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PLEASE NOTE THAT POSTS THAT DO NOT MEET THE RULES FOR ENTRY WILL BE EXCLUDED FROM THE INK WELL
Welcome to Week 2 of The Ink Well's Summer Poetry Challenge. Each week you will be offered two prompts to start your creativity - you can use either prompt or both; you can include them in your poem or use them to get your thoughts going and see where they take you ... and never mention the prompts in your writing at all!
Everyone who meets the Rules for Entry will:
- Receive 100% upvote from The Ink Well.
- Be included in the draw for 500HP delegation for 7 days.
- Have a chance to be a Show Case Post in future weeks.
Entries that meet the criteria will also be curated for a curie and an ocd vote.
The 500HP delegation and The Showcase Post will be announced seven days after this post pays out.
How To Enter The Challenge
The Ink Well is about encouraging high quality creative writing. The challenge is open to everyone, whether you are an experienced writer or just starting your writing journey. Every week, there will be two fresh prompts to help you develop your writing skills.
Week 2 Prompts
Option 1: ghost
Option 2: the day the rains came
You can use either prompt - or both - to create a poem. You can include the prompt in your poem, or use it as a jumping off point for your ideas.
The Fiction Challenge has the same prompts as the Poetry Challenge each week.
See all the prompts for the Summer Season.
Rules of Entry
- your entry must be posted in The Inkwell Community.
- poetry must be a maximum of twenty lines, excluding the title.
- include tags: #theinkwell #challenge #poetry.
- title format: theinkwell poetry challenge | title of your work.
- post a link in the comments of this post.
Remember, original work only - no plagiarism or re-posts!
Check the Curation Policies and Community Rules before you submit.
The deadline is when this post pays out on Monday 1 June 2020.
What We Are Looking For
The vision for The Ink Well is all about encouraging and rewarding high quality creative writing. We know that everyone has to start somewhere, and that your writing skills improve the more you write. To help you develop those skills, we've set out some categories that you will want to think about.
Poetry is the most complex literary form and spending between four and six hours developing and editing a poem over the course of a week would not be unusual for a well-crafted poem. This is the quality The Ink Well is looking for.
Category | Explanation |
---|---|
Voice and Setting | Who is speaking? Is it one or many voices? Where and when is the poem is set? How does this affect the poem? |
Tone and themes | What mood or emotion does the poem create in the reader? What ideas is the poem expressing? How is that shown? |
Structure | Has the writer chosen a poetic form? How does the form and rhythm (eg fast and breathless) affect the poem? |
Style | The writer's use of words, imagery, metaphor and simile. |
Presentation | Does the presentation and formating enhance the writing? |
Any Questions?
If you have any questions, put them in a comment below.
Before We Go
Don't forget to read other people's entries and leave them a comment. The Ink Well will be searching for and tipping good comments!
We're looking forward to reading your poems!
@carolkeen, @jayna, @shanibeer and @stormlight24
Poetry Inspiration
Ghosts by Roger Robinson
Roger Robinson reading his poem Ghosts from A Portable Paradise
You feel it as soon as you settle in your new flat, perhaps when you are making rocket salad with lemon dressing; the smell of el ras hanout and cumin will assail your nose, make you think for a minute. You'll turn on a light and your hand will carry a faint scent of cocoa butter. You'll come home from the office and a young woman in a rust-coloured hijab, barefoot in mint pyjamas, whom you've never met before, will agitatedly ask the way out, but by the time you point she'll have disappeared. Interrupting your evening's Netflix selection, you hear the feet of at least six small children tramping overhead. The copper taps in your refurbished rooms run smoke for a few seconds before flowing with water. Your weekend lover says he'd rather you stay over at his place and gives you no reason. You'll find yourself making up reasons to stay late at the office or catch a drink with friends.
At night a roaring heat will break you into a sweat, and no matter how you try you can't wake up and you can't breathe. You'll hear a call to prayer mixed in with Fela Kuti's "Zombie" and a five-year-old girl constantly screaming for help from the guttural part of her voice and you'll sit in the darkness for a while clasping your knees, looking out your extra large window at the view you've paid so dearly for.
You can find out more in Roger Robinson Wins The Poetry Prize
We would like to invite lovers of poetry and short stories to visit The Ink Well, a Hive community started by @raj808 and run by @shanibeer and @stormlight24 with support from moderators @carolkean and @jayna.
It is now possible to follow The Ink Well curation trail on Hive blockchain with Hive.Vote. Simply navigate to the curation trail section and search for theinkwell and our trail will pop up as an option.
If you wish to delegate to @theinkwell and support creative writing on Hive, you can do this from the wallet section in PeakD.