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!

In the elder days before mortal kings etched their borders into stone, before time was measured by crowns and conquests, when Elven Folk shared the world with mortals under treaties older than memory, there came upon our people an age of quiet sundering. It was a time when Giants still walked the high places, when Dragons passed like storms along the horizons, and when Elven Folk shared the world with mortals under treaties older than memory. Yet even then, doubt found root. In those days there arose among mortals a whispering hunger, seeded by those who wore borrowed faces. The Changeling Wizards, who fed fear as if it were wisdom. Convincing mortal kings, the magic of the elves no longer served them. What had once been shared truth became superstition. What had once been kinship became a war of wills. From that hour, the old goodwill ended. Thus the space between our peoples widened, until the old paths closed and we were pressed back into the frost-bitten heights of our ancestral lands. And what would happen next would leave the old world in the silent throes of AN UNEASY REALIZATION THAT ALL WAS NOT AS IT SEEMED... A time when love and acceptance became fear and those fears bred greed. Greed bred forgetting. And forgetting became blame. But in that age arose two souls. One born of mortal blood, one of mortal grace. Who chose to stand where others turned away. Alvaro, and Daniela of the western shores, whose names the stone itself remembers. ─ᛰ─ ONC Prompt 78 You begin to realize that things are not as they seem. 🎏 Author Comment: This tale has been designed and written for younger readers but it can be enjoyed by all.

Amaury's debt is to be the Soul Reaper of one hundred souls to the keeper and master of his own. With Nilly, his assistant, he sets off to reap that final soul. But there's a catch. How can a lost puppy end up freeing the Soul Reaper and bringing the puppy's owner true happiness? Lorrie's lonely life is about to change with a chance encounter, brought about by her escape artist of a puppy, and someone who isn't entirely human. Entered into the ONC2026 contest based on the following two prompts. #65: On the way to collect a soul, the grim reaper is distracted by a stray puppy. Instead of completing the task, he decides to find the puppy's owner, much to the frustration of his assistant. #52: You're on a first date when you suddenly realize the person sitting across from you isn't entirely human.

The creator of a 26th century matchmaker is anti-romantic, but when an analyst challenges her views, she relives painful memories, exposing her technology's flaws and threatening her identity. ｡ ✴︎ ⋆⚛ 🤖 ⚛⋆ ✴︎ ｡ Kayla Lacson believes that love is a biological equation that can be solved. She is the brilliant mind behind Dorothea, the most advanced AI dating application of the 26th-century, designed to calculate compatibility with extraordinary precision. Kayla's world is crafted in data, logic, and predictable outcomes. That is, until Mathew Matel, a Behavioral Analyst whose brilliance matches hers, joins her team and challenges her views. When Dorothea's latest revision loses public trust and corporate pressure mounts, he becomes the catalyst that forces Kayla to confront buried trauma, uncovering the flaws of her creation and fracturing her carefully structured reality. Despite Dorothea's calculation of their incompatibility, Kayla finds herself drawn to Mathew. Flashes of his face begin to haunt her as she tries to unravel his unexplainable familiarity. And when her very identity is threatened by tangled feelings, she must decide whether love is something to manipulate or something to surrender to. ｡ ✴︎ ⋆⚛ 🤖 ⚛⋆ ✴︎ ｡ Written for ONC 2026 ｡ ✴︎ ⋆⚛ 🤖 ⚛⋆ ✴︎ ｡ Genres: Romance SciFi Speculative Fiction Unconventional SciFi Hard SciFi Slow Burn Romance

A princess with no memories of her past marries a king very intimidating. However, life is not so cruel, and perhaps she came to the right person. **** Sita was a princess of the kingdom of Videha. Thought to be dead years ago, she returns amidst secrecy with no memories of her past. She feels she has returned home, but not quite so. Unable to understand why her own family feels so aloof, she reluctantly agrees to marry the King of Aryavarta, Rama. Their marriage is a hush-hush event, not the pompous, celebratory kind one would expect a king to have. As days go by, Sita understands that the King is not as bad as the world paints him to be. She doesn't know if she can love him; perhaps she is beginning to, but doesn't hope for reciprocation. Until, one night, when she finds him sleeping with a tear-drenched face, clutching a letter written in her handwriting. Turns out she had forgotten him, but he never did.

Time and tide bring to light all that is hidden. Hurleva is a foundling raised by the Order of the Sealord, named for the shipwreck that nearly claimed her life. She knows nothing of her origins. But time and tide are conspiring to change everything. The land is failing, the sea is giving up its secrets, and Leva sees and hears what should not be possible. Dedicated to those who have lost, or are still fighting to save their homes on the East Anglian coast.

A prophecy promises Elias Crowe two great loves: One that will save his life, and one that will destroy it. The problem? He's already in love with both. One walks beside him in the living world like temptations wrapped in devotion. The other is like a ghost, an angel who should have stayed dead. Heaven demands obedience. Hell offers protection. And Elias must decide which love is worth the end of everything. Entry for the Open Novella Contest 2026 Prompts 82. You are in love with someone living and someone long dead. Neither one is willing to let you go. 115. A prophecy claims you will love two people. One destined to save your life and the other destined to destroy it. The trouble is, you have no idea which is which. © 2026 ↦ onechapteraway

Roman Kerr thought he knew everything about the woman he married. He was wrong. - An entry for Open Novella Contest | Prompt: 28 & 29.

Sunny Beckett is the most powerful witch alive. At least, that's what her millions of YouTube subscribers believe. (839K of them to be exact) With her flowing dresses, viral affirmations, and perfectly filtered snippits of "ancient wisdom," Sunny has built an empire on spell jars, manifestation guides, and a carefully curated lie. Her magic is performance and her power is the algorithm. But, dang... her daughter knows the truth. Sixteen-year-old Louisa wants nothing to do with rituals or ring lights. Her jam is fountain pens, journaling, dog-eared paperbacks, long walks without headphones, and the quiet, rare act of actually paying attention. While her mother broadcasts enlightenment to the world, Lou goes about creating something small and secret: an underground analog zine devoted to slowness, sincerity, and analog living. Then Lou falls in love with the last person she should. Nathan Cunningham, the son of Sunny's biggest online rival, and the one who's been calling Sunny a fraud for years. As feelings deepen and secrets unravel, Lou must decide what kind of magic matters more: the kind that dazzles millions, or the kind that changes one little life, one truth at a time. A story about authenticity, being present, and choosing who you become in a world that's always watching. #ONC2026 - Prompt #11 - The daughter of the most powerful witch is nothing like her mother.

Elara Vesper is not unlucky in love. She is cursed. Every suitor who wins her heart finds his true soulmate... the moment he leaves her. Dubbed the Grim Reaper of Relationships by the gossip of the Aurelian Empire, the duke's daughter has accepted a lonely fate. But when a secret mission goes awry, she uncovers the first secret involving her greatest rival, the knight Kaelen Hale. Now, strange forces are converging around her. A charming stranger who knows too much. A bodyguard of living shadow. And even her own pet cat is behaving oddly. To survive the sinister conspiracy now haunting her, Elara must unravel the truth behind her curse. Is it a punishment, a protection, or the key to a prophecy that demands she trust the very people fate has pushed into her path-and her heart? Some curses are meant to be broken. This one might be the only thing keeping her alive.