Welcome to the Weekly Fiction Prompt
Hello community members! Thank you for joining our weekly writing prompt! If you're new, be sure to check out our community rules before posting in The Ink Well. (You can find them at the top of our home page. And you will find all kinds of great resources for fiction writers in our catalog of fiction writing tips.
Stories from the Previous Week
Thank you to who posted a story for last week's prompt: "You only live once":
Author Shout-outs
We'd like to call out a few stories that got high marks from our curators.
An Ambient Fairy Tale for Spring
Curator comment:
has his writing chops on full display in his most recent story. Written in response to the fiction prompt, it brings us into a world of fantasy. An indentured elf and a dryad meet as he is fishing along the shore. She is mischievous and teases him. He resists because if he transgresses with a dryad the punishment will be 'worse than death'. Nonetheless, the dryad persists and persuades the elf to use his magic. She goes away for a few weeks, and when she returns she comes back with a high priestess who frees the elf from bondage. He leaves that place of slavery, but realizes that in a way he will forever be enslaved by the power of the dryad's allure. The story is flawlessly written.
Curator comment:
writes an excellent, well-told story about a man who is quite happy in his marriage, and is double-crossed by jealous "friends" at a bar. They drug him and get him home with a girl is paid to get him to cheat on his wife with her and video tape the whole thing. The morning comes and he finds her in his room. Of course he fears the worst. But she explains that she couldn't go through with it after seeing a picture of his wife and remembering her from school, and how the wife's father sponsored her in her education. Great story!
Curator comment:
kei2 writes a delightful, memorable story in response to the only-live-once prompt. She weaves a magical tale about a young artist who was born on 'Leap Day'-- technically, she has a birthday once every four years. Her aunt had a bit of magic in her, and on the eve of each leap birthday would have the girl create a painting. The paintings were then burned with strange embers. One day, on the eve of yet another leap birthday, the young girl paints a picture, which she burns with the magical embers. Her aunt has passed on, but the young girl keeps up the tradition. Lo and behold, all those burned pictures from years past come to life in the circle created by the embers. All those experiences imagined become real, and the young painter gets to experience them. The paintings were like time in a bank. The story is beautiful, and written with great delicacy.
Curator comment:
Lara-bee writes the most charming fiction about a message from the character's parents who’ve become angels and want her to pursue a career that’ll make her happy, rather than a job that’ll give her monetary riches. This piece is beautifully structured and perfectly paced for the surprise ending that’ll give you goosebumps. Lovely!
Fiction Writing Prompt of the Week
This week's prompt is: "Ring."
What to do with this prompt? Well, that's a good question. We hope you will surprise us!
To get your imagination going, here are some of the many meanings of "ring."
- The obvious one is a wedding ring, of course. There are so many opportunities for writing dramatic stories around that topic. (But we hope not to get 30 stories about wedding rings!)
- There are also bells that ring and chimes that ring. Some bells are chapel bells, of course, but as you can see from the featured image, there are also service bells, which customers can ring for service. (And if the image is any indication, they are not always patient and nice about it!)
- And don't forget — a ring could also be a boxing ring or a circus ring.
- And people can dance in a ring, like "ring around the rosie." Those of you who love fantasy writing, you might be thinking of elves or fairies dancing by moonlight!
We look forward to seeing what your imagination comes up with, and we are hoping for originality and inspiration! Be sure to review the Writing Prompt Guidelines below.
Remember, as always, we are looking for the elements of story. 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.
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 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. (Note: We generally consider stories less than 750 words "too short!")
- 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.) And do NOT use AI tools to write your stories. You must provide your own unique content.
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; #148 Anticipation; #149 Holiday memories; #150 Resolution; #151 Bicycle; #152 Flight; #153 Time Travel; #154 A trip to the fair; #155 Don't sell me a dog; #156 Gravity; #157 Love, wheelbarrow, dog; #158 Stealing; #159 Sportsmanship; #160 Toast; #161 Pickle; #162 You only live once
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