The Inkwell Fiction Prompt #223

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: "The power of hindsight":

@beccatessy2
@oyebolu
@owen222
@almadepoeta
@zerah
@nancybriti1
@wlin
@venom2951
@basil20
@caramel10
@aiuna
@rare-gem
@goshen
@phyna
@iquo
@bisolamih
@gabmr
@perfect20
@zain-ab001
@lara-bee
@offia66
@jennyzee1
@faithwellington
@happy080
@beckyroyal
@ellizy
@edith-4angelseu
@jemima2001
@rinconpoetico7
@marriot5464
@delightedpen
@abojode
@cyberking25
@jhymie
@universoperdido
@popurri
@farahikram
@stone4
@coolbabe88
@rammargarita

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.

@litguru

Transmigration Revisited

Curator comment:

@litguru writes an intelligent, adventurous story. He turns established ideas inside out as entities with AI conscious reenact the Garden scene with Eve and Adam. There is the proverbial snake, with 'forked tongue'. There is experimentation with sensation. Through reincarnation--AI into primitive human consciousness--they, and we, experience the awkwardness of physical being. This story represents the author's exploration of the familiar and expected. This is brilliantly executed and never for a moment does our attention wander.

@universoperdido

The Mirror of Second Chances

Curator comment:

@universoperdido writes a very imaginative fiction in which through the vision in an antique mirror the protagonist can travel to the past and see the life she would have lived if she had not decided against it. Just as easily through the mirror she returns to the present.

@seki1

The Rise of Apollo

Curator comment:

seki1's story is a mythic tale. It is intelligent, original, perplexing, and very well written. Like many conundrums in life, there is no satisfactory conclusion to the central question of whether to take life and death matters in hand, in particular when the lives in question are higher powers. However, in the end we come away with the understanding that mortals should not mix in the business of the gods.

Nicely done, writers!

Fiction Writing Prompt of the Week

This week's prompt is: "Ill at ease"

To be "ill at ease" means to be wary and uncertain. It is that feeling that comes over you when you fear you are about to make a terrible mistake. Or you walk into a room and everyone suddenly stops talking and you're not sure why. Or you can't shake the sense that someone who is being kind to you in your presence is behaving in a completely different way behind your back. There are too many scenarios to count where one can get that odd feeling that things are not right, or that danger lurks.

When asked to write the synopsis of three story ideas for the "ill at ease" prompt, here's what ChatGPT came up with:

"The Third-Floor Smile" (Psychological Thriller) A young woman sublets an apartment in a crumbling old building, only to find herself constantly watched by a neighbor who never speaks—just smiles. At first she chalks it up to eccentricity, but unease grows into terror when she realizes no one else in the building seems to have ever seen the man… and the apartment he supposedly lives in has been abandoned for decades.
"The Mispronounced Curse" (Humorous Fantasy) A bumbling apprentice wizard tries to impress his mentor by casting a complex spell during dinner. Instead of charming the meal, he accidentally invokes a minor curse that makes everyone at the table painfully aware of every social faux pas. Secrets, awkward compliments, and misremembered names spill out, turning a formal banquet into a full-blown farce of etiquette-induced panic.
"Company Retreat" (Drama) During a corporate team-building retreat in the mountains, a shy employee begins to suspect the activities aren’t just for bonding—they're designed to reveal personal weaknesses. With each passing challenge, he becomes more paranoid, unsure if the goal is growth or quiet elimination. As alliances shift and tensions boil, the line between productivity and cruelty begins to blur.

What will you come up with? Tell us a story!

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}