Onc2023 Stories

||WATTY WINNER 2023🌟|| Two strangers pretend to be a couple to win a dumb bet. The wager: they must enrol in couples therapy and fool their counselor. _________ Six non-refundable couples counseling sessions. That's how many Clementine booked for him and his girlfriend to sort out their relationship problems. What he didn't see coming was getting dumped as soon as he informed her of it. Enter Everett, a chaotic, curly-haired boy who barges into Clementine's life. He offers to fake date and attend the counseling sessions with Clementine. Unfortunately, they are both idiots. Did they really believe they could safely fake-date in a Wattpad book and NOT fall in love? ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜 Might bring to mind: "Heartstopper" but with a ton more baking and fake dating 🌈 🎼🎶 This book has a Spotify playlist with a song for each chapter. To download it you can search me on Spotify @itsmeimthevampire - the playlist name is "Idiots To Lovers." 🏅🏅🏅 Watty Winner 2023. Shortlisted in the Open Novella Contest 2023. Featured on Wattpad profiles: @Lgbtq @FreeTheLgbt @Romance 🏆🏆🏆 #2 lgbt #2 lgbtq 📆 10/5/23 #4 gay 21/5/23 #4 bxb 14/5/23 #5 boyxboy 13/5/23 #1 gayromance 5/5/23 #1 gayshipsareyayships 14/5/23 Written for ONC2023 using prompt 39: On a blind date with a complete mismatch, you're increasingly uncomfortable but too polite to leave. Then an attractive stranger comes over and gives you an out.

Whether it's your first time or your seventh time, writing a novella in 12 weeks isn't easy. As a 2021 ONC Winner and two-time Honorable Mention (2023/2024), I totally understand. After years of participation and reflection, I have lots of advice to share on how I wrote a winning novella and look forward to writing every year. Inside this guide, you can find everything from insider tips to craft chats to contest commentary. So grab a cup, get your notebook, and settle in: it's time to start writing! Copyright © 2022 Elle Chaika

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There's an urban legend that's been circulating for years about a driver that doesn't take you where you want to go, but where you need to be. One morning before daylight, Cenicienta stepped into his cab! Once inside the taxi, she skims the newspaper and reads about the increased bounty on the bandit plaguing the neighborhood. Wishing to escape her slavish life, the burglar's bounty seems appealing, and she becomes interested in catching him. The cabbie stops in a lonely alley, insisting it's where she is destined to be. She hesitantly disembarks, intending to catch another cab further up the road, which disappears as soon as the cabbie speeds off. Thereupon, Cenicienta stumbles upon a drawing of her six-year-old self with a note hinting at a secret treasure and also chances upon the handsome Robert Warren, who is quite taken with her. Cenicienta begins her search for the bandit at the Magnificent Seven Balls, the place of his intended thievery. At the balls, she meets Robert Warren, whose stepfather, Sir. Henry Moore tries to steer him into the arms of the young Elle Anderson, his deceased best friend's daughter. Robert meanwhile gets caught up in Cenicienta's life. The two grow closer and sparks fly. Cenicienta, in her pursuit to solve the mystery of the midnight bandit plaguing her town's elites, discovers a most sinister plot that wrought a terrible wrong upon someone very dear to her, and which threatens her relationship with Robert. Will she be able to help right the terrible misdeed and save her relationship with Robert, thereby changing her entire life?

WATTYS 2023 SHORTLIST | WATTYS 2023 FANS CHOICE AWARDS NOMINEE Initially looking for nothing more than a feelings-free summer fling before college, reckless Harris McCammon and anxious Seb Krause might have stumbled into more than they bargained for. --------------------------------- When a graduation party takes a risky turn, Harrison McCammon finds himself in the passenger seat of Sebastian Krause's truck. When the two virtual strangers agree to begin a friends with benefits kind of situation, neither expect anything more than maybe a fun situationship before they leave for college. But as their casual entanglement turns into something slightly more, the two of them are forced to push down their real thoughts on this non-relationship. Add in sketchy ex-boyfriends, concerned parents, and a small dash of existential dread, there's no such thing as no strings attached. TW: underaged substance abuse; mentions of/attempted SA; (fade to black/non-explicit) sex; homophobic figures/abandonment; hospitalisation ^that sounds like a lot, wow, i'm sorry, it's ... it's mainly fluff ---ONC Ambassadors Round 2 Pick, 2023---

