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 tips.
Stories from the Previous Week
Thank you to who posted a story for last week's prompt: "New Year's resolution":
- @beccatessy2
- @nancybriti1
- @abigail04
- @terjix
- @vickiee9
- @coolbabe88
- @sabiukpa
- @rinconpoetico7
- @zerah
- @newbreed
- @bisolamih
- @estilodereba
- @rare-gem
- @lightpen
- @abojode
- @offia66
- @perfect20
- @kei2
- @rammargarita
- @seki1
- @bipolar95
- @samiwrites
Author Shout-outs
We'd like to call out a few stories that got high marks from our curators this week.
@kei2
Curator comment:
@kei2 weaves a fantasy tale about 'weavers', tiny winged creatures that weave New Years resolutions into the fabric of time. Except, the creatures can only be winged if they capture a certain quota of resolutions. @kei2's story skillfully switches perspective from a group of human children to a group of weavers. One child refuses to make a resolution. One weaver needs a second wing, and in order to get that she needs to collect one more resolution before the end of the year. Time is running out. The little weaver meets the resolution-free child. The child is persuaded to make a resolution and the weaver gets her second wing. This is a lovely story, told with skill. It's quite an accomplishment when a writer can persuade us to believe that a fantasy creature and a child have had a substantive conversation.
@terjix
Curator comment:
Rituals mark essential passages in life: when we are born, when we marry, when we die--and when we pass from childhood to adulthood. @terjix offers a story that deals with the ritual of leaving school and preparing to enter adulthood. The protagonist of her story is invited to attend a party, a ritual organized by his peers to mark the end of their school career. The protagonist goes to the party because he wants to conform, but he is not interested in this sort of ritual. At the party he has a moment of truth. He either conforms to the demands of his peers--in this case, smoke a cigarette--or he strikes a blow for independence. He rejects the cigarette and the shared ritual. He symbolically embarks on adulthood in his own fashion, his own way. This is a well-structured story, one with a relevant message.
@seki1
Curator comment:
@seki1 offers a rather unique interpretation of the fiction prompt. He takes us into the mind of someone who has engaged in a battle and is wounded. The character muses about his prospects, his environment. The author introduces a rat into the scene--a creative touch. The character is tired, wounded, and hungry. The rat appears in order to steal the crust of bread the character had hidden. Suddenly the character hears a voice. It turns out it's his own voice, in his head. In the moment of extreme physical and mental stress, he disassociates and regards that voice as another presence. He sleeps. When he wakes, he notes his wound has been cleaned, and the rat has taken part of his bread. Nothing magical about the wound cleaning. The character realizes that in a moment of stress he zoned out and cleaned the wound himself. This character has not won, but is still surviving. In this case, a win means not losing, and the character resolves in the coming year not to lose.
Fiction Writing Prompt of the Week
This week's prompt is: "Unanswered questions"
Welcome to the prompt of the week. Tell us the story of someone who is looking for answers. It could be a quest for knowledge. Or a fear that something has happened to someone your character loves and no one will tell them the truth. Or perhaps there is a past relationship that ended for unexplained reasons. It could be an age-old family mystery that has remained unexplained for decades.
These are just some initial ideas. We trust you will have many more!
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: - 50 Loglines - 50 Story Ideas - 50 Imagination Ticklers
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](https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@t