Welcome to the Weekly Fiction Prompt
Hello community members. As we mentioned recently post, we are phasing out the weekly contests and converting them to writing prompts. So here we go!
Stories from the Previous Week
Thank you to who posted a story for last week's prompt: "Delight":
Author Shout-outs
We'd like to call out a few stories that got high marks from our curators.
Curator comment:
brings us a wonderful piece for the delight prompt. Exquisitely told, he shares a story of a child's deep and traumatic loss of his somewhat absent father at a young age which results in a level of numbness that, despite every effort, no worldly magic has yet been able to unravel. We learn that it is not a thing or place that will break through the barriers, but the connection with another child's despair and grief in shared experience. When Danny meets a young boy at Everest Base Camp, whose Sherpa father has fallen off Everest into a Crevasse and is presumed dead, it allows Danny a moment of catharsis, and in seeking to give the boy some emotional closure by taking him in a flyover of the crevasse to say goodbye, both discover a mutual joy and delight in the impossible when the boy's father is found alive. This piece was beautifully balanced. The writing was tight. The pacing was perfect. The author drew us in and took us along for an emotional ride. I enjoyed every minute.
Curator comment:
writes a masterfully told tale about a woman who believes she has caused the death of a driver in a roadway accident. It happens on her birthday, the 12-year anniversary of her father's death. Then she discovers that the man who died also had a daughter, and it was also her birthday -- her 13th! They share the same birthday of November 13. Lots of details, coincidences and twists are packed into this story. Unbelievably, she pulls off a happy ending, in which the MC's mother adopts the girl, who feels no anger or blame. Really a stunning story!
Curator comment:
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writes a beautiful fantasy story. An orphaned girl seeks a path to warriorhood without suspecting that she comes from the finest female warrior stock. A firefly shows her the way where she will receive the necessary gifts. Beautifully described actions.
Curator comment:
Oh, glorious! @Nancybriti1 celebrates the feminine in more ways than one. This is the sweetest, most endearing and charming story. Beautiful! More than worth a read.
Fiction Writing Prompt of the Week
This week's prompt is: "Anticipation."
What to do with this prompt?
Anticipation is a common experience this time of year for anyone who celebrates holidays with gift giving. Children are especially anxious and excited, but others experience this feeling too. What is your character anticipating? And are their expectations as grand as they imagined? Tell us the story!
Note that you do not need to write on a holiday theme. You could write about a woman anticipating a marriage proposal, someone expecting a certain phone call, or anticipating a special visitor. Let's see where your imagination takes you!
If you don't feel inspired by this prompt or the featured image, feel free to peruse any of our past prompts or our collection of idea-generators:
Writing Prompt Guidelines:
- See The Ink Well FAQ: Before you post in The Ink Well, we ask that you read our FAQ post to familiarize yourself with our important community rules and guidelines.
- Story link: Please be sure to post your story in The Ink Well community, and post a link to your story in a comment on this post.
- Hashtags: Please use these hashtags: #fiction #writing #inkwellprompt #theinkwell — as well as #dreemport, if you are also posting your story to the DreemPort site.
- Community support: When you post in The Ink Well, please be sure to visit the work of at least two other community members and comment on their work.
- Title: The title is up to you. You can come up with any title you wish. You do not need to name it after the prompt. Please do use the prompt word(s) within the story.
- Images: Please only use images from license free and creative commons sites, like Pixabay, Unsplash and Pexels. Images you find on the Internet are copyright protected and cannot be used. Be sure to provide all image source links.
- Length: We request that story word counts are a maximum of 1,500 words in length and a *minimum of 350 (ideally 750-1000 words). This is just a guideline. Longer stories are okay too, but they tend to get fewer readers. Additionally, The Ink Well admins appreciate keeping to that maximum story length for our time management. Thank you!
- Translations: If you post a story that has been translated from another language, please include both the English version and the translation.
Reminders: Be sure to also read our community rules. As always, please avoid violent, gory, bloody, brutal, sexist or racist themes and language, NSFW (not safe for work) stories like erotica, stories with a political or religious agenda, and stories featuring abuse of any kind. (We have a complete article about The Ink Well stance on violence and brutality for more information.)