Florist, Anya is determined that this will be the year her career blooms like the sweet jasmines she's tended to. She's in for a rude shock when she rents a building only to find out that it's been given to gorgeous and confident Kaynath, who owns her family confectionery. Kaynath never intended to get in her way to jeopardize her business but it's not her fault that the town has come to adore her sweets and chosen her. Recruiting the help of Mirza, her long time best friend, who runs a Bridal boutique, she vows to take over the building and make her business flourish. Mirza doesn't want to be caught in their drama, especially since Kaynath is her regular customer and she adores her best friend. She proposes that whoever makes the most sales after a month gets to keep the building permanently, which they both oblige to. Anya soon finds out that maybe she's got a sweet tooth not just for one, but maybe two people after all, if she can handle the secrets under the sweet sugar glaze and glamorous veils.

✨️ONC 2023 Shortlisted✨️ 'And I knew then, with an earth-shattering certainty, that everything I'd worked for, strived for, suffered for, had just turned to dust. My life as I knew it, scattered along the pavement with shards of windscreen and the contents of my stomach.' As the ruling queen of her elite private school, Annabel Sinclair has the brains and ruthlessness to go far. But an unexpected pregnancy and an 'incident' with a golf club and her ex-boyfriend's car leaves her expelled and disowned by her friends. Suddenly she's shipped off to the wrong side of town and forced to live with her estranged dad. If that isn't enough drama to deal with, his eccentric neighbours, the Grady's come into her life. Annabel doesn't need their unique blend of chaos as she's desperately trying to cling onto her old life. And she definitely doesn't need the spark that's growing between her and Connor Grady... ✨️Open Novella Contest 2023 entry✨️ Prompts - 69. I had a marvellous time ruining everything - Taylor Swift 44. Music is the bridge that can join together people regardless of their differences. Connect your diverse characters through their love of music. Trigger warning - references and detailed descriptions of pregnancy.

This is my entry for the OCN 2023. Dan had never been to the Adirondacks and thought it was time he remedied that situation. The Adirondack Railroad just felt like the proper way to do it. An avid photographer, he filled his memory cards with images of mountain lakes and woodland wild life. A newly formed, large sinkhole attracts his attention and he takes copious pics. Back home ,reviewing the pics with his girlfriend, the two are shocked at what they find. Is that a dead body? And what are they doing with it? The pair must now return to the mountain village to slake their curiosity.

After waking with no memory of her true identity, Aira must team up with a detective to solve a murder before she's arrested for the crime. 32. Your character awakens to discover a dead body in the bed next to them and a duffel bag stuffed full of cash on the floor... But the scariest thing is, they have no memory of what happened, or even who they are. 82. In a future where humans have the ability to upload their consciousness into virtual reality at the time of their death, a detective must solve a murder case in both the virtual and physical world as the victim's consciousness may still exist in the virtual world and hold the key to solving the crime.

38 A seemingly bottomless pit was found, for which the depth can't be determined. Over time, scores of people began using it to illegally dump trash. Many have jumped believing that they'll find life's answers within it. Today, we learn the truth about the hole. ~~~ Susan "Maysie" May Hornsby was a toddler when the sinkhole opened on the edge of the Missouri River, in the Tristate area (and six towns of Sioux City). It drastically changed her nation (drying up the Mississippi, slowing interstate trade to a standstill, making drinkable water a concern, forcing the nation to reroute a whole major waterway-not to mention the dumping and jumpers) but the child herself couldn't understand any of that. This made her nightmares all the more remarkable-though no one would know it, at the time. When the world ended, she was left with "the bad man" Alder Nahimana as her sole guardian. She was raised in the void of space as "the only people left alive". But there were more humans out there-and once her guardian passed, she sets out to find them, accidentally becoming crucial to the preservation of her mankind along the way. Not bad for a child whose world ended when she was 5.

