Image source: leonardo.ai/
Hello Beautiful Community!
In this monthly newsletter, we share tips for our writers, as well as any important news or updates, and announce the winner(s) of the previous month's contest for the best overall story of the month.
And this month the announcements are doozies!! Be sure to check them out!
Helpful resources:
We collect all of our important tips for success in the community in our Treasure Trove of Tips, Reminders and Guidelines. If you're looking for writing tips and help with improving your writing craft, be sure to check out our catalog of fiction writing tips.
Topics in this newsletter:
- Topic of the Month: BIG changes in The Ink Well
- Winner(s) from the September Contest!
- October Contest
- Find Us on Discord
- Delegate to The Ink Well / Follow Our Curation Trail
Topic of the Month: BIG changes in The Ink Well
Hello friends. Thank you for your continued participation in The Ink Well. As many of you know, we switch things up from time to time to keep our community fresh, avoid admin burnout, and improve upon our curation methods.
Here's what's changing:
1. One Combined Prompt Per Week
We will be combining our creative nonfiction prompt and our fiction prompt into one weekly writing prompt. Writers can choose whether to write a fictional story or a creative nonfiction story based on the prompt.
NOTE: You must use the correct tags to be considered for curation — #fiction for fictional stories made up from your imagination and #creativenonfiction for true stories from your own life experience.
2. New Curation Policy
We will curate up to one story per author per week. You may post more than one story in The Ink Well each week, but only one will be a candidate for curation.
NOTE: As always, we do not guarantee curation. This is a benefit we offer regularly to members in good standing in the community who write stories with care and take the time to edit their stories and support the work of other community members. Curation is also based on the time and availability of our admin team, which is always in flux based on health, travel, and other factors.
3. New Magazine Showcasing Hive Creatives
And finally, we are launching a new weekly magazine, replacing our short story magazine. For the new Hive Creative Showcase Magazine, we will be looking beyond our community in search of creative works to curate and showcase from across the blockchain. Why? We love creativity! And with the continually increasing influence of AI, we want to ensure we are seeking out and rewarding innovative work that is the product of human inspiration and imagination.
That's it for now! We will be launching these changes right away, and once we get into stride we may make additional adjustments. Be sure to read our monthly newsletter to stay up to date.
As always, if you have questions, please visit the "ask-theinkwell" channel in our Discord server.
Winner(s) from the September 2025 Contest!
Image source: leonardo.ai/
Thank you to everyone who participated in our September fiction contest by writing stories for our fiction prompts throughout the month. If you submitted a story for any of our weekly fiction prompts, you were automatically entered into the monthly contest.
In addition to our winner of the month, we have selected several honorable mentions.
Our Winner!
Our top story of the month for September, 2025, winning a prize of 20 Hive is....
@popurri, with her story, Dreaming in Dreams.
Curator's notes:
@popurri writes a story composed of dreams within dreams, creating a fantastical puzzle as the main character navigates a coffee shop, international travel, a reappearing stranger, and a monumental discovery that has bearing on all life as we know it!
Congratulations, @popurri!
Honorable Mentions
The following stories were also in the running for best stories last month, with excellent storytelling!
- @artofkylin: Blame and Glitter
- @loveth97: Wedding Crasher
- @zain-ab001: The Red Door
- @rinconpoetico7: Orwell's Journey
- @riya2020: Bon Voyage
Well done, writers!
October Contest!
As a reminder, you are automatically entered into the contest of the month by writing and posting a story in The Ink Well anytime throughout the month. There is no prompt for the monthly contest. So keep writing for our weekly prompts and keep giving your stories your best effort!
Contest Rules
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Participate in one or more of our weekly writing prompts (or write any short story in The Ink Well) before the end of the calendar month.
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Post a link to your story in a comment on the prompt that inspired your story, if applicable.
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Use the #fiction or the #creativenonfiction tag, as well as the #inkwellprompt tag (if applicable) on your post.
Please remember that we have rules around violence, rape, blood, and physical abuse. See The Ink Well rules, and our article describing The Ink Well Stance on Violence.
If you have questions, please visit the "ask-theinkwell" channel in our Discord server.
At the end of the month, we will announce our winner of the month and our honorable mentions, and the winner will receive 20 Hive.
Hint: We are looking for a high-quality story. Don't rush. Remember the important skills we always talk about — great settings, good character building, strong dialog, and a good story arc that resolves well in the end.
And finally, we recommend using our tips in the article Help for the Grammatically Challenged to identify errors in your story before posting.
Good luck!
Find Us on Discord
Our Discord server is a great place to chat with other community members about the craft of writing.
Please pop into our Welcome channel, read our guidelines for conduct, and then feel free to interact with other community members or ask The Ink Well Team a question in the #ask-theinkwell channel.
Discord invitation link: https://discord.gg/Bng7mMsaQj
Delegate to The Ink Well / Follow Our Curation Trail
Want to support our community, our contests, and our rewards for great quality content? See the table below. We have made it super easy. Thank you, thank you, thank you! We have a goal to continue increasing the support we give to our wonderful, hardworking and dedicated authors!
You can follow our curation trail by going to our hive.vote curation trail page and clicking the follow button.
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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A big thank you to all of our delegators:
@jayna, @felt.buzz, @carn, @itsostylish, @ricardo993, @agmoore, @marriot5464, @marcybetancourt, @marlyncabrera, @stormcharmer, @nathy33, @ozd, @iamraincrystal, @jasonbu, @preparedwombat, @gracielaacevedo, @timix648, @samsmith1971, @jackdeathblack, @josemalavem, @generikat, @mineopoly, @hazmat, @kingsleyy, @popurri, @nancybriti1, @marynn, @rinconpoetico7, @iyimoga, @captainman, @kachy2022, @monster-hunter, @whatmidesays, @morey-lezama, @evagavilan2, @funshee, @amiegeoffrey, @balikis95, @rukkie, @raymondpeter, @tomiajax, @stuartcturnbull, @mosin-nagant, @beauty197, @beckyroyal, @perfect20, @zaeema, @almadepoeta, @estilodereba, @rare-gem, @jjmusa2004, @artofkylin, @ricurohemi28, @benwesterham, and @shakavon.
We invite lovers of creative writing to visit The Ink Well, a Hive community run by @jayna, @gracielaacevedo, @yaziris, @itsostylish, @samsmith1971 and @agmoore.
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