Image source: Pixabay
Dear community,
Welcome to Prompt #12 in our creative nonfiction initiative. Thank you to everyone who contributed a nonfiction story last week! In case you missed the announcement about The Ink Well opening up to nonfiction stories, you can see it here.
Here's a quick overview of how it works:
Each week, we will provide a creative nonfiction prompt. You are also welcome to post other creative nonfiction pieces that are not based on the prompt. See the guidelines below.
To be curated, your content should follow our guidelines, be at least 350 words, be written in English (or another language as well as the English translation) and — as much as possible — free of errors.
What Is Creative Nonfiction?
There are many guides and resources online for getting to know this wonderful genre. It is truly about storytelling. The simple difference between creative nonfiction and fictional stories is that the story is not made up.
We like this definition from an article on creativenonfiction.org:
Simply put: Creative nonfiction is true stories, well told.
With creative nonfiction, you are using the literary and storytelling tools of a fiction writer to craft stories from real life experiences. Set the scene. Give the details. Profile the characters. Give us the dialog, as best you can remember it.
Ideas and inspiration:
Creative nonfiction stories can be snippets from your life autobiography — moments in time you want to capture in words, whether they were frightening, enlightening, bittersweet, or life-altering. They can be observations about life, about a time you connected at a profound level with a perfect stranger, or something you have learned along the way that made you a better person.
Do you love podcasts? One of the greatest sources of creative nonfiction is The Moth Radio Hour. Listen to a few of the stories from The Moth, and we guarantee you will be inspired.
Here are some additional resources for learning more about the creative nonfiction genre:
-- Reedsy blog: What is Creative Nonfiction? The Unputdownable Truth
-- Writers.com: Understanding Creating Nonfiction: What It Is and How to Write ItCheck out this list of creative nonfiction stories. For example, one of the stories is about a funeral for a lizard named Rango.
We hope you are inspired!
Guidelines for Creative Nonfiction Articles in The Ink Well
- Write creative nonfiction stories about real life, memories, or experiences.
- As with our fiction guidelines, we ask that articles be at least 350 words in length. Optimal length is 750-1500 words.
- Please read and edit your content before posting. It makes a big difference in how we reward work published in The Ink Well. (And we have some great guidelines for improving your grammar and fixing errors before you post in this article.)
- Please post directly in The Ink Well community, and post your link in a comment on this post.
- Please use the tag #creativenonfiction on these posts.
Here are some examples of what we are looking for:
- Explore an idea that interests you, such as how childhood experiences shape us as adults.
- Write about the study of dreams and what they mean, along with your own experience.
- Tell about an experience from your life that profoundly changed you.
- Write about a teacher who inspired you.
In other words, tell a story from real life. And illustrate the ideas you share with real world experiences, memories and observations.
Here’s what we are NOT looking for:
- A picture of a flower or other posts focused on photography
- A few paragraphs about what you ate for lunch
- Recipes and how-to articles
- Life lessons or advice
- Essays about religion or politics
- Poetry
What will be muted:
- Spam posts or plagiarism
- Graphic violence
- Lectures or proselytizing about religion, politics or morality
Last Week's Creative Nonfiction Winners
Thank you to all who participated in last week's prompt: New Year!
Honorable Mentions of the Week
Our honorable mentions for last week's prompt are:
Third Place: Wins 1,000 Ecency points
Our third place winner is 
I was very impressed to realize how much our lives have changed with my friends. To be honest, not knowing about it too much affected me more because some of our friends had clearly made the wrong decisions. We had to talk for a couple of hours to convince them. We are a group that normally consults each other when making such decisions. Fortunately, we managed to solve the problem and now everybody is well and everybody is mentally healthy.
Second Place: Wins 3 Hive
Our second place winner is 
We lived in Edinburgh at the time. Our home was a flat (apartment) on Easter Road. The B&Q was on Newcraighall Road. The distance between the two is more than an 8 month pregnant woman would want to be walking (especially as this was late-December or early-January). And walking was the only option as Lizza had left her purse in the car, so had no cash or card - this being the 'before days' when mobile phones were rare and apps non-existent. If you had no cash or card you couldn't pay for a taxi or bus, and we didn't have a mobile phone so she couldn't call friend or family.
First Place: Wins 5 Hive
Our first place winner is 
This was my life for over a decade. Each New Year's Eve, we made the night happen. My restaurant people know what I mean; it's part of this overlap where a job becomes a lifestyle. You see your coworkers on more holidays than your family, because that's where the money is.
Of course, those are also the days customers act the worst. Holidays bring unhappy people out to the bars in flocks, and who do you think they share that spark with? The people who handle their food, bold move there.
The Ink Well Creative Nonfiction Writing Prompt #12: In Search of SELF
While some very fortunate people know their passions and what they want to do with their lives at a very young age, others search, wander and wonder. They might get sidetracked by a big life challenge, by an overbearing parent, an all-consuming relationship, or a lack of focus. Sometimes ones "sense of self" seems elusive — difficult to find or nonexistent.
Here are some ideas for what to do with this prompt:
- Write about your journey to discover who you really are, what is meaningful to you, and what defines happiness for you.
- Share a moment when you realized what you are really meant to do with your life, and the events that led up to it.
- Write a story that illustrates what makes you the unique person you are, whether it is something you are passionate about, a creative endeavor, or how you show up in relationships.
- Or, if you still feel you are on that journey, still hoping to find your true self, feel free to write about that too.
We look forward to reading your stories. Have fun!
Please use the tags #creativenonfiction and #inkwellprompt on these posts. And please remember to add your post link to a comment on this post!
NOTE: Please refrain from providing advice, guidance, or suggestions to others about their life choices in your post. Creative nonfiction is about storytelling.
Prizes!
- The top creative nonfiction story of the week will receive 5 Hive
- The second place story will receive 3 Hive
- Third place will receive 1,000 Ecency points
Deadline
You have a week, until the next prompt is posted, to post your creative nonfiction story in The Ink Well community.
See you in The Ink Well!
Interested in joining our community? Start by joining Hive!
We invite lovers of creative writing to visit The Ink Well, a Hive community started by 
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