-life short stories.
- Ideal story length is between 750 and 1500 words, but your story must be at least 350 words, at a minimum to be curated.
- Please focus on quality content. Read and edit for errors! Use a grammar checker before you post your story.
- We expect everyone who posts in The Ink Well to read and comment on at least two other stories for each one published.
- Do not post stories featuring physical abuse, graphic violence, erotica or NSFW content.
Last Week's Creative Nonfiction Winners
Thank you to all who participated in last week's prompt Heart
Last week's participants
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Honorable Mentions of the Week
 | High School Bestie Our connection was so strong, and even without physical intimacy, our feelings were pure and untainted. It was a love that came from the depths of our innocent hearts. However, What mattered most to me was being able to replace the confusing moments of an unhappy relationship with a genuine friendship that lasted. |
 | Suppressed "You're shallow minded," were the only words I could bring myself to type before blocking and deleting the entire chat. The next day at school, Debbie was all over him, and the look in her eyes when she was with him tore at my heart. I wanted to tell her that he wasn't worth her beautiful heart, but I couldn't because the words were heavy in my mouth plus I didn't want to ruin her excitement. |
 | "Heart" On A Sleeve If there’s one thing about high school that I realized soon after I left, is the level of emotional blackmail that goes on there. It was horrendous. Heat prickled on my skin, my palms were clammy and I could already feel the telltale signs of an approaching headache. The young boy had to be kidding me. Who did that? |
 | Heart Filled With Joy We did our extra classes for about a month and I noticed that her performance has changed for the better. There was a day in class when I gave a question on the board and asked someone to solve it, she raised her hand and came forward to solve it. I saw the smiles radiating from her face as her classmates gave her a round of applause for solving it correctly. |
Third Place: Wins 2 Hive
Our third place winner is
Lamp lit nights
All of us kids had one wish in our hearts every evening - let this story never end. Once grandma was done feeding us she would bring out the huge tray of desserts usually some kind of sweet treat made with cow's milk, ghee, sugar and cardamom. She would then proceed to give each one of us a share of the goodies. Then we could play board games or some kind of game in the living room before we went to sleep.
Second Place: Wins 3 Hive
Our second place winner is
Lifechanging words
The rest of the trip we joked around about the people there until I got her home. After that, I was alone with my racing heartbeat. I felt rusted inside but encouraged by her kind words. I could have never talked about my family about my mental illnesses because they would just dismiss it as laziness or even worse, call it the product of a sin of some sort, so this was new to me, at least in person.
First Place: Wins 5 Hive
Our first place winner is
When the heart is not enough
A day after that, my father was declared dead. After that, I have sometimes dreamed of my father. In my dreams, my father does not know that he is dead. I do know, but I don't tell him anything. I just lie on his chest and listen to his heart beat, low, slow, as if he were taking a nap. Then I lie still so as not to wake him up and so as not to wake myself up.</
This Week's Prompt #51:
Nuts & Bolts
The expression "nuts and bolts" encompasses a multitude of meanings. Similarly, the individual words "nuts" and "bolts" offer a wide array of creative possibilities:
Whether you employ "nuts and bolts" as a metaphorical device or in a literal sense depends entirely on you. You have the freedom to incorporate the expression or the individual words within your text.
A few more ideas:
- You bolted the door to your heart, preventing your eccentric boyfriend's antics from affecting you.
- Perhaps a friend enlightened you about the necessity of sorting out the essential nuts and bolts of life or love before pursuing your dreams or mending your relationship.
- Share a personal tale about an incident, event, or emotional turmoil that compelled you to bolt.
- You came to the realization that the metaphorical horse had already bolted because fear held you back from confronting your feelings for someone you were genuinely nuts about.
Tell us about it! And remember to integrate storytelling elements like characters, scene setting, dialogue and action to bring your story to life!
Have fun and good luck! We look forward to reading your stories.
Contest Rules
- You have 6 days to write your story from the date of this prompt post. Be sure to check the deadline countdown.
- Write a real-life story with the creative elements of fiction, like characters, dialogue, scene setting and a story conflict.
- Post your story in The Ink Well Community.
- Please use the tags #creativenonfiction and #inkwellprompt on these posts. Other possible tags: #writing #inkwellprompt #nonfiction
- Stories must be written in English. If you've translated the post, it's best to add the original version below the translation. Do not write mixed language paragraphs.
- Read and comment on at least two stories in the community. Add a link to your story as a comment on this post.
And be sure to remember to join The Ink Well community!
Prizes
Prizes are only for stories written for this week's prompt
- First place : 5 Hive
- Second place : 3 Hive.
- Third place : 2 Hive.
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