[#ONC2024] The Open Novella Contest is back for 2024 with shiny new prompts to get you out of your dragon cave. Once again, we are here to challenge you to create a legendary 20,000+ word novella in 12 weeks! Your epic journey begins February 1st, so mark your calendars.✨
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Whether it's your first time or your sixth time, writing a novella in 12 weeks isn't easy. As a 2021 ONC Winner and 2023 Honorable Mention, I would know. After years of participation and reflection, I have lots of advice to share on how I did it. Inside this guide, you can find everything from insider tips to timeline...
When Elven assassin's enslave a Fae Queen within her own mines - Chyrie is blood-sworn to forge the very iron meant to strike her down. With only a few months to sever the oath, her only hope lands in the palms of a forgotten Captain and his Sea Wyrm. ...
One sided love is like waiting for a ship in an airport. *** Antonio, a wealthy merchant who resides in Thilpsi is devastated after learning that his childhood friend and love Bassanio has already given his heart to the rich heiress, Portia. After discovering the bitter truth he cho...
[ONC 20204: Prompt #12] A princess marries a conqueror she doesn't love. A favourite breathes in forbidden love for the same man. **** Roshanak wakes up to find her kingdom conquered and before she knows, she is married to the conquerer, Shah Sikander. She goes to his land Persia as his wife. Even though his immediat...
When Bryony -- herbalist extraordinaire -- goes missing, Bella knows one suspect stands above the rest. The village's aspiring second witch, Daphne, comes from a family that's tried to take Bryony down before, and Daphne seems determined to carry on that legacy. For someone who's always been terrified of Bryony, she's...
A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin meets What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher, in this tale of fantasy and intrigue. *** A missing lady. A prince who is accused. A realm on the brink of civil war. Princess Maysa Memor must give her all to prevent a rebellion breaking out in Namiona. When Lord Edmund Eni cl...
ONC 2024: In college, it was a case of wrong place/wrong time. Eight years later, they have a second chance. But will they take the leap? ___ Prompt 14: "My muse, believe me, waiting for you has been a form of freedom." ___ Excerpt: "Don't look back." Ian stares at me through the screen with his dark, intense gaze. "...
Together, a demon goddess and a young woman will battle the Archons' system, which was designed to kill them one life after another. *** Lilith is the only woman, conceived by the Archons leader, Yaldabaoth. She is also the first one to say no to him. The first to have eaten from the tree of knowledge and evil. But no...
SEQUEL TO ROYALLY BUMPED || After a whirlwind of a year, Mila Abbott is finally enjoying her life as a princess and mother. As wife to the new first in line to the British throne, Mila is adjusting to juggling royal work and being a mother, and the papers following her every move. With the royal family finally in a pe...
Peaky Blinders meets Bonnie and Clyde. **** Eighteen-year-old Kit Jones has spent his life on the wrong side of the law. Having grown up poor in London's seedy East End, Kit has fought tooth and nail just to survive. Emily Masters cannot say the same. Born to rich parents, she's been handed everything she could ever d...
Inventor Selene Mintz and her partner Arch Kenton are on the cusp of breaking into the upper levels of Inno-Tech with their latest inventions when she is rocked by a devastating betrayal. Unsure who to trust but hellbent on making the person pay, she fights for control of her idea before the materialistic tech company...
When a group of assassins is onto her irritating escort, a happy-go-lucky bodyguard must ensure they survive their trip before his escort's past demons catch up to them. * * * No one expected easygoing Aspen Mendoza to be accepted into Interpol as a field agent, but she couldn't be any more excited to finally land...
Open Novella Contest 2024 Entry Cassia Rose made a mistake: she didn't believe the legends, but they're real. And learning this truth may just cost her life. After going into the local haunted manor to impress a boy, Cassia sees strange things everywhere, from floating lights to transparent people. When...
"Keep your happily ever after, it ain't mine." Doomed to live forever as a side character, a dragon-shifter resigns herself to her fate. Story after story, she creates the main characters' happy endings, even at the cost of sacrificing her own. In her latest story, she inhabits the body of Jia, the best friend and th...
Dreams are the greatest power of mankind. In our waking hours, we dream of more, imagining our futures as they teeter on hopes, hard work, and a little luck. But when we sleep, our subconscious mind takes over, and it is a beast that cannot always be tamed. It takes that which is strongest inside of us and unravels it...
After one of the most awful days in her life, Eva Romney goes for a relaxing run on the trail behind her house. Cursing her failing life and her toxic boss, she fails to notice the clouds gathering above her. That is until she gets struck by lightning. Overcome by her luck to still be alive after the shock, she leave...
When aliens arrive on Earth and make a game out of human lives, Nina uses the quests to escape her disease, becoming the warrior the aliens desire. *** ONC 2024 Entry Using prompts: #5: Horror is in the eye of the beholder. #95: I will become as monstrous as I must. (Main Prompt) • Scifi/Horror/Thriller • EXCLU...
When Eventyr spirals into war, three young foxes from its divided kingdoms must discover themselves and their united purpose if they wish to save their home from being destroyed. -❈- A reluctant heir. A living mistake. A misguided ambition. One knows nothing but violence, one knows nothing but deceit, and the last is...
High school at Crestwood Heights High feels like hell and the end of the world, and for Zoe and her friends, it might just be. Reopening after a mysterious summer "remodeling," the school now harbors a new library and a seemingly friendly librarian, Mr. Henderson. For Zoe, the library promises a haven of books and new...
Time heals all wounds. When you have the power to rewind it, you begin to wonder whether it's too much responsibility for one person to hold. ***** Sometimes, walking away is the scariest, yet the bravest thing one can do. Iris Fox would know; after r...
Amesh is the fourth and youngest child of the Suriname family, a family of well known superheroes that protect not only their world but others that surround it. While his siblings are out saving the world, Amesh is at home playing Mango Life. Unlike his siblings, Amesh has no interest in being the hero of the story, h...
Anchor Morningstar owns and operates the Resting Point, a hole-in-the-wall tavern sitting right on the border between life and the afterlife where travelers catch a brief respite before passing through a portal for judgment day. For years, Anchor has lend a kind ear to those desperate souls and has offered words of en...
Kindness is magic, or so they say. Gabriella has always done her best to turn the other cheek. Even when her family pushes that cheek into the mud she finds ways to forgive and forget. She's got plans to leva one day anyway so what's a few bad days? A chance meeting and a dance at a ball escalates her timeline and she...
Death is no mystery to Peggy after living as a vampire for over half a century. That doesn't mean the death of her best friend isn't devastating. Add to that the threat of someone going after that friend's great granddaughter, Maya, and suddenly death has a new fear to it. She'll have to push the boundaries of life it...
One is a journalist who writes about movie stars. The other is a movie star who hates journalists. Now their worlds are colliding. Reagan Porter is a small town journalist married, in every sense of the word, to her work. When everything that could go wrong before her Valentine's Day vacation does, she jets off early...
Every step away from home is a chance for an adventure and Darcy is on her first one. She's been dreaming of finding her father for as long as she can remember. He's out there and she's got a list of clues and a crappy map, but it'll do. Less than a day into her travel she's accosted by a mango throwing thief and land...
[[ON HOLD UNTIL I FIGURE OUT WHERE THE PLOT WAS GOING]]After the death of his mother, Dan is left to pick up the pieces. Most of those pieces involve a heavy load of debt and a house to sell. That all goes out the window when the strange girl stumbles into his life with a promise of riches for his help in escaping a s...