Configure local dev env with alias for wp dev

There are a couple of things that you can try to have the domain name resolve as you'd like.

Remember IPv6 in /etc/hosts

Try this:

127.0.0.1       localhost
127.0.0.1       thewriters.ink

# The following lines are desirable for IPv6 capable hosts
::1     ip6-localhost ip6-loopback
fe00::0 ip6-localnet
ff00::0 ip6-mcastprefix
ff02::1 ip6-allnodes
ff02::2 ip6-allrouters

::1     thewriters.ink

^{Note: While you can have multiple domains listed in a single row, I have found better support across distributions by putting each domain on its own row with the same IP addresses.}

Remove duplicate lines and add a catch-all to your Apache virtual host config:

<VirtualHost *:80>
        ServerAdmin [email protected]
        DocumentRoot /var/www/html

        ServerName thewriters.ink
        ServerAlias *.thewriters.ink
        DirectoryIndex index.php index.html
        EnableMMAP Off

        <Directory /var/www/html>
                Options FollowSymLinks
                AllowOverride All
                Require all granted
        </Directory>

        ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/thewriters-error.log
        CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/thewriters-access.log combined
</VirtualHost>

Now you should be able to restart Apache and have everything "just work" ... so long as the Apache configuration file is enabled:

sudo service apache2 restart