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 storytelling scoundreltips.
Stories from the Previous Week
Thank you to who posted a story for last week's prompt: "Higgledy-piggledy":
Author Shout-outs
We'd like to call out a few stories that got high marks from our curators this week.
Curator comment:
In this story, written in response to this week's fiction prompt, Terjix offers an affecting, well-written piece. She gives us a child who is stranded by flood waters. The flood came suddenly, and catastrophically. There is no hyperbole in this story, no excessive sentiment. There is a clear description of an inundation and a child barely surviving. We meet the child's family before the flood, so we are invested emotionally in these people. When we learn the father has perished we feel the loss. Terjix uses detail and dialogue well in the piece.
Curator comment:
writes a delightful pirate story. We know from the title and the image he provided that it must be an imagined scenario, and indeed it is. But he beautifully portrays the battles at sea, the claiming of the booty, the eerie mist that surrounds the Calavera just before it is attacked by the horrible sea monster, the Kraken. And then we learn that young Rusty has imagined it all and his mother is in dismay at the mess he has created in his room in the process. He is ordered to clean it up! The mother's description of the chaos gives us a very good look into the higgledy-piggledy mess he has created in his battles with pirates and giant octopuses!
Curator comment:
writes a highly imaginative higgledy-piggledy story in which reality and dreams begin to intermix in a magical place called Athralis. Long ago, a sorcerer named Aegon agreed that he and his kind would let Time access the people's dreams in exchange for Athralis. But in the current time, Time is stealing dreams and the two main characters must find out why. It turns out that one of them has taken Time's yarn, and it must be returned. My head spun a bit as I read this story, as it alludes to an enormous world that we are just seeing a bit of! Kudos to kei2 for such strong world building in such a short story.
Fiction Writing Prompt of the Week
This week's prompt is: "Scoundrel."
We all experience a scoundrel at some point in our lives. This is a person who causes pain and suffering and has no qualms about it, or simply cannot control their impulses and therefore causes everyone around them to be annoyed and frustrated.
Google's AI overview of scoundrels provides this description:
A scoundrel is a person who is evil or not well behaved, and who intentionally does bad things. Here are some examples of scoundrels:
- A brother who hides a fake mouse in your shoe: This is a classic example of a scoundrel — someone who plays practical jokes and breaks the rules.
- A heartless scoundrel: This is an example of a scoundrel who treats others badly and has no morals.
- A scoundrel and a thief: This is an example of a scoundrel who is also a thief.
- A scoundrel who delivered the 2008 financial crisis: This is an example of a scoundrel who is responsible for a major event.
The term "scoundrel" is old-fashioned and disapproving. It's often used to describe men who behave badly towards others, especially by cheating or deceiving them. However, women are also capable of being scoundrels.
And here are some synonyms of scoundrels, offered by the online thesaurus and AI:
- villain
- brute
- cad
- blackguard
- cheat
- creep
- dastard
- good-for-nothing
- imp
- miscreant
- ne'er-do-well
- scalawag
- scamp
- villain
- wretch
Tell us a story about a character who must deal with a scoundrel, whether it is a spouse, a friend, a cheating coworker, someone encountered in a store or on the street, or even a child. (Not all scoundrels are evil. Some are just very naughty!)
Good luck. 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 — please use the free Grammarly tool for grammar and spelling checks (and not AI writing or rephrasing tools for revising)
You can find more on all of these topics in the catalog of storytelling 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 or manipulate 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; #163 Ring; #164 Hope; #165 Dreamcatcher; #166 In mother's house; #167 Keep Out; #168 Chin up; #169 Dish; #170 Talking in your sleep; #171 Wish upon a star; #172 Diary; #173 Plan B; #174 Clown; #175 The good old days; #176 The shoe is on the other foot; #177 Will tomorrow ever come?; #178 Am I a fool for dreaming?; 179 The moment that changed everything; #180 Superstition; #181 Gypsy; #182 Blind ambition; #183 Ah-ha moment; #184 Never say never; #185 Things are not always what they seem; #186 Domino effect; #187 The elephant in the room; #188 Higgledy-piggledy
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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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