Tips for Getting Curated by The Ink Well
There are some important elements of storytelling that make a story stand out, and make people want to read it, and keep reading. These include:
- Great first lines.
- Good settings.
- Well-developed characters.
- Integration of action, dialogue and narrative.
- A conflict that intrigues the reader.
- A "story arc" which results in the resolution of the conflict and brings the story to a satisfying conclusion.
- And of course, we are looking for well-edited stories that are not littered with typos or grammatical errors.
You can find more on all of these topics in the catalog of fiction writing tips.
Past Prompts
Here are the past prompts if you would like to use them or refer back to them:
#1: Heart and Soul; #2: The moment when...; #3: Beauty with a twist; #4: The Way Home; #5: A Matter of Time; #6 50 Story Ideas; #7 The Library; #8 All the way to tomorrow; #9 Legend; #10 Three Words; #11 World Building; #12 Childhood Summers; #13 50 Imagination Ticklers; #14 Railroad; #15 Cats - 750 words; #16 Your Birthday; #17 Action, Dialog and Narrative; #18 Change; #19 Tea Time or Tee Time?; #20 Summer Camp; #21 Main Street; #22 Fireworks; #23 Picnic; #24 Run; #25 A word of advice; #26 Winding road; #27 Mirror; #28 Shipwreck; #29 School Notes; #30 Three Words: Scooter, River, Midnight; #31 Flash Fiction Contest; #32 A Fork in the Road; #33 Shadows; #34 Three Words: Island, Witch, Cake; #35 Full Moon; #36 Graveyard; #37 Jack-o-Lantern; #38 Family Ties; #39 Longing; #40 Feast; #41 Gift; #42 Season of Light; #43 Believe; #44 Elf; #45 Holiday; #46 New Year; #47 Unlikely Hero; #48 Inheritance; #49 Under the Light of the Moon; #50 Three Words: Shoes, Mood, Adventure; #51 They're Here; #52 Artist; #53 Headlights; #54 Tomorrow; #55 Lense; #56 Perfection; #57 Making and Breaking Rules; #58 A Reckoning; #59 Blossom; #60 Temptation; #61 Happiness; #62 Footprint; #63 Frequency; #64 Sailing; #65 Fortune; #66 Worry; #67 Adventure; #68 Shadow; #69 Motor; #70 Embarrass; #71 Proud; #72 Guide; #73 Impression; #74 Lost; #75 Wonder; #76 Tear; #77 Splash; #78 Brilliant; #79 Sinkhole; #80 Exhaust; #81 Roll; #82 Wishbone; #83 Chatterbox; #84 Foil; #85 I can't believe you said that; #86 Boo; #87 Midnight; #88 Hunger; #89 Light; #90 Spirit; #91 Fire; #92 Tend/Tender; #93 Cheer; #94 Appearance; #95 Ambition; #96 Trust; #97 Fly; #98 Comfort; #99 Fate; #100 To Create; #101 Vision; #102 Sympathy; #103 A Special Time; #104 Suspense; #105 Bride, stairs, illusion; #106 Reality TV; #107 Things the Go Bump in the Night; #108 First line: Two strange things happened that day; #109 What if that loose floorboard was actually a hidden passageway?; #110 Footsteps; #111 Mess; #112 Cards; #113 Elephant; #114 Crystal; #115 Phone call; #116 Date; #117 Chocolate; #118 Three words: wish, button, sky; #119 RSVP; #120 Objets d'art; #121 Soul; #122 Scuttlebutt; #123 Recall; #124 Doorway; #125 Beacon; #126 Seagull, Market, Box; #127 Window; #128 Terrified; #129 Dance; #130 Two endings; #131 Ghosted; #132 Treasure; #133 Taste; #134 Reunion; #135 I miss you; #136 Wonder; #137 Ruins; #138 Beach memories; #139 There was something in the wind; #140 Mask; #141 Halloween; #142 [Photo album]; #143 Dreams; #144 Crayon box; #145 Back of beyond; #146 Intuition; #147 Delight
Thank you for being a part of The Ink Well!
Interested in joining our community? Start by joining Hive!
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and run by , , , and .You can follow our curation trail by going to our hive.vote curation trail page and clicking the follow button.
Note: The Ink Well is now paying out curation rewards to our delegators!
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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