Creative Nonfiction in The Ink Well: Prompt #23

Dear community:

Welcome to Prompt #23 in our creative nonfiction initiative. Thank you to everyone who contributed a nonfiction story last week.

Here's a quick overview of how it works:

Each week, we provide a creative nonfiction prompt. You are also welcome to post other creative nonfiction pieces that are not based on the prompt. See the guidelines below.

To be curated, your content should follow our guidelines, be at least 350 words (but ideally 750 -1500 words), be written in English, or another language as well as the English translation, and — as much as possible — free of errors. We also expect everyone who posts stories in The Ink Well to read and comment on the work of at least two other community members for each story published. (Thank you!)

What Is Creative Nonfiction?

There are many guides and resources online for getting to know this wonderful genre. It is truly about storytelling. The simple difference between creative nonfiction and fictional stories is that the story is not made up.

We like this definition from an article on creativenonfiction.org:

Simply put: Creative nonfiction is true stories, well told.

With creative nonfiction, you are using the literary and storytelling tools of a fiction writer to craft stories from real life experiences. Set the scene. Give the details. Profile the characters. Give us the dialog, as best you can remember it.

Ideas and inspiration:

• Creative nonfiction stories can be snippets from your life autobiography — moments in time you want to capture in words, whether they were frightening, enlightening, bittersweet, or life-altering. They can be observations about life, about a time you connected at a profound level with a perfect stranger, or something you have learned along the way that made you a better person.

• Do you love podcasts? One of the greatest sources of creative nonfiction is The Moth Radio Hour. Listen to a few of the stories from The Moth, and we guarantee you will be inspired.

• Here are some additional resources for learning more about the creative nonfiction genre:
  -- Reedsy blog: What is Creative Nonfiction? The Unputdownable Truth
  -- Writers.com: Understanding Creating Nonfiction: What It Is and How to Write It

• Check out this list of creative nonfiction stories. For example, one of the stories is about a funeral for a lizard named Rango.

We hope you are inspired!

Guidelines for Creative Nonfiction Articles in The Ink Well

1. Write creative nonfiction stories about real life, memories, or experiences.
2. As with our fiction guidelines, we ask that articles be at least 350 words in length. Optimal length is 750-1500 words.
3. Please read and edit your content before posting. It makes a big difference in how we reward work published in The Ink Well. (And we have some great guidelines for improving your grammar and fixing errors before you post in this article.)
4. Please post directly in The Ink Well community, and post your link in a comment on this post.
5. Please use the tag #creativenonfiction on these posts.

Here are some examples of what we are looking for:

• Explore an idea that interests you, such as how childhood experiences shape us as adults.
• Write about the study of dreams and what they mean, along with your own experience.
• Tell about an experience from your life that profoundly changed you.
• Write about a teacher who inspired you.

In other words, tell a story from real life. And illustrate the ideas you share with real world experiences, memories and observations.

Here’s what we are NOT looking for:

• A picture of a flower or other posts focused on photography
• A few paragraphs about what you ate for lunch
• Recipes and how-to articles
• Life lessons or advice
• Essays about religion or politics
• Poetry

What will be muted:

• Spam posts or plagiarism
• Graphic violence
• Lectures or proselytizing about religion, politics or morality

Last Week's Creative Nonfiction Winners

Thank you to all who participated in last week's prompt: "Try, fail, try again." We enjoyed reading how our writers reacted to this announcement. There was fantastic writing!

Writers who joined in the fun:

@abrarhussain
@abdul-qudus
@amiegeoffrey
@hiverdrive
@fragozar01
@idlemind
@funshee
@yuki-nee
@jhymi
@kingsleyy
@mrenglish
@restcity
@princessbusayo
@diikaan
@edystringz
@ricardo993
@riz611
@treasuree
@abdul-qudus
@amiableamara
@dianelson
@jessicaossom
@lenaspiritual
@lightpen
@lizizoo
@lrscarmen
@marynn
@Owasco
@rammargarita
@rukkie
@timix648
@merit.ahama
@borderline.baby
@gracielaacevedo

Honorable Mentions of the Week

Our honorable mentions for last week's prompt are:

• @diebitch: A baby dream for moms

• @timix648: Funny Computer Repair Experience

• @fragozar01: Fail to Live Better

• @amiegeoffrey: I didn't give up on my journey of learning a new language even though I failed at first.

