Creative Nonfiction Prompt #120

Creative Nonfiction in The Ink Well Prompt #120

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Welcome to The Ink Well's weekly creative nonfiction prompt!

In this post, we'll announce the winners from last month'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.

Last Week's entrants

Highlighting Hive account@nathy33, with the story:

Keep calm and you will act better

I remembered that a stitch in time saves nine, so in a shopping bag I had we put the computer and wrapped it in my uniform to see if it would go unnoticed. With all our hearts we hoped it would because the economic situation was too difficult to lose it.

Curator's comment :

A well developed story, that conveys the concern this couple had during a very dangerous experience.

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Highlighting Hive account@chuksmeezy, with the story:

The hands of steel

Some days I would refuse to put on trousers or shorts, as a little boy should. Skirts were my ideal clothes. I would make a mess of the whole place if I didn't get to wear it—something I would get whopped for.

Curator's comment :

This CNF by chuksmeezy is pretty spectacular. The writing soars. He colors outside the lines. He captures the complexity and pain of family relationships, and the challenges a family faces when raising a boy. A needy one, and one who takes advantage and becomes manipulative in a family where doting females reign. But of course that is not sustainable, and the story brings us to this conclusion.

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Highlighting Hive account@zerah, with the story:

A Stitch in Time Saves A Query

I blew some air into the firewood to bring it back to life. Then I smiled, I was happy I had escaped Lagos for a few weeks. Thanks to Mrs Adejo who approved my leave at the last minute, giving me the chance to breathe again.

Curator's comment :

zerah writes to the stitch in time prompt. She tells of a time when she went home to her village for Christmas vacation. Left behind was Lagos, with its work memos, nagging clients and high-pressured schedule. She floats, when she is back home in the aromas of traditional cooking. She luxuriates in the hours spent with relatives, and she listens to the older generation share stories. She also ignores a work email marked 'urgent'. It turns out, there is no true vacation from Lagos. She gets into serious trouble at work for ignoring that email. It all ends up OK. She doesn't lose her job, but she does lose her bonus and she gets a severe reprimand. She reminds herself that a stitch in time...tending to the urgent email...would have saved her grief. zerah's story is evocative of Christmas, of family, of memories. It is a lovely story with a strong arc and it addresses the prompt well.

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Highlighting Hive account@nancybriti1, with the story:

A series of bad decisions

About an hour later, they called and informed us that Sanchez had died and Ray was injured. Nobody could believe it, we all thought it was a macabre nightmare. At one point, when I went into the kitchen and saw the arepas and the tuna salad on the table, with flies all around, I thought that maybe it would have been different if they had eaten, if they had not drunk too much, if they had not gone out to buy another bottle, but “what if” does not exist and surely in the book of Sanchez's life, on the last page, that sad ending was written.

Curator's comment :

Nancybriti1 writes a searing CNF story in which she describes a casual afternoon, one that is perfectly ordinary and then extraordinary. The author tells this story with perfect balance. There is regret, remorse for the life lost and yet there is no melodrama. The author excels in her descriptions as she relates the events of that day.

Caught Daydreaming.

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