Creative Nonfiction in The Ink Well Prompt #35

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Welcome to The Ink Well's weekly creative nonfiction contest!

In this post, we'll announce the winners from last week's contest and provide the prompt for the coming week.

Before You Write Your Creative Nonfiction Post...

We ask that you read our Creative Nonfiction Tips post to learn about the creative nonfiction genre and review our guidelines.

Important notes:

Creative nonfiction stories are based on your real-life experiences.
We are looking for real short stories! Not advice columns, reports on crime or corruption in your city, observations on nature, recipes, religion, politics, or any other nonfiction content. Just real-life short stories.
Ideal story length is between 750 and 1500 words, but your story must be at least 350 words, at a minimum to be curated.
Please focus on quality content. Read and edit for errors! Use a grammar checker before you post your story.
We expect everyone who posts in The Ink Well to read and comment on at least two other stories for each one published.
Do not post stories featuring physical abuse, graphic violence, erotica or NSFW content.

Last Week's Creative Nonfiction Winners

Thank you to all who participated in last week's prompt Connection

Last week's participants

@arduilcelebren	@funshee	@universoperdido
@nelson-george	@talon12	@juniorgomez
@mineopoly	@ricardo993	@tozill
@minhajulmredol	@dianelson	@lightpen
@nancybriti1	@jhymi	@hazmat
@jjmusa2004	@treasuree	@wongi
@amiegeoffrey	@wallay	@lydiapauline
@rukkie	@merit.aham	@vivaebony
@kingsleyy	@ibbtammy

Honorable Mentions of the Week

@amiegeoffrey	A weird way of connecting with a mean-faced soldier From that day on, we bonded and became very close up to this day, being close to him made me realize how much of a sweet soul he is, I guess being mean is part of their job description, hehe. He even assured me to call on him whenever anybody treated me unjustly,that he would always show up.
@rukkie	SOME CONNECTIONS ARE FOREVER IMPRINTED When I heard the news, I couldn't breathe, it was as if a part of my soul is gone. I cried for days, I felt so down. Everyone was mourning. Our neighbors too felt it so deep because this person was so amazing that he'd capture the heart of everyone around.
@dianelson	A Tapestry of Connection I would go to her room and just lie on her body while she read or watched a movie because no matter how old I am, I will never be ashamed to admit that I will always need my mother. Two days ago when she visited me in school, we sat together in the kitchen and I simply just talked because she is always there to listen. She has always been there right from the beginning of time when I took my first breath on earth.
@funshee	Letter Writing era The era has passed, we are now at a time where connecting with our loved ones is just a fingertip away. I'm glad to be in this era where I don't need to write a letter hoping that a driver would deliver it and not lose it as we used to experience in some cases in that era.

Third Place: Wins 2 Hive

Our third place winner is @juniorgomez, with the story:

A bond of words

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Maybe it was a spur of the moment thing or it just had to be that way, but we were so depressed that we often fell into that theme. Neither of us had an easy life and, in a way, we were like the chicken that the more it digs the more dirt it throws on itself. I resorted to escape routes that created new prisons and she acted with total indifference to the more relevant things going on in her life. As if it didn't matter what we felt. As if none of it caused us pain.

Second Place: Wins 3 Hive

Our second place winner is @nancybriti1, with the story:

Connections from other lives

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After that, the memories are lights and sounds on a freeway: I screamed a lot and everyone woke up; we called a neighbor so we could move my sister to the hospital; my sister saying goodbye to me with my hand clutching it. Me running a mile a mile for hours with a parched mouth.

First Place: Wins 5 Hive

Our first place winner is @ricardo993, with the story:

Know each other, communication and understanding

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However, no matter how much we escaped the heat, I was immersed in my spiral of thoughts. I sat there, listening to them talk about uniforms, papers that still needed to be delivered, tariffs that had to be paid, and the other expenses that came with graduation. Every time they asked me, it was like adding another problem to my brain, I was about to collapse.

This Week's Prompt #35:

Guilt

How we react to guilt can often define the boundaries of a relationship.

This week we ask you to write a creative personal story that reads like fiction using words related to guilt.

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

Tell us how your feelings of guilt influenced a personal relationship, either positively or negatively.
Perhaps you have a guilty pleasure that you go to great lengths to keep secret.
Maybe you realized that coming clean about something that you did in the past was the only way forward for your mental health. If you did decide to own up, what consequences did you face?
An accusation directed at a group can often make individuals act guiltily even if they aren't--tell us about your tormented feelings if you've ever been in this type of situation.

Tell us about it! And remember to integrate storytelling elements like characters, scene setting, dialogue and action to bring your story to life!

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

Contest Rules

You have 6 days to write your story from the date of this prompt post. Be sure to check the deadline countdown.
Write a real-life story with the creative elements of fiction, like characters, dialogue, scene setting and a story conflict.
Post your story in The Ink Well Community.
Please use the tags #creativenonfiction and #inkwellprompt on these posts. Other possible tags: #writing #inkwellprompt #nonfiction
Stories must be written in English. If you've translated the post, it's best to add the original version below the translation. Do not write mixed language paragraphs.
Read and comment on at least two stories in the community. Add a link to your story as a comment on this post.

And be sure to remember to join The Ink Well community!

Prizes

Prizes are only for stories written for this week's prompt

First place : 5 Hive.
Second place : 3 Hive.
Third place : 2 Hive.

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@jayna, @felt.buzz, @zeurich, @itsostylish, @marcybetancourt, @agmoore, @marlyncabrera, @stormcharmer, @iamraincrystal, @preparedwombat, @gracielaacevedo, @chocolatescorpi, @samsmith1971, @grindan, @jackdeathblack, @josemalavem, @riverflows, @generikat, @mineopoly, @treasuree, @kenechukwu97, @timix648, @morey-lezama, @evagavilan2, @popurri, @mrenglish, @stuartcturnbull, @nelson-george, @marilour, @rinconpoetico7, @funshee, @amiegeoffrey, @loveah, @wongi, @balikis95, @juniorgomez, @hazmat, and @marriot5464.

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