Source: 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 who posted a story for last week's prompt: "Fear":
- @caramel10
- @owen222
- @edith-4angelseu
- @trexane
- @jazclassis
- @oyebolu
- @gertu
- @marriot5464
- @rare-gem
- @perfect20
- @bisolamih
- @jennyzee1
- @rammargarita
- @ghost-art
- @abojode
- @demmybabs
- @whatmidesays
- @abigail04
- @universoperdido
- @mbiatabasi
- @popurri
- @ezun1
- @coolbabe88
- @farahikram
- @jemima2001
- @sherah
- @rinconpoetico7
- @zerah
- @offia66
- @ubani
- @aiuna
- @nancybriti1
- @bipolar95
- @terjix
- @consistency
- @aloysiusmbaba
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.
@terjix
Curator comment:
@terjix writes a heartbreakingly poignant story about an orphan girl who watches the other children play in the rain, but cannot join them because the sisters who run the facility tell her she could get sick because she has sickle cell anemia. One day a new girl comes to the orphanage who is brave and strong, and turns out also to have sickle cell anemia. She helps Jola burst through her barriers and play in the rain, telling her she is a warrior. This is a beautifully written story.
@rammargarita
Curator comment:
@rammargarita writes a complex and interesting fictional story for the fear prompt. A young woman comes to understand that her features are different from her parents, and sees a white woman who looks like her. Soon, the truth comes out that the woman who looks like her is her birth mother, and she learns the story of how she became adopted.
The story is nicely told. rammargarita is a very good storyteller, and I always enjoy her stories.
@wrestlingdesires
Curator comment:
@wrestlingdesires offers a 'fear' story that has both a post-apocalyptic and a spy thriller feel to it. The author excels at creating scene and character. The story opens as the main character, a secret agent. is escaping with a critical memory drive. He is intercepted by an enemy agent who also apparently is his love. The secret agent is forced to hand over the memory drive. In the handover he manages to pass a fast-acting drug to his love, a drug that seems to act on contact with the skin. The enemy agent collapses to the floor, unconscious. It's a great story, rich in detail and imagination. It's a story that will stay in the readers memory.
Nicely done, writers!
Fiction Writing Prompt of the Week
This week's prompt is: "Shopping"
Shopping is something everyone must do. Which means it's a great opportunity for us all to imagine interesting scenarios that could make good stories.
What if your character is reaching for the very last of a specific hard-to-find item, just as someone else decides they want it? Or what if your character is a child who begs to be allowed to go do the shopping for the day for her mother, and once her mother finally relents, she loses the money along the way? Or what if a married couple goes to the market together each Saturday because the wife insists her husband must accompany her, but he hates he hates to shop, and she always spends a long time talking with friends she meets along the way?
Those are just a few ideas. What will you come up with? Tell us a story that is funny, dramatic or frightening about shopping.
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.
- 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](https://peakd.com/hive-170798/@theinkwell/the-ink-well-prompt-91-plus-weekly-challenge-and-pr