The Ink Well Fiction Writing Challenge #2 - Bad Habits
Image by Oi Jr from Pixabay modified in photoshop.
Hi @theinkwell writers and creatives. Today, is the second in our program of weekly fiction writing challenges. We're all about encouraging creativity at the ink well and inspiring as many people as possible to post new original content.
These prompts will be a weekly occurrence, with fiction on Tuesdays and poetry on Thursdays. The prompts are meant as a tool to spark an idea and can be used as a catalyst for a story, or as the impetus for the end of a story - it's all up to you and your imagination.
This fiction challenge will last for seven days. Exceptional entries will earn higher Curie rewards and will be submitted to OCD for potential inclusion in their daily community curation compilation. We encourage everyone in the community to actively participate in commenting on other member’s stories as this will build a strong community.
This week I wanted to do something different than last week. Rather than starting a story that we challenge you to finish, I would like to provide an interesting scenario that will hopefully inspire some unique and unexpected twists. The idea is to flip things on their heads, to provide an idea that will offer up an opportunity to turn the expected into the unexpected.
This prompt is brought to you by @raj808, founder, admin and curator at @theinkwell.
Fiction Prompt:
I would like you create a character with a bad habit. It could be something as workaday as smoking a twenty pack of cigarettes a day, or as extreme as a heroin addict who mugs people to feed their habit.
Picking your nose, road rage, interrupting people in the middle of a sentence... anything you can imagine, as extreme or seemingly harmless as you want.
Then write a story with at least two character, the main one with the bad habit and other secondary characters.
The twist: the bad habit turns out to be a force for good. In some way show how the main character's bad habit helps someone, or improves the lives of the other characters, the main character, or both.
I've purposely made this prompt more open ended than the last one. There is no genre stipulated and just an idea for inspiring many different iterations of a common theme. Even if you subvert the premise in some way that is interesting and unique, that is fine.
Above all enjoy letting your creativity take you down unexpected paths, building interesting characters that the readers will love or loathe. Or perhaps love to loathe.
I shall also join in with this fiction challenge, hopefully on Saturday. In the mean time, shock me with your character's bad habits!
I look forward to reading your entries.
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haha
Hi @Raj808,
I'm here! Couldn't resist the invitation. I saw last week's prompt but don't go too much in for fantasy writing [science fiction is another matter], so I didn't participate.
Do we need the twist? I usually do better (and have more fun) when my imagination takes a trip with an undetermined destination. I could do the prompt, with the bad trait. And I certainly need at least one secondary character. Often, the writing develops as I go along. I may start with an end in mind, but that doesn't always work. Perhaps it will turn out, as I write, that good comes from the bad trait, but I chafe against constraints. I need an open road :)
Please let me know how that works for you. I already have an idea in mind.
I'm excited about the Inkwell community, and admire you for starting a writing community.
With great respect and affection
AG
Of course that is fine. Just have fun with it.
Even if you subvert the premise in some way that is interesting and unique, that is fine.I'm (and the ink well) all about inspiring creative writing, but ultimately for it to be a fun process! Some people find they get creative block and in these cases prompts can be very helpful for them. I know you don't have this issue when you're in fiction writing mode.
So yeah, it would be cool if you went with the bad habit thing, especially if you've already got an idea, but the twist I suggest is only a suggestion. Nothing is set in stone 😉
I'm just interested to see what you come up with, and keen to get more high quality short story writers active at The Ink Well, as we now have the potential to reward very well.
Check out the announcement I posted from my blog last night.
https://steempeak.com/hive-170798/@raj808/good-news-story-the-ink-well-joins-ocd-s-community-curation
I'm actively seeking good writing to submit daily for the OCD vote and inclusion in their new community curation publication. One of the reasons I started The Ink Well was to make sure fiction and poetry started to get the recognition it deserves, and through the original sponsorship of curie, and now my invite into OCD, I can make this happen.
It's been an insane amount of work to achieve all this in 10 days but it feels really good to have achieved one of my main goals for the ink well so fast.
Now all I need is the fictioneers and poets. And that's phase 2 of my dastardly plan. To try and bring many creative writers who've left steem back in a spirit of feeling able to post their work somewhere they won't be ignored. I know how demoralising it is to post a 3000 word short story on steem for it to make only a few dollars and receive no comments other than spam... well no more! Not on my watch, not at The Ink Well 😉
Hope all this clarifies things for you. The prompt is completely open ended. I look forward to reading your story and seeing what you come up with 👍
I'm not ignoring. The first challenge was fantasy. I've never been a fantasy fiction baby and I don't do well with prompts and deadlines, but I will try this time. I have to. In as much as I love my freedom when writing, a little discipline isn't such a bad idea.
I'll see what I can come up with before the week runs out.
Take the prompt only as a suggestion. You can post any fiction you write and we'll be happy to read it!
100% don't feel constrained. If you want to respond to the prompt... Cool 🙂
If not, post any poetry or fiction... Also cool 🙂
May team up with @shadowspub and @freewritehouse for massive community project ;)
@alliedforces curate
Keep up the great work and join us in The Castle sometime!
The #spreadlovenotwar curation campaign is under the guidance of witnesses @enginewitty and @untersatz.
What a wonderful idea!
Raj, when I'm posting in the community do I hit the black post button on the bottom or the little green link in the upper right hand corner that says, Post to Blog?
I get confused with communities.
Thanks....the story is done. Just don't know how to post it.
Do you use steempeak?
I explained this one to Carol a few days ago and it's easier if you use steempeak.
To do it in steemit you go to the community page: https://steemit.com/trending/hive-170798
and hit the 'new post' button near to the top right of the page(see screenshot below).
Then when you have hit 'new post' a post writing screen will pop up and you can input your posts markdown, title and tags:
You see how it says posting to The Ink Well at the top left? That means it is posting to our community, and ignore the bit on the top right that says 'post to blog' if you click that it won't post to The Ink Well community. Once you have copied your post html/markdown writing etc into that window and hit post at the bottom, it should show up in The Ink Well.
Then the final step is to find your post in the ink well community and resteem it so that it shows up on your blog as well :)
Hope this helps,
@raj808 answering from the community account.
P.s. if you do use steempeak it's even simpler and just let me know and I'll show you how to do it using steempeak with screenshots etc :)
This is the third time I tried posting to a community. First two times I messed up (collage community and LMAC), so this time I won't experiment with Steempeak and the community. Keep it simple.
It worked! Now I have to join Ink Well on @agmoore. Baby steps, baby steps.
Thanks for the instructions.
the Steem blockchain is not short on really good ideas, and this is one of them. I wish I didn't have about 20 communities I wanted to be involved in! Nonetheless, I'm going to check this one out.
Thanks for bringing it by #pypt!
Here's mine for the week... covid-19 situation is pretty crazy where I am at the moment.. writing helps take the mind off panicky situations.. stay safe everyone!
https://steempeak.com/hive-170798/@iamraincrystal/have-a-nice-stay