Opennovellacontest Stories

Complete! Raizia has already died twice and she's not planning on dying again anytime soon. The 20-year-old necromancer makes ends meet by offering her resurrection services to a select few for an exorbitant fee. There's just one condition: she will only resurrect souls who have died within the past three days, and only for five minutes so they can share final goodbyes with their loved ones. But then she meets Aris, an attractive soldier reeling from the recent death of his mother. Raizia agrees to resurrect her, but when Aris ignores her cardinal rule, all hell breaks loose. As punishment for his deed, Raizia binds the soldier into her service. But Aris isn't going to come quietly... Fantasy ~ Romance ~ Adventure ~ Novella - - - Written for the 2021 Open Novella Contest, based on prompt #66: When you die, you come back. But you never come back the same. There's always a price to pay for resurrection... Open Novella Contest 2021 Round One Ambassador Pick and Short Lister Completed! Image by Rav89 on Deviantart.

[EDITING] ONC2024 Longlister❤️ Using Prompt number 14 "My love, believe me, waiting for you has always been a form of freedom." Alexandra Vasiliu" A guy and a girl have been best friends since childhood, but their destiny parted them. The little girl had to move away with her parents. Years later, they meet again, but the bond of friendship still remains the same. But the young lad has realised that his affection has developed into love, but, he's scared to express his feelings. However, he also feels that the girl has changed a lot. She cares more about money and herself than before. His love remains unwavering and he proposes to her, but she rejects him. He decides to wait for her, letting her take her sweet time. In the meantime, he's always there, supporting her, and scolding her for her bad deeds. He's continually showing her the path of truth, but she's not looking back. He also learns about her past, which has changed her personality. He wants to change things for her, only if she is ready. Slowly, with time, things happen and she realises that she's been trapped in her own net. She realises her mistakes and her best friend forgives her, as they walk through the aisle, starting a new life.

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 dream of on a silver plate, but she longs for adventure. When Emily and Kit's lives collide, they find they have more in common than they first thought. Hiding from the police is one thing, but when Emily's parents come looking for her, the two must do whatever they can to avoid being caught. They quickly realise that a life on the run is no life at all, but they may have gone too far to get out. Based on Prompt 14: "My Love, believe me, waiting for you has always been a form of freedom." - Alexandra Vasiliu.

"When saving an endangered species means life and death, sometimes you just need to sit down and have a cup of tea." Out of work and broke, liana accepts a placement on a Xeran ship as a trainee. How hard can it be? The Pay? Well let's just say, no more bargain beans on toast for dinner, ever again. What she doesn't know she's unwittingly signed a contract without reading the small print. And the whole ship is one giant sentient plant with a bad temper. Things are not what they seem, the ship is strangely empty, no one knows what's going on and what's that strange smell from the observation deck? To make things worse, a Pumpkin has stolen her chocolate.

A contemporary Scandinavian adaption of the legend of Jack Frost/Jokul Frosti. *** A first kiss changes everything. When Joakim kisses his childhood friend Anton it puts their relationship and also the weather in turmoil. Snow starts to whirl over Stockholm, turning the capital into a chaotic state. Is Joakim's emotional state actually affecting the weather and can his inner turmoil be stilled once he reunites with Anton, who mysteriously has disappeared after their intimate encounter? An ONC novella using prompt #69: "I had a marvellous time ruining everything."

Hope is as rare as water in a kingdom of sun-scorched sands and ancient walls. Princess Ilaria of Sigyn is poised to secure peace for her desert kingdom through an arranged marriage to Prince Godred, the ruler of a rival land. But when a shadowy assassin nearly takes her life, her plans-and her trust in those around her-crumble like desert dust. Forced into hiding on the distant island of Zospery, she finds herself under the protection of Lord Alaric Voss, a man as cold and unyielding as the sea cliffs that guard his home. Alaric is known as the Devil of the Spire, a relentless warrior with a reputation for cruelty and a heart as closed off as the fortress he commands. Yet, beneath his rigid exterior lies a past scarred by loyalty and loss, and he'll do whatever it takes to keep the princess alive-even if it means standing against the forces that seek to silence her forever. As enemies close in and the line between duty and desire blurs, Ilaria must confront a harsh truth: her greatest danger may not be the assassins lurking in the shadows, but the man who stands beside her, guarding secrets that could shatter everything she's fought to protect. But the more she learns about the unyielding knight, the more she sees glimpses of a depth that calls to her, even as her own resolve hardens into something far less forgiving. In the shifting sands of war and whispered betrayals, two souls clash-one desperate to keep hope alive, the other burdened by a past he cannot escape. And as threats loom from all sides, Ilaria and Alaric will have to decide whether they can truly trust one another... or if the secrets they keep will be the very things that tear them apart. -- COVER BY @-deeisdead- ONC 2024 SHORTLISTER

