The Inkwell Fiction Prompt #237

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: "Boredom":

@almadepoeta
@daeze-winnie
@tranquil3
@whatmidesays
@pretemi
@julie100
@marriot5464
@happy080
@sherah
@nahid43
@oyebolu
@venom2951
@rinconpoetico7
@corporateay
@marsdave
@itztaba99
@riya2020
@stone4
@neotopher
@perfect20
@zerah
@popurri
@treasuree
@delightedpen
@ellizy
@janaveda
@nova94
@freakyfavour
@rare-gem
@faithwellington
@lara-bee
@artofkylin
@farahikram

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.

@zerah

The King's Dice

Curator comment:

@zerah writes an absolutely lovely story about a young pharoah who had risen to the throne when his parents died young. He is bored out of his mind by all of the pomp and circumstance of the palace. Finally one night he slips out dressed in plain clothes and has an adventurous evening playing dice with boys in the street. He does not reveal his identity because he knows they will no longer treat him like a friend if he does. A charming tale, nicely told!

@tranquil3

The Witness

Curator comment:

@tranquil3 writes a wonderful story, about a witness. It's finely paced, and rich in detail. We are pulled into the story that might have been tedious in the hands of a less skilled author. It's a good read.

@whatmidesays

Apparently, Boredom Is Just Drama Running Late

Curator comment:

@whatmidesays has some solid writing talent. This story takes us into the daily life of a young woman who is struggling with boredom that borderlines depression. But with two men in her life -- one a true lifelong friend and the other a social media sensation who pops into her life unannounced — she has plenty of opportunity to evaluate her life and what's important.

This is some delightful storytelling. Very articulate and on-point, with great integration of dialogue.

Nicely done, writers!

Fiction Writing Prompt of the Week

This week's prompt is: "Blame"

When things go wrong, some people want to find someone to blame. Others want to deflect blame for the bad things away from themselves — especially if they are truly at fault! And some people shrug their shoulders, realize that blaming someone for problems never fixes anything, and simply get to work trying to set it right.

In other words, when things go wrong, it's interesting to see how different personality types deal with the situation, and whether they must find someone to blame for the problems or if they deal with it in a mature and effective way.

Tell us a story where where your story characters are dealing with a situation where someone or some thing may be at fault for the thing that has gone wrong, and the true personality traits of those involved are revealed!

We look forward to reading your stories.

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; #92 Tend/Tender; #93 Cheer; #94 Appearance; #95 [Ambition](https://peak}