Creative Nonfiction in The Ink Well Prompt #56
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 Haunt
Last week's participants
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Honorable Mentions of the Week
 | MASQUERADING HOLIDAYS On my way it soon became apparent that my visit had coincided with the period when the people were having their yearly masquerade celebrations. Everywhere I looked there were masquerades around, some dancing, some chasing people with their canes, some simply walking around. If there was one thing I dreaded, it was an encounter with one of them. |
 | Academic Adventures and Misadventures I grew up in a family with already set educational standards. My dad was a strict academic and he wanted all his kids to follow suit. For so many years we did. We were always top three in our classes. If we had anything less than that–which we never dared have– we were seriously disciplined. However, whenever we came top three, we usually got whatever we wanted. |
 | The Haunted But, it was too late now, for I knew the memory of that day would haunt me. And, yes, it did. It haunted my sleep every day until it almost took my breath away. I became "The haunted". And yes! I knew I deserved it, so I never pushed the thought of death away. It was a sweet escape to the disrupting act I had carried out. |
 | Haunted By My Imagination I began to have shivers, and it was as though the horrific character in the movie scene I saw began to stalk me and was now ready to haunt me. My imagination began going wild, and everything felt strange. I began to shake, and then I closed my eyes for a moment, hoping I could play a trick on my mind to forget the horrible scenes I watched earlier. |
Third Place: Wins 2 Hive
Our third place winner is
A ruined day
It's my favourite part of the day—morning. There could have been nights where I went to bed sad and depressed, but I can't think of a morning that I didn't wake up refreshed. Till date, sleep has remained my favourite therapy—especially night sleep. It has a way of washing away the filth of the past day and presenting me with a clean slate to begin a new day.
Second Place: Wins 3 Hive
Our second place winner is
Her haunting face
Following several months of friendship, I gradually noticed that all I could think about was "Hannah" during class and that I was unable to concentrate on the teacher or the board. I dismissed it at first since it wasn't alarming. Then it became worse; I would become afraid and start to get alarmed when I began seeing Hannah's face on the board in math class, which is one of my least favorite subjects. Throughout the lesson, I found it harder to stay focused, and as a result, my grades on tests and class evaluations started to suffer.
First Place: Wins 5 Hive
Our first place winner is
In My Arms
I caught a glimpse of her tiny fragile newborn face and it seemed like time stood still. Fear was replaced by a warm peace. There were no walls, no ceilings, no windows around us, just her and me, enveloped by white clouds. I swear for an instant she smiled at me, and all the noise vanished forever. It felt strange but pleasant, and I realized I was under the effects of a haunting. For the people around me, it was only a few minutes, but for me, it was an eternity. From that day on I discovered that you don't have to be a parent to love a child.
This Week's Prompt #56:
Hopes and dreams
Ideas:
- Maybe your hopes were dashed by the unexpected, which caused a catastrophic event.
- Perhaps your determination to succeed brought on a new dawn of opportunity.
- You realized that you didn't fit into the ideal that your partner had dreamed up for your future.
- Often, health is determined by circumstance. Maybe you found a way to beat the odds and live the dream.
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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