Source: Tim Kraaijvanger on Pixabay
Welcome to the Weekly Fiction Prompt
Hello community members! Thank you for joining our weekly writing prompt!
Getting Started
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.
Please also check out these additional helpful resources:
- You will find all kinds of great resources in our catalog of storytelling tips.
- You can learn more about our community and the expectations of community members in our treasure trove of tips and guidelines.
- We are always about quality first. Never about quantity. To achieve the kinds of awards you want, take the time to write quality stories and check them for errors. See the topic of the month, "Don't Miss This Step" in the March 2025 newsletter to learn about using tools (and using them properly) if you are not already doing this. We do notice when you don't take the time!
Stories from the Previous Week
Thank you to those who posted a story for last week's prompt: A distant shore
Author Shout-outs
As always, we received some excellent stories for last week's prompt. Here are a few of the stories that received high marks from our curators.
Curator comment:
writes an innovative and rather heart-wrenching story of a researcher traveling through space. We never learn the person's name or much about them except that they may be going progressively insane. But that is the art of the story. In a journal-writing style, the narrator tells of the experience of watching a star die, and begins receiving messages from back home, that it's important to return, and it's not safe.
As the character thinks about these messages, they plant a seed of loneliness and despair. The character does not have the ability to send messages back, and therefore talks to the plants in the hydroponic garden and begins to believe they are talking back. The desire to return home becomes overwhelming. And finally the character determines the only way is to try to hitch a ride with a comet... somehow understanding that it would be terribly risky and may not end well.
The story ends with the simple words, "Status: deceased." This is a unique and impactful story from artofkylin!
Curator comment:
Put your sea legs on mateys, we're going on a buccaneer adventure with Orwell in rinconpoetico7's latest story. The author manages to keep the action believable as he takes young Orwell on a fantastic journey. Somehow, rinconpoetico7 manages to hold onto his anchor and we return with young Orwell, not quite breathless, but certainly entertained. Great writing.
Curator comment:
writes a very interesting fiction about a young, phobic woman who can't stand leaving the house. The story has a very good handling of tension and an arc marked by the need to face fear when it comes to saving two little ones who wander alone in a strange emergency situation.
Nicely done, writers!
Fiction Writing Prompt of the Week
This week's prompt is: "Nature vs. nurture"
We hope you will enjoy this prompt! The "nature vs. nurture" topic is about how much of a person's character and personality comes from the innate traits they were born with ("nature") compared to the influences of family and upbringing ("nurture").
Let's think about some ways in which this idea can play a role in a story line.
Perhaps a hopeful mother believes she has done everything right in raising her son, and yet he turns out to have a "bad streak" that causes him to get into trouble. Was he born with some innate characteristic that causes this? Is it possible for all of her loving, nurturing care to overcome his tendencies and for him to decide to live life on the straight and narrow?
Here are some additional story line ideas from ChatGPT:
The Wolf Within (Psychological Drama)
A boy abandoned in the woods is raised by wolves until age twelve, when he’s discovered by rangers and returned to human society. Despite speech lessons, therapy, and schooling, he finds himself drawn back to the forest at night, unable to turn away from the familiar setting of his upbringing. The story follows his struggle to decide whether identity comes from blood and instinct — or from the way in which one is raised as a child.
Blueprints of the Heart (Sci-Fi / Ethical Dilemma)
In a near-future city, a biotech company creates genetically “perfect” children with intelligence, beauty, and talent coded at birth. One child, however, fails to live up to expectations, constantly underperforming against her “nature.” Her adoptive mother refuses to give up, nurturing her with patience, love, and creativity. When the girl ultimately surpasses her genetically designed peers in unexpected ways, society is forced to question whether DNA determines destiny — or whether love is the greater architect.
Garden of Two Seeds (Literary Fiction)
Twin sisters, separated at birth, grow up in radically different homes — one in a wealthy, cultured household, the other in poverty with little access to education. Years later, they meet by chance as adults. To their surprise, they share uncanny similarities — including mannerisms, tastes, even fears — yet also diverge in values shaped by environment. Their reunion forces both to confront which parts of themselves are inherited and which are the echoes of how they were raised.
Good luck! And of course, you are welcome to use AI to generate ideas and images, but the writing must be your own! We do not accept AI-generated stories.
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.
- 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; #189 Scoundrel; #190 Storm the castle; #191 I think I'm being followed; #192 Hidden camera; #193 A long goodbye; #194 Confession; #195 Gobble; #196 Guilt; #197 Everything was fine until...; #198 Fragile; #199 Secret gift; #200 Party; #201`Old Habits Die Hard; #202 New Year's Resolution; #203 Unanswered questions; #204 Hey, the line is back here!; #205 I won't back down; #206 Sink or swim; #207 Time is of the essence; #208 Kryptonite; #209 When the cat's away, the mice will play; #210 Three words: wonder, eclipse, coffee; #211 Butt Dial; #212 Soup; #213 Spring Surprise; #214 Humble Pie; #215 Nostalgia; #216 Fear; Shopping; #218 Necessity is the mother of invention; #219 Life of the party; #220 The short straw; #221 Mouse; #222 The power of hindsight; #223 Ill at Ease; #224 What could possibly go wrong?; #225 I thought I was on mute; #226 Fortune cookie; #227 False alarm; #228 Late to the game; #229 Where did you go?; #230 Boondoggle; #231 In the time before; #232 Ticket; #233 Don't sweat it; #234 Hostage; #235 A Fateful Day; #236 Boredom; #237 Blame; #238 Choices; #239 What are you doing here?; #240 A Distant Shore
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