THE ORIGINAL MUSE AWARDS 2026 Hosted by @tonyatwraxall SECOND PHASE JUDGING FINISHED (25/25) 40 BOOKS. 1 MENTOR. 4 GRAND WINNERS. UNLEASH YOUR MUSE. THE PREMISE Are you tired of predictable tropes, formulaic plots, and contests that judge your work based on rigid genre boxes? Welcome to The Original Muse Awards, a premier Wattpad competition designed for the bold, the unique, and the unforgettable. We don't care if you write dark romance, urban fantasy, high sci-fi, or literary thrillers-we care about originality. We are looking for stories that command attention from the very first page and hooks that refuse to let go. THE CHALLENGE This is a fast-paced, highly selective elimination tournament: The Starting Line: Only 40 books will be accepted. I will read the first 4 chapters of each to evaluate the raw strength of your hook and concept. The Shortlist: The top 25 most innovative books will advance, unlocking deeper chapter reads (up to 10 chapters) and exclusive feedback. The Podium: Just 4 Grand Winners will claim the ultimate title, earning a complete, detailed review. THE TWIST: THE READER'S CHOICE Getting cut early doesn't mean your journey ends. The 15 stories that don't make the official Shortlist will immediately enter the Reader's Vote arena. Bring your community, rally your friends, and fight for a second chance to take home the exclusive Reader's Choice Award! THE ENTRY PRICE To inspire the Muse, you must first give back to the craft. Entry requires a follow, a public reading list add, and a single chapter review on the host's featured book, Chosen by the Hunter. The gates are open, but the slots are strictly limited. Do you have the hook to inspire the Muse?

This story is participating in Case 1 - May 2026 of Ink & Intrigue. Prompt 4. Eighteen-year-old Nicoleta Gaussen never expected to hear from Bloom Academy, the elite boarding school perched above the cliffs of Port-Bleu. Then an invitation arrives. Elegant. Handwritten. Signed only: The Hunter. Every year, Bloom Academy hosts its legendary Annual Fest, a masked ball whispered about across Ablington Island. And every year, one girl is chosen by the mysterious Hunter. According to rumour, those girls disappear. Ignoring the warnings of her friend Taite Broade, a scholarship student at the Academy, Nicoleta becomes drawn into Bloom's glittering world of secret societies, dangerous traditions, and students trained to hide their true intentions behind perfect smiles. But the closer Nicoleta gets to the Hunter, the more she realizes that at Bloom Academy, being chosen may be the most dangerous thing of all.

The Open Novella Contest is back for 2026! Join fellow storytellers and plant the seed of a tale that will blossom into a 20,000+ word novella within 12 weeks! Your epic quest begins February 1st, 2026, so mark your calendars with this date!

Shiloh Anne Grace was born into a world rebuilt from the ashes of near extinction. After a war that almost destroyed humanity, the greatest minds of the second millennium came together to design something better-a flawless society. The Citadel. A utopia. Or so she has always believed. But beneath The Citadel's polished perfection, cracks are forming. And when the impossible quite literally knocks on her door, Shiloh will uncover truths she was never meant to see-and a destiny she never imagined could be hers. This is only the beginning... Mature Warnings : Strong Language Occasional Explicit Consensual Sex Initimate themes Wattys 2026 Participant 🥇 Winner - 2026 Original Muse Awards 🥇 Winner - The Celestial Awards 2026 Mystery Category 🥈 second place - Best Opening Chapter Category - The Booker Awards 2026 💎🏅 Diamond Place Wattpad Ambassador's 30 Day Challenge - March 2026 💎🏅 Diamond Place Wattpad Ambassador's 30 Day Challenge - April 2026

**LONGLISTED FOR ONC 2026** Imagine being a wizard who could cast spells without ever making a mistake? Dref signed a Stakeholder Agreement with the Fourth Pentagon of the Underworld to grant him this power and vanished from the magical town of Aranot shortly afterwards. Maybe he should have read that smallprint a bit more carefully? His twin sister Annod has been researching a way to find him for two years and has found a portal to take her to him in the basement of The Trotting Donkey tavern. Can she swallow her social awkwardness and convince the beguilding automaton, Gorgeous to lead her there? Stakeholder Agreement introduces readers to the world of Aranot, a town cut into a mountain with seven universities where wizards and scroll readers are trained. This comic fantasy universe pokes fun at our world through the strange contents of the mind of @edmundkeanlightning CONTENT WARNINGS Mild alcohol consumption Occult themes Misfiring magic

In his previous life, there was no such thing as magic. Now there is. Ciel doesn't take that for granted - he takes it apart. Piece by piece, element by element, from a chalet full of explosions to the halls of a royal academy and beyond. This is not a story about becoming the strongest. It's a story about a mind that refuses to stop asking why - and what happens when the world finally answers. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 📌Update: Break this week, resuming next Monday with Arc 5. Short break in posting Hi everyone, We've caught up to where I had already written up to 😊 I won't be posting new chapters for the rest of the week. I'll pick up again next week with the rest of Arc 5. Thanks for your patience and for all your feedback - it really makes me happy to see that you're enjoying the story. See you soon!

| WATTYS 2022 SHORTLIST + AMBYS 2023 SCI-FI WINNER | UNEDITED | Digital, anthropomorphic beings live in our laptops, smartphones, and other devices, but humans aren't aware of their existence despite being their creators. Shannon Wise, search engine in Browser City, has to fight off Pitt and Nekari, malware and spyware that have come to her city hoping to infect it and obtain the User's credentials and sensitive data. She will have to do it with the help of Ajax Eagleye, a recently installed, stern antimalware and adblocker that gets easily pissed off, in order to save her city. A know-it-all search engine. An angry rookie with an ego problem. A clueless User. A foul Hacker. Many innocent, digital lives at stake. All of them pieces in the Developer's chess game. Will Shannon and Ajax be able to defend Browser City, and thus save the Operative System and the sensitive data stored there, without the User's help? 🏍 💻 🏍 💻 🏍 💻 "Tron: Uprising" meets "ReBoot". A digital Science-Fiction & Action story, with a sprinkle of Romance! (Is IT fiction a thing? :D) · DIGITAL CITIES SERIES · BOOK 1 · FEATURED BY the official ambassadors' reading lists: @WATTPADESL "Artificial and Advanced Society" in 2022 @ScienceFiction "Parallel Worlds" in 2022 @StoriesUndiscovered "Into the Abyss" in 2022 @BadassReads "The Daredevils" in 2023 @NA "Can you see further? Science Fiction + Fantasy" in 2023 @StoriesUndiscovered "Tales of Adventure" in 2023 and Featured in Wattpad's home page in "Outer Space Champs" and "Unlock Science Fiction" reading lists in 2023! MATURE due to swearing, violence, and other adult subject matters. Protected by CopyrightIndex.com: CI-381914640