[ONC 2025 Shortlister] An apprentice silversmith, haunted by his reflection. A wealthy family, falling to ruin. A patron spirit, searching for a pact. Five games will decide their fate. After acquiring great wealth from a boom in silver trade, the Blackwood family moves into a mansion that was mysteriously abandoned by its previous owners. The property has everything a family of established silversmiths could need: prime trade location, a smithing workshop, and a large mirror that was left behind. To Kyren Blackwood, the promises of a new life and the riches that come with it are more than enough to overshadow the eerie tale. But the mirror watches. Reflections are not what they seem. Driven to the brink of insanity, Kyren must uncover the mirror's secrets before his family loses everything. In a desperate attempt to free himself, he agrees to play five games with the spectre in the mirror. If he can win three, the curse will end. Lose, and he surrenders his soul to the silver spirit. ~An ONC novella, inspired by prompts 13 and 55. ~Set in the same world as Buried in the Sea but can be read completely independently (with no spoilers to one or the other).

"There's no denying it-either I'm hallucinating or Cole Winton is standing on my porch." Jamie is used to putting pen to paper. She's been doing it for years, and has a slew of novels to show for it. For the most part, she's left alone to write which is what she prefers. But this is the first time someone has knocked on her door, insisting they are one of her characters. This is the first time someone demands to know how she knows what she does, declaring it treason. Armed with only her pen, her notebook, and her cat, Inkwell, she finds out just how much of their own lives her characters have taken on outside of her novels. (ONC prompt 99) ONC 2025 Finalist (5th place)

Cyril defied the Gods by his very existence. In a world where the Gods' will shaped the fate of every man and woman, he had no destiny. Such defiance could not be allowed. Per the Gods' will, the Moirai weaved a tapestry of destiny and death. A snip of a thread ended a life and a drop of dye subdued a mind. When Ophelia discovered a defect in the fabric, the Gods sent her to investigate, and then to end this threat to the Gods' perfect order. She was not prepared for what she found. With faith shaken, Cyril and Ophelia sought the truth of Gods and men. But so often, truth was a dangerous thing. A fantasy/sci-fi novella. **** 2022 Imaginaria Realm Category winner - Best Worldbuilding **** **** 2021 Open Novella Contest Short List and Honorable Mention - Stunning Worlds **** **** Featured on Wattpad Retold **** **** Featured on Wattpad Myth and Legend ****

Twenty years ago, magic vanished from the world, presumed forever gone. Yet it still existed, tangled within its own domain, along with Naamah, its dark personification. Naamah schemes return to complete her desire for humanity's subjugation and to avenge her earlier defeat. But with a soul barren, Naamah needed another to complete herself. Psalm, a blind young woman pure of soul, enjoyed a simple life with a loving family. She had no idea of her heritage, nor her magical potential as a powerful Oracle, nor that Naamah would target her. When the magic burst back into the world, Psalm and Naamah found their souls bound by a destiny written ages ago. This story was written for the 2025 Open Novella Contest, using prompt #129: The ink of our souls binds us beyond the pages of time.

LONGLISTED : When Agent Seven Three is sent on his first mission to the past, to sort out a problem with the timeline, he expects to be in and out in a couple of days. Identify what is causing the unplanned divergences and stop it. Simple, right? But when he encounters reporter Jack Brown, he finds the situation is far more complex than he was led to believe. And only when he meets someone he's not supposed to fall in love with, does he begin to really test his limits. SCIFI / TimeTravel / LGBT / Romance

The time is up, yet why is she still breathing? · There can only be one witch or warlock every hundred years - crumbling to ashes once they've reached their time. It's been two weeks since Verona Frost turned 100 years old, and she's still alive. . Began: 16/02/22

Determined and quick thinking, Amelia Conti is okay on her own. She's also an expert in outdoor sports. So when her boss offers her the winter hike of a lifetime, she says yes even before she knows who she'll be guiding. Or how much it will pay. If she'd taken the time to research the man who bought the last-minute premium tour, a demanding CEO named Damien Serrano, she might have reconsidered her answer. Well, maybe not. It is an absurd amount of money. He's grumpy to her sunshine, Christmas-lover to her Christmas dread, and the kind of man used to getting what he wants. Arrogance might work in a boardroom, but on the side of a mountain in the middle of winter, it's a hazard. If Damien can't learn to relinquish some control, they might not make it to the end of the hike alive. But everything comes to a head when an unexpected weather event pushes them even closer together. Water meets fire and something has to give. The question is, who will bend first? ~ * ~ * ~ This is one of the novellas I'm writing for ONC 2023. You can find the rest on my profile! This story is based primarily on prompt 13. "You were at the wrong place, at the wrong time, and now you are running for your life!"

