September 2025 Updates and Monthly Fiction Contest from The Ink Well
Image source: leonardo.ai/
In this monthly newsletter, we share tips for our writers, as well as any important news or updates, and announce the winner(s) of the previous month's contest for the best overall story of the month.
Helpful resources:
We collect all of our important tips for success in the community in our Treasure Trove of Tips, Reminders and Guidelines. If you're looking for writing tips and help with improving your writing craft, be sure to check out our catalog of fiction writing tips.
Topics in this newsletter:
- Topic of the Month: Story Length
- Winner(s) from the August Contest!
- September Contest
- Find Us on Discord
- Delegate to The Ink Well / Follow Our Curation Trail
Topic of the Month: Story Length
Hello friends. Thank you for your continued participation in The Ink Well. Our topic of the month is story length — i.e. the number of words you put on the page. While a longer story is not necessarily a better story, there is an important reason behind our request that you write stories that are a minimum of 750 words.
The reason is this: In most cases, we find that writers who produce shorter stories miss opportunities for story development. This can include dialogue that helps to break up passages of narrative and give readers more insights into the characters. It can include scene setting, character development, action, an added complication that strengthens your story's conflict as well as its resolution... and more.
Here are some of the resources in our Catalog of Storytelling Tips to support these important story elements:
- Story settings
- Action, dialogue and narrative, the dynamic trio
- Adding conflict
- Story arcs
- Character descriptions
- How to write dialogue in fiction
So — when you find that your story is only 500 or 600 words, think about how you can add more details, more scene setting or world building elements, or more dialogue, that helps make the story more interesting, more readable and more compelling. If you do that, you will have no trouble writing stories that meet our 750 word minimum.
As always, if you have questions, please visit the "ask-theinkwell" channel in our Discord server. But note that we do not tolerate pleading or arguing with our admins.
Winner(s) from the August 2025 Contest!
Image source: ArtSpark on Pixabay
Thank you to everyone who participated in our August fiction contest by writing stories for our fiction prompts throughout the month. If you submitted a story for any of our weekly fiction prompts, you were automatically entered into the monthly contest.
In addition to our winner of the month, we have selected several honorable mentions.
Our Winner!
Our top story of the month for August, 2025, winning a prize of 20 Hive is....
@riya2020, with her story, The Ashes of Dacian.
Curator's notes:
@riya2020 writes a story that flows with the ease of a natural storyteller. Her protagonist challenges orthodoxy--established beliefs--and in doing so places herself at risk. The gamble she takes ends up not only correcting a wrong, but also results in vanquishing an evil force that had brought great harm to a community. This is a wonderful story, one that can be read for the charm of its words and the value of its message.
Congratulations, @riya2020!
Honorable Mentions
The following stories were also in the running for best stories last month, with excellent storytelling!
- @zerah: The King's Dice
- @whatmidesays: Apparently, Boredom Is Just Drama Running Late
- @litguru: Departure Times
- @almadepoeta: Boredom
- @seki1: Help the Sick
- @nachomolina2: Amaia's Eyes
Well done, writers!
September Contest!
As a reminder, you are automatically entered into the contest of the month by writing and posting a fictional story in The Ink Well anytime throughout the month. There is no prompt for the monthly contest. So keep writing for our weekly fiction prompts and keep giving your stories your best effort!
Contest Rules
Participate in one or more of our weekly fiction prompts (or write any fictional short story in The Ink Well) before the end of the calendar month.
Post a link to your story in a comment on the prompt that inspired your story, if applicable.
Use the #fiction tag as well as the #inkwellprompt tag (if applicable) on your post.
Please remember that we have rules around violence, rape, blood, and physical abuse. See The Ink Well rules, and our article describing The Ink Well Stance on Violence.
If you have questions, please visit the "ask-theinkwell" channel in our Discord server.
At the end of the month, we will announce our winner of the month and our honorable mentions, and the winner will receive 20 Hive.
Hint: We are looking for a high-quality story. Don't rush. Remember the important skills we always talk about — great settings, good character building, strong dialog, and a good story arc that resolves well in the end.
And finally, we recommend using our tips in the article Help for the Grammatically Challenged to identify errors in your story before posting.
Good luck!
Find Us on Discord
Our Discord server is a great place to chat with other community members about the craft of writing.
Please pop into our Welcome channel, read our guidelines for conduct, and then feel free to interact with other community members or ask The Ink Well Team a question in the #ask-theinkwell channel.
Discord invitation link: https://discord.gg/Bng7mMsaQj
Delegate to The Ink Well / Follow Our Curation Trail
Want to support our community, our contests, and our rewards for great quality content? See the table below. We have made it super easy. Thank you, thank you, thank you! We have a goal to continue increasing the support we give to our wonderful, hardworking and dedicated authors!
You can follow our curation trail by going to our hive.vote curation trail page and clicking the follow button.
We welcome delegations! These support our community in many ways, including helping us to provide support to quality content creators through curation and contests.
@jayna, @felt.buzz, @carn, @itsostylish, @agmoore, @ricardo993, @marriot5464, @marcybetancourt, @marlyncabrera, @stormcharmer, nathy33, @iamraincrystal, @jasonbu, @preparedwombat, @gracielaacevedo, @timix648, @samsmith1971, @jackdeathblack, @josemalavem, @generikat, @mineopoly, @hazmat, @kingsleyy, @popurri, @nancybriti1, @marynn, @rinconpoetico7, @iyimoga, @captainman, @kachy2022, @monster-hunter, @whatmidesays, @morey-lezama, @evagavilan2, @funshee, @amiegeoffrey, @balikis95, @rukkie, @raymondpeter, @tomiajax, @stuartcturnbull, @gertu, @mosin-nagant, @beauty197, @beckyroyal, @perfect20, @zaeema, @almadepoeta, @estilodereba, @rare-gem, @jjmusa2004, @ricurohemi28, @benwesterham, @artofkylin, and @shakavon.
We invite lovers of creative writing to visit The Ink Well, a Hive community run by @jayna, @gracielaacevedo, @yaziris, @itsostylish, @samsmith1971 and @agmoore.
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Without a doubt an excellent month.
Thank you for your promotion of literature, your advice on how to improve, and, above all, your articles on learning and mastering the technique.
Congratulations @riya2020
Thank you very much 🙏
Thank you for the honorable mention, @theinkwell! and congratulations to everyone. May the month ahead be a creative one.
I feel elated and highly honoured by this mention. I really appreciate you @theinkwell for bringing out the writer in me and for the opportunity given me to hone this skill daily.
Thank you for the grand prize, received with so much gratitude 🙏
Very interesting