No one has seen the real world in centuries. Since the creation of Dreamworld, humanity has transported permanently into the digital realm. The only ones who even know that Earth was-and is-a real place are the members of the Embassy, Dreamworld's sole government power. Tom Tolmafin, the last human to remember Earth, has hacked the aging process to prevent himself from dying before he finds his son, who was by the agency just before Dreamworld became operational. Now inside the digital realm, Tolmafin has created the catalyst to the Embassy's destruction and the only hope to finding his son-an android. Ace Raven, the most sarcastic AI known to man, has two objectives. Find Drake Tolmafin and shut down Dreamworld. When he meets a band of rebel teens attempting to break out of the system, he finds his chance to face the most lethal virtual landscape that will lead him to his goal. If they survive the Zones, they can hack the program and complete their objective, returning humanity to the real world. Failure is not an option. Failure means death. Prompt: In a dystopian world where technology controls every aspect of life, a group of rebels must navigate through a virtual reality landscape to hack into the mainframe and take back control from the oppressive government. {ONC2023 Shortlister}

After their mother is mysteriously killed, Ethiel and Tifa start seeing ghosts. Their Aunt decides to move to their mother's home with them, hoping to provide them a better life. However, in the new house, Ethiel and his sister find a strange mirror in the working room of their mother that takes them to another world, Anigma. One after the other, they discover shocking secrets about her from the videos she has left for them in a flash drive. With nothing more than a few leads from her videos and some help from her other-worldly friends, the two siblings must finish the quest she started in order to be granted three wishes, in hopes of saving Animga from doom and also to bring her back to life. Will Ethiel and Tifa be able to fulfill the last request of their mother and get to see her again? Read and find out. -------- ONC 2023 prompts I will be using: Prompt 29 -------- COPYRIGHTED ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © 2023 P. Kumaran Pandian Cover illustrated by P. Kumaran Pandian

Is he the greatest sorcerer that exists, or is he the biggest sham? *** Meet Aliath; the High Wizard of the Edvan empire as he searches for signs of the enemy within. He meets Hela, a mysterious girl who catches his attention. He later realizes that the enemy he sought was right beside him all along. And she has been tasked with one mission; his death! With war looming around, time is running out for Aliath. And he has a very important choice to make.

🏆ONC 2023 || Ambassador's Pick 🏆ONC 2023 || Round Two Qualifier One night is all it takes to change a life. There's something wrong with Felicity Farr. It's how she can't seem to do her job right no matter how hard she tries, and how she's still under her parents' thumb years after moving out, and how she looks at girls the way she should look at boys. So even though she can't fix anything, she tries to fix herself all the same. But when a blind date ends with her in an attractive stranger's bed, Felicity is forced to question everything in her life. Especially when said attractive stranger asks her to run away with her for a week. Clover Chai is beautiful, confident, and everything Felicity should avoid. But she captures Felicity like the drag of the tide, and as the week drags on, Felicity finds herself having to choose between her head and her heart---especially since she can't imagine her summer fling remaining a fling anymore.

I accidentally open the door of the unjudged souls and death wants me to help him to catch it all.

He's back, and he's out for revenge. 🙤 · ┈┈┈┈┈┈ · ₪ · ┈┈┈┈┈┈ · 🙦 When a secret hidden for 22 years is revealed, every part of Kalisha Morales' life comes tumbling down. The karma of a careless childhood decision has finally arrived on her doorstep with a surprise gift. She ruined his life and Aiden Bryant isn't going to let her go scot-free, not again, no matter how long it has been. Sucked into a battle of survival, Kalisha must become the predator and not the prey or risk losing her life this time. There is no good or evil. There's just doing whatever it takes to survive. Will he get to her first or will she outlive him? 🙤 · ┈┈┈┈┈┈ · ₪ · ┈┈┈┈┈┈ · 🙦 Oɴᴄ 2022 Pʀᴏᴍᴘᴛ: 49, 69, 33 ✎ Sᴛᴀʀᴛᴇᴅ: 08/02/23 ✎ Fɪɴɪsʜᴇᴅ: TBD Wᴏʀᴅ Cᴏᴜɴᴛ: TBD © 2023 Laz-lequil

