This Year In The Inkwell
By: Matthew Donnellon
Tags: Creativity, Writing, Creative Writing, Fiction, Short Story

In a few days it will be a new year.

This was an exciting year. In the Spring, I decided to create a publication mostly as a giant egotistical endeavor. I didn’t plan on doing much with it. I mostly just published to my profile and didn’t think twice about it.

In fact, for the longest time, I didn’t embrace The Inkwell fully as I was doing well with my stories and didn’t want t rock the boat.

Slowly I added some stories to it, and then it became the home for a majority of my work.

In the late Summer I decided to ramp up production and for a long while I was adding a new story every day.

It grew quicker than I fathomed possible.

I imagined a dozen or so people following it, but it’s doing better than I thought.

Writing is an interesting business. It’s full of ups and downs. It at time is a magical thing when all the stories work, and at times it’s a dull venture where one must simply trudge on until things pick up.

So I thought I’d go through the year and look at all that’s happened this last year.

The most successful story shouldn’t surprise anyone. It’s been the most successful story of my career and continues to do well.

The Curious Case Of Emma Lee

This is the first story I wrote to ever get any kind of attention, and sometimes it haunts me because I’ve been trying to follow it up my whole career. I’ve tried numerous times to turn it into a series to no avail.

It’s also the most prosperous story I’ve written as over a couple platforms it’s made over a thousand dollars.

Two Circles

Two Circles is another old story that I moved to the Inkwell some time ago. It’s a bit of a personal story and it’s always gotten a good response. It’s the second most successful story I’ve written. I actually wrote this story in school for a flash fiction contest. It languished on my laptop for years until I dusted it off a gave it a digital life.

Now the two stories above were written pre-Inkwell. These next couple stories were written and published here and are the best performing stories the Inkwell has produced.

The Man Who Couldn’t Stop Writing

The Man Who Couldn’t Stop Writing is the best performing story if one only looks at this year. It’s a bit of a strange story, but that should surprise no one if you read my other stories.

The Man Who Couldn’t Stop Reading

This story has always intrigued me.

One day I had this idea for a silly little story and knocked it out in a few minutes. It’s barely over three hundred words, but when I published it took off like wildfire and did far better than I thought. It did so well, that I’ve written a number of stories in the same vain.

An Angel Walks Into A Bar

This story grew from just a simple idea of a conversation between two brothers, and it grew in scope considerably. It’s one of the more fun stories I’ve written.

Devil’s Advocate

This story is one of those strange instances where the story does well off platform. It happens. You don’t get paid for it, but it’s nice some times to have the views all the same.

It’s a sequel the Angel story and it was even more fun to write, though anything with Lucifer is fun to write.

A Vampire Walks Into The Bar

This was another fun story to write and I plan on writing several more stories in this universe.

Now this year wouldn’t have been possible without some help, and this is the time of year for thanking people.

But, I’d like to do something a little different. A writer is only as good as the characters he creates.

So I’d want to acknowledge some of them.

Death

Death has popped up in several of my stories. He’s a fun character to write and an interesting concept to play with and I hope I haven’t taken up too much of his time.

The Devil

The Devil, or Lucifer as he likes to be called, shows up in several stories too. He’s always up to trouble and I hope one day he and his brother can work things out, but not before I’m finished writing about them. I’m glad for your stories and your ability to never shut up. It makes the stories nearly write themselves.

Numerous Horror Story Narrators

It is for you lot that I feel bad. You’ve suffered the worst and I’ve done some truly terrible things to you guys.

Emma Lee

Ah, dear Emma Lee. Without you I have no career. Your wit and dry sense of humor gave me a career I don’t think I deserve sometimes. Heck, to me your as real as any person I know.

To The Readers

It is because of you that this publication even exists, and that I can write what I want. It’s still a relatively small group but your loyalty has kept it going.

There have been numerous changes and The Inkwell has weathered them all and that’s because of you all.

So you have me sincere thanks and gratitude and I hope to keep entertaining you.

And now some personal thank you’s.

These are some people I always see reading:

DeniseDuBos Shelly McIntosh Synia Sidhe Linda Fode Sandee Putman Vermaas Micah Ward Adam, Diabetic Cyborg

And some people who have helped with The Inkwell in a number of ways.

Eunice Newart

Eunice always gives great feedback and I am truly grateful that she catches all of my spelling errors and typos.

Don Feazelle

I think Don was the first follower of The Inkwell. I also believe he’s read every story written in it. Sometimes twice. He’s a fantastic writer. He does fiction and satire equally well. His story taking place on Christmas was particularly good. I also like his taste in TV shows and discussing them with him.

Agnes Louis

Agnes is a good friend. She’s also the kindest person I know. She spends much of her time making other people happy and she created a publication purely to spread stories of happiness. She’s always quick with an encouraging word and when she leaves a comment on a story you think you’ve the greatest story ever written.

Jessica Lovejoy

Jessica is a great writer. Far better than I am, and I encourage anyone reading this to read her work. She also has excellent writing instincts and her advice has been very good a number of times. My year end stories were the result of her idea to write more parts.