Third Place: Wins 2 Hive

Our third place winner is @yuki-nee , with his story Rising from Failure: A New Phase .

Hence, in August of 2019 I resumed my schooling.There was a lot of struggle in the first few weeks. I couldn't keep up with the younger students and the overwhelming amount of information they were exposed to. To avoid another setback, I put in more effort than ever before. I paid close attention in class, took extensive notes, and raised my hand whenever I had questions.
The turning point occurred when I received my first poor grade. There were times when I wanted to quit because I believed I would never be good enough.(...)And now, I will have my diploma in hand in a few months. It has been a long and challenging road, but I am so pleased with myself that I have not given up. I have tried, failed, and tried again, but this time I have succeeded. .

Second Place: Wins 3 Hive

Our second place winner is @owasco, with his story Humiliation and Failure.

The first time was back when she was only twenty three. She had been asked to audition, so she felt like hot stuff. But when they asked her to sing, she froze. She was then commanded to "just sing Happy Birthday." Only tiny croaks came out of her mouth. Mortifying! Nearly thirty years passed before she dared to try again.
This time the aspirant got serious. She worked diligently for weeks beforehand. She'd gotten acting advice, voice lessons, and a wardrobe consult about how to dress to impress. She made sure to get plenty of sleep leading up to the event, and to drink lots of water. By the time the audition came up, she sounded like a rock star.
At home. Where no one could hear her.

First Place: Wins 5 Hive

Our first place winner is @restcity, with her story Fight, Fail, Keep Fighting!.

Try Again:
Nowadays I am able to let things like that go. I combat my overthinking by giving myself time to think about it and moving on. If a mistake I made is just rotting in my mind, I’ll ask myself: What am I so mad about? Could I have changed what happened? What can I do in the future to prevent this outcome?
I’ll write about what happened, and what I could do next time to prevent the bad outcome. I don’t feel completely better, but my mind feels eased enough to move onto other things.
I still have a bit of that girl from before. The me who dwelled on her mistakes, the girl who feels like she always does things wrong. But I fight her with the older, more doughty me, who knows with time and practice I can and have improved myself for the better. Nowadays I shake off a little insult. And good luck if you wanna bully me.

The Ink Well Creative Nonfiction Writing Prompt #23:

"The biggest surprise of my life."

Surprise is an emotional situation, an experience caused by something we do not expect and that completely captures our attention.
There are surprises of all kinds: pleasant surprises and unpleasant surprises, big surprises and small surprises.
Surprises make life interesting.
This week we ask you to surprise us with situations that have happened to you.

For this theme there are several possible approaches. For example:

• You thought you knew a person very well, yet you have been surprised by the way they have acted.

• You arrive home to find it tidied up very differently from the way you left it. What happened?

• You have been thinking and suddenly you discover something inside you that surprises you.

• A landscape, a flower, a gesture... captivates your attention. Tell us about it!

Have fun and good luck! We look forward to reading your stories.

Please use the tags #creativenonfiction and #inkwellprompt on these posts. And please remember to add your post link to a comment on this post!

NOTE: Please refrain from providing advice, guidance, or suggestions to others about their life choices in your post. Creative nonfiction is about storytelling.

Prizes!

• The top creative nonfiction story of the week will receive 5 Hive
• The second place story will receive 3 Hive
• Third place will receive 2 Hive

Deadline

You have a week, until the next prompt is posted, to post your creative nonfiction story in The Ink Well community.

See you in The Ink Well!

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