When a grandmother is declared the Chosen One, she abandons her rocking chair to challenge the Dark Lord who plots to destroy the world. -- Formerly a single mother, now a devoted grandma, Granny Thayer has never left her hometown before, let alone slayed a demon. But she'd better learn fast; she's just been selected as the Chosen One, the only hero who can defeat the nefarious Dark Lord of Devnia and avert a zombie apocalypse. Accompanied by a devastatingly handsome prince, a failed bard, and a werewolf with a dangerous secret, Granny Thayer embarks on a quest full of intrigue and love triangles to save her grandson. This is a collaboration for ONC 2022/2023, written by SophieKestrel and Spelunkadunk. Prompt: "It's always what/who you least expected that blows your mind away."

|| AMBYS2025 GRAND FAVORITE x 5 FEATURED || "𝙰 𝚋𝚕𝚊𝚗𝚔 𝚜𝚕𝚊𝚝𝚎 𝚒𝚜 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚗𝚎𝚌𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚊𝚛𝚒𝚕𝚢 𝚊 𝚌𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚗 𝚘𝚗𝚎." Denizen is Blank Slate, the number one villain in the region-except he doesn't remember it. With only a cryptic note telling him his eight rules, he sets out to discover just exactly who he is and what he did to become the number one villain. When his first lead takes him straight into the heroes' hands, Denizen struggles to keep his villain alias secret and play the confused and innocent citizen, all the while digging deeper for answers. But as he gets closer to the truth-and the heroes get hotter on his tail--two questions become painfully loud: Is he good? And should he let the heroes catch him? [][][01000101001101100-01101100][][] An ONC 2023 Novella || Round 2 Winner 25/04/2023 || ONC's Ambassadors' Pick 25/04/2023 || ONC 2023 Longlister 19/05/2023 || ONC 2023 Shortlister 31/05/2023 || Featured by Mystery on Curiouser & Curiouser 25/08/2023 || Featured by ScienceFiction on Parallel Worlds 31/10/2023 || Featured by ScienceFiction on Sci-Fantasy 7/9/2024 || Featured by ScienceFiction on Ambassadors' Pick 25/3/2025 || Featured by Science Fiction on Superheroes 25/9/2025 || Ambys 2025 Scifi Grand Favorite ***Exclusively on W A T T P A D. If you are reading this elsewhere, your device is liable to malware.***

Magicless witch Vesper's life is completely turned on its side when she asks out the hottie who's been frequenting her work for two weeks. He's a bodyguard, she's in danger, and her newly incarcerated father is not the simple man Vesper thought him to be, but the Grand High Water Sorcerer. What? Not to mention every water sorcerer around is hunting her and her estranged siblings for the artifact that she's sure her father didn't take. It's fine. It's totally fine. Except her father's magic, and his entire bloodline's, will be stripped in punishment. Supernatural bodyguard, Fox has two goals; keep the little witch alive at all costs and don't get involved in the client's life. Only she's so much like his lost younger brother that he can't resist wanting to help her. She might be desperate to prove her father's innocence, but all Fox wants to do is protect hers, and maybe his own heart. Together they discover Vesper might not be as magicless as she thought. With her newfound magic on the line, will they be able to find the stone and clear her father's name in time? --------- ONC Prompt #20: You finally build enough courage to talk to the cute someone you see everyday on the bus. Their face turns dark as they respond, "you shouldn't be able to see me." and Prompt #64: You came from the first bloodline that has produced powerful magicians for centuries to keep the world safe. So what does it mean when you, the xxth descendant, are born with the power to nullify the magic?

A dystopian space novella created for the ONC Open Novella Contest 2023, the story is set in the rock-bound space surrounding the Terran solar system at the edge of interstellar space. The story's origin is set in the 21st Century at the death of Wilhelm (Bill), the last living male member of a North American old-money family the De Schmittenveres. And it climaxes at the peak of the corporate conglomerate era and charts the impact of Bill's death on the solar system as the future corrupt business system model implodes to reveal a secret about the space-bound employees which defies imagination.