Source: Generated with Leonardo.ai
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: "Unanswered questions":
- @aiuna
- @graat
- @nancybriti1
- @marriot5464
- @coolbabe88
- @jennyzee1
- @mmeyenejoseph
- @successwrite
- @mathewdaddywah
- @rammargarita
- @abigail04
- @oyebolu
- @alovely088
- @rare-gem
- @young-tari
- @offia66
- @joycealarapon
- @bisolamih
- @popurri
- @rinconpoetico7
- @estilodereba
- @hazmat
- @kei2
- @bipolar95
- @aloysiusmbaba
Author Shout-outs
We'd like to call out a few stories that got high marks from our curators this week.
@hazmat
Curator comment:
@hazmat offers a fresh, well plotted and neatly resolved fiction for the “unanswered questions” prompt. The story revolves around a mystery restaurant guest who frequents an establishment nightly. The staff grow found of him, but one day he simply disappears. Hazmat ties the piece together by creating an unpredictable coincidence that answers all the cliffhangers.
@rinconpoetico7
The Curse of the Camistrel Family
Curator comment:
@rinconpoetico7 writes a story for the unanswered questions prompt about a family living under a curse where all the men die before they reach 40 years of age. The grandmother does not want to see her grandson suffer the same fate and undertakes to find a living relative of the original man who had their family cursed by a shaman when her great-great-grandfather wronged his family by taking their land and destroying them. She meets a waitress who explains that she knows an old man by that family name who lives in the forest and that she feeds him each day. She takes the woman to meet him. She discovers that he is none other than the original man who placed the curse and that he cannot die until he has been forgiven by her family. All he wants is true forgiveness so he can rest in peace. She forgives him and apologises for her great-great-grandfather's terrible behaviour. The old man finally dies and the curse is lifted. The author went to a lot of effort to develop this piece. There were further specifics shared on how to break the curse which were well thought out.
@popurri
Curator comment:
@popurri conceived a beautiful story for this week's fiction call for entries. It is a well thought out story that begins with the enigma of a repeated dream of the protagonist in which two people and a house with red roofs appear. The story contains suggestive elements, a question mark that becomes an obsession, a family secret and memories of the protagonist's life before she was born. To these elements are added the author's ability to describe the settings and to convey the credibility of the plot.
Fiction Writing Prompt of the Week
This week's prompt is: "Hey, the line is back here!"
Welcome to the prompt of the week. For this week's prompt, we are looking for stories of outraged shoppers. If you have ever stood for a long time in a line and had someone go up to the counter and completely miss the fact that others are already waiting, then you know what this prompt is all about.
Maybe your character must pick up a prescription from the pharmacy for an ill relative. Or they got in line early to buy concert tickets for a popular band. Or maybe they are just having a really bad day, and they have no patience for someone even asking a question at the counter instead of waiting their turn in the queue.
These are just some initial ideas. We trust you will have many more! Tell us a story where someone in the story says "Hey, the line is back here!"
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; #95 [Ambition](https://peakd.com/publish?edit=theinkwell%2Fthe