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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 those who posted a story for last week's prompt: Choices
- @chiddy
- @litguru
- @neotopher
- @zerah
- @terjix
- @nahid43
- @team4
- @venom2951
- @ghost-art
- @ellizy
- @oyebolu
- @almadepoeta
- @marriot5464
- @sherah
- @delightedpen
- @ubani
- @artofkylin
- @marsdave
- @popurri
- @loveth97
- @rinconpoetico7
- @perfect20
- @rare-gem
- @stone4
- @nova94
- @treasuree
- @zain-ab001
- @ivoryluv
- @riya2020
- @abigail04
- @newbreed
- @pretemi
- @offia66
- @jemima2001
- @deborahofweb3
- @sammywrite
- @tranquil3
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.
@almadepoeta
Curator comment:
@almadepoeta writes an intriguing fiction about the morality of choosing to lie. The piece is a perfect balance of the symmetry of reasoning and finding moral ground in deception. An intriguing read.
@rinconpoetico7
Curator comment:
@rinconpoetico7 writes a science fiction story that is also a spy story. There is the classic conflict between the human will to challenge the laws of nature and the fear that violating these laws will lead to calamity. The story is cleanly and effectively written, and a testament to how literature can tackle philosophical challenges.
@litguru
Curator comment:
@litguru brings us a fiction about choice. The choice to constrain humanity and emotional connection, and remain stoic and scientific, applying cool reasoning and arms length exposition and interaction with his MC's research subject. He purposefully crafts the story to show the conflict in his MC's mind between applying strict scientific approaches to testing and allowing his human side to emerge and show empathy with his disabled participant.
The piece was layered and thoughtfully constructed. He allows glimpses of humanity to peek through the chinks of stoicism as the monologue of the researcher fights with himself each step of the way. There is a breaking point when the MC helps his subject back into her wheelchair at the end of the story. Another interesting and thought-provoking piece from Litguru.
Incidentally, this story sparked an interesting dialogue between our curator and Litguru about the writing craft. Check it out in the story comments! We love conversations like this, incidentally. But we generally don't have the time to launch them. It's always fun to discuss the ups and downs of fiction writing. We would love to see our writing community discussing questions around the writing craft on our Discord server.
Nicely done, writers!
Fiction Writing Prompt of the Week
This week's prompt is: "What are you doing here?"
This theme is about those times when people show up unexpectedly. Think of storylines where people appear unexpectedly. It could be a wonderful surprise or a shock. For example, maybe your character believes they will never see a long lost friend again... and suddenly, they show up unannounced. Or your character is relaxing on vacation in some remote place when a past love is suddenly standing there on the beach. Or perhaps your character is at work when his or her mother, sibling or friend appears on some unknown mission.
Tell us a story where your character is surprised when someone they know — or knew in the past &mdash shows up out of the blue, and they need to solve the mystery as to why that person has suddenly appeared unexpectedly.
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](https://peakd.com/hive-1707