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Dear community,
Welcome to Prompt #20 in our creative nonfiction initiative. Thank you to everyone who contributed a nonfiction story last week.
Here's a quick overview of how it works:
Each week, we 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 (but ideally 750 -1500 words), be written in English, or another language as well as the English translation, and — as much as possible — free of errors. We also expect everyone who posts stories in The Ink Well to read and comment on the work of at least two other community members for each story published. (Thank you!)
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: Words that mark life. We enjoyed reading how our writers reacted to this announcement. There was fantastic writing!
Writers who joined in the fun:
Honorable Mentions of the Week
Our honorable mentions for last week's prompt are:
Third Place: Wins 2 Hive
Our third place winner is 
In year 2013 when I lost my father, life became difficult to a large extent. I was in year 3 of my Bachelor's degree. On a particular day that I wasn't having money with me, I decided to visit a construction site on campus.
The university was on holiday but I didn't travel during the period. Upon enquiry about availability of job, I was told to come and work the following day. On my way going back home, my mind was divided whether to do it or not. Reason being that I didn't want to be seen by other students that I was doing such a job. On further thought, the words of my father came to my memory. I remember the phrase, dignity of labour, and I went to work for a few days. I used the proceeds to get foodstuff and get myself ready for the new semester without disturbing my mother who was still recovering from the shock of the loss of her husband.
Second Place: Wins 3 Hive
Our second place winner is 
Happiness Is Only Real When Shared
I often ask myself this question. What am I doing to share happiness? What am I doing to share happiness with my beloved? What steps do I need to take to make my child happy in my future plans, thinking that I will be happy because he/she is happy? What am I doing to be happy myself? That's how much power this sentence has. It is definitely not an ordinary sentence. It is not as simple as sharing something good that has happened to us with the people around us. The deeper we think, the more valuable it is to make an effort and sweat for something instead of waiting for something to happen to us. When we achieve this thing as a result of our efforts, what we achieve will be more valuable, and we will be happier. But if life were a meal served to us on a golden platter, then we would not enjoy it. The wood we break ourselves is always hotter.
First Place: Wins 5 Hive
Our first place winner is 
I have always thought that I was born more than once. With Om Sai Ram! I blossomed more than once. In those years when I was just a girl looking for her way, I found in a little corner of the gray and maddened city to which I returned after five years at the university, the people who gave me the words to start again, to believe in myself, to trust others, to become powerful and master of myself.
So I can talk about Om Sai Ram! But there are many power-packed words I use on a daily basis. With time and the pains of life also words have been reborn with me, I had to resignify words such as: brother, sister, family, revolution, love, home, friendship. I had to resignify them because the way they were taught to me no longer served me and I had to reinvent them, to make them useful to be able to walk with them on the same path.
The Ink Well Creative Nonfiction Writing Prompt #20:
"Anticipated Worry" or "Anticipated Suffering"
People in general like responsible, forward-thinking people who are one step ahead of events. But sometimes being one step ahead implies anguish, unhappiness. Have you ever been worried about something that didn't happen in the end?
Tell us a story about an "Anticipated Worry" or an "Anticipated Suffering" . Tell us how the worry started and how the story ended!
For this prompt, there are several possible approaches you could take. For example:
Someone told you about their illness and you began to feel symptoms?
You want to visit a loved one and you anticipate that your visit may upset him/her.
You suffer because you doubt the explanations to your questions given by your life partner, your friend or your child?
- You can't sleep because in a short time you will face a big challenge?
Have fun and good luck! We look forward to reading your stories.
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 2 Hive
Deadline
You have a week, until the next prompt is posted, to post your creative nonfiction story in The Ink Well community.
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 
You can follow our curation trail by going to our hive.vote curation trail page and clicking the follow button.
We welcome delegations! These support our community in many ways, including helping us to provide support to quality content creators through curation and contests.
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