The Ink Well Fiction Prompt #201

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theinkwell4.3723 hours agoPeakD11 min read

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: "Party":

Author Shout-outs

We'd like to call out a few stories that got high marks from our curators this week.

@estilodereba

A Day to Remember

Curator comment:

@estilodera writes a well-conceived and well- structured story about a three-year-old who is having a birthday party. The author manages to express the innocence of childhood and the good-natured behavior of a parent. There is a piñata. It breaks because a guest has accidentally hit it with a ball. The birthday child's grandfather devises a substitute piñata and all ends well. The child is not verbal and yet the author manages to convey the little one's emotions. This is a lovely, highly readable story.

@seki1

Tears on a Drunken Night

Curator comment:

Seki1's story shows a sophisticated understanding of human motivation. He manages this with a skillful manipulation of POV. The story begins from the perspective of a young man who has dragged his friend to a party. The goal is to get the friend drunk. The friend is in crisis. A divorce has stripped him of his property, his children. The narrator believes that drunken oblivion may offer necessary respite. POV changes to the divorced friend. We hear his thoughts. He begins to weep as he remembers the way his faithless wife has stripped him of what he cared about. The POV changes again. We are back to the original narrator. He is communicating with someone in the parking lot who is waiting to drive the two partying men home. This is a clever plot device, because the phone conversation between these two allows us to see what is going on in the party. The story ends with a rather light touch, which saves the piece from being overly sentimental.

@marriot5464

Birthday Apocalypse

Curator comment:

If an author gets an audible chuckle from a reader, the author is doing something right. @marriot5464's fiction story, based on the gift prompt, describes a birthday party gone awry. A child's mother hires a magician. The magician accidentally casts a spell that calls up a dragon and gremlins. Chaos ensues. There's a cake fight, and a fight with a sponge sword. Finally, the birthday boy stuns the dragon by throwing a paint balloon at its eyes, and the other children have cake fights with the gremlins. In the end, the magician finds a spell that sends all the troublesome creatures back to oblivion. Everyone sits down to eat cake scraps and the birthday child declares the party to be the best he ever had. This story is all about pacing. The author creates humorous scenes, and he throws them at us in rapid succession so that the frantic atmosphere of the party is conveyed. Good, skilled writing.

Fiction Writing Prompt of the Week

This week's prompt is: "Old habits die hard"

Welcome to the prompt of the week. Have you heard the old adage that old habits die hard? It is an idiom that means it's difficult to stop doing things you've been doing for a long time. For example, a person might say, “I just can't seem to give up smoking. Old habits die hard”.

There are all kinds of habits that people pick up as they live their lives, and this makes for excellent character studies in fiction.

Habits that are difficult for many people to break include: procrastination, skipping breakfast, being late, not getting enough sleep, excessive screen time, unhealthy eating habits, smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, nail biting, and overspending.

We look forward to seeing the story you come up with for the "old habits die hard" prompt.

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:

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.
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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; #96 Trust; #97 Fly; #98 Comfort; #99 Fate; #100 To Create; #101 Vision; #102 Sympathy; #103 A Special Time; #104 Suspense; #105 Bride, stairs, illusion; #106 Reality TV; #107 Things the Go Bump in the Night; #108 First line: Two strange things happened that day; #109 What if that loose floorboard was actually a hidden passageway?; #110 Footsteps; #111 Mess; #112 Cards; #113 Elephant; #114 Crystal; #115 Phone call; #116 Date; #117 Chocolate; #118 Three words: wish, button, sky; #119 RSVP; #120 Objets d'art; #121 Soul; #122 Scuttlebutt; #123 Recall; #124 Doorway; #125 Beacon; #126 Seagull, Market, Box; #127 Window; #128 Terrified; #129 Dance; #130 Two endings; #131 Ghosted; #132 Treasure; #133 Taste; #134 Reunion; #135 I miss you; #136 Wonder; #137 Ruins; #138 Beach memories; #139 There was something in the wind; #140 Mask; #141 Halloween; #142 Photo album; #143 Dreams; #144 Crayon box; #145 Back of beyond; #146 Intuition; #147 Delight; #148 Anticipation; #149 Holiday memories; #150 Resolution; #151 Bicycle; #152 Flight; #153 Time Travel; #154 A trip to the fair; #155 Don't sell me a dog; #156 Gravity; #157 Love, wheelbarrow, dog; #158 Stealing; #159 Sportsmanship; #160 Toast; #161 Pickle; #162 You only live once; #163 Ring; #164 Hope; #165 Dreamcatcher; #166 In mother's house; #167 Keep Out; #168 Chin up; #169 Dish; #170 Talking in your sleep; #171 Wish upon a star; #172 Diary; #173 Plan B; #174 Clown; #175 The good old days; #176 The shoe is on the other foot; #177 Will tomorrow ever come?; #178 Am I a fool for dreaming?; 179 The moment that changed everything; #180 Superstition; #181 Gypsy; #182 Blind ambition; #183 Ah-ha moment; #184 Never say never; #185 Things are not always what they seem; #186 Domino effect; #187 The elephant in the room; #188 Higgledy-piggledy; #189 Scoundrel; #190 Storm the castle; #191 I think I'm being followed; #192 Hidden camera; #193 A long goodbye; #194 Confession; #195 Gobble; #196 Guilt; #197 Everything was fine until...; #198 Fragile; #199 Secret gift; #200 Party}

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