🏆ONC 2025 HONORABLE MENTION 🏆 A lone lighthouse keeper watches over the coast, tending to her light as the sea rages beyond. The storms are nothing new-neither is the solitude. She is content with the quiet rhythm of her life, the crash of waves against the cliffs, the scent of salt and parchment filling her days. But when a shipwreck leaves a battered stranger at her doorstep, the tide of her world begins to shift. The man is rough-edged, a relic of salt and shadow, with secrets hidden beneath his scars. He speaks of a past that the waves should have swallowed, of maps inked in the margins of forbidden books, of love letters lost to time. Trapped together by a storm that refuses to pass, they share stories by lantern light-one seeking refuge, the other searching for something long forgotten. Yet not all ghosts are content to stay buried, and not all storms end when the sky clears. Whispers of war linger in the distance, and the truth he carries may threaten the safe harbor she has built for herself. As the past and present begin to intertwine, she must decide-will she cling to the safety of her lighthouse, or will she risk everything to follow the reflection of something new? -- Cover by @Heuristic_Hashmath

🏆 ROUND 1 WINNER - OPEN NOVELLA CONTEST 2025 A young witch must team up with a banished demon to reverse the curse on her village before she is persecuted. ⋯⋯⋯ Rakida of Apilsha has her life in order until a mysterious fire broke out and the townsfolk fell ill overnight. With fingers pointing towards her as the rumored village witch, she must find a cure before they burn her at the stake. Enter Tam Sinnasi, a demon stuck in her mother's antiques, with his devilishly charming smile and a hidden past, offering a shot at success. Having made a deal with the devil, Rakida now must balance mystery and magic as she is thrust into the deadly world of the wicked battling blood-thirsty beasts, deranged witches out for blood, a mad Queen of the Dead, and a vengeful goddess who surely had business with Tam. But as her journey takes her to Ganzir, the sprawling palace of shadows and ice, dying may be the least of her worries. From the award-winning author of 𝘋𝘪𝘦 𝘢 𝘏𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘥 𝘋𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩, 𝘈𝘳𝘭𝘰 𝘊𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘯 comes a tale of blames, bargains, and betrayals, set in a game of life and death where losing is not an option. After all, to save one's skin, sometimes, death may just be the answer. ˜"°•.˜"°•˜"°•.˜"°•˜"°•.˜"°• © 2025 (First Edition) [25,000 - 30,000 words] [All graphics are made by @sardonictabby] ˜"°•.˜"°•˜"°•.˜"°•˜"°•.˜"°• 🏆 LONGLIST - OPEN NOVELLA CONTEST 2025 🏆 ROUND 2 QUALIFIER - OPEN NOVELLA CONTEST 2025 🏆 ROUND 1 QUALIFIER - OPEN NOVELLA CONTEST 2025

Stories say that the Witch rained curses down on Devil's Corner, that she made the woods grow strange and wild, made shadows leap and dance and snatch up stray children for supper. In a small town on the edge of a dangerous forest, stories are never in short supply, and they are held dearer than truth. Thea lost her hand to the things that live in the wood, and she can't shake loose the voice that lured her there. But her Pa fed her tales of magic and heroes, and promises that even the darkest things have hearts. When her brother is attacked by the Witch's gruesome creations, Thea breaks into her cottage, determined to save him from a fate she knows all to well. Because in Devil's Corner, stories are true, and Thea knows the greatest one of all: the only way to break a curse, is to kill the witch. --- COMPLETE - 20,000 words Written for Wattpad's 2024 Open Novella Contest. ONC 2024 SHORTLISTER 2025 AMBY AWARDS ROUND 3 QUALIFIER

Violet Amberose, an editor for a prestigious novel company, lives a fairly ordinary life until she stumbles into an unexpected fate. All in a single day, she finds out she is dying from glioblastoma and has only three months to live, learns that her boyfriend is a father-to-be and has a wife, gets scolded by her superior at work. Drinking her problems away, she happens to see a shooting star from her rooftop apartment and drunkenly wishes for the world to be doomed. Her wish is heard by Dorian Skotos, a messenger between gods and humans. He was born between dark and light: when he breathes, countries disappear; when he walks, the seasons collapse; when he smiles, a life is extinguished. All he has to do is exist for something to fall into ruin. This is not his intention but simply his fate. On his birthday, he gets to choose a human's wish to fullfill. Sick of his fate, he chooses to fulfill Violet Amberose's wish to end the world. Violet ends up falling for Doom and risks death before it's time. To save Violet Doom must leave her forget her they ever met. They both are miserable. Doom thinking he did the right thing. Violet cursing the stars for taking from her the only good thing that happened to her in years she just met him and he vanishes. But little do they know the workings of Divine Power. There's more than the misery- there's relief. If you love a stunningly handsome supernatural male character with elusive personality then it's a book for you, dear reader! If you're wondering what happened to Violet and Doom. How they navigate through life and want lots of good and bad, shared moments please do read this mesmerizingly beautiful story of life and death a fight against all odds. An urban fantasy paranormal romance Novella written by Yasmin Parveen Note: Chapter 18 has Duel POVs. Warning: Includes explicit sexual scene. Enjoy reading! Birdies.

Round One Ambassador Pick. Emily Hollyford fell in love with Oscar Trentham, Earl of Riverstoke, when she was just thirteen years old. All she wanted in life was to marry her prince charming in front of the most important people in her life-her parents. Oscar, on the other hand, only saw an annoying child who pestered him day and night while he was trying to enjoy his visits with his cousin Henry. Due to a series of devastating events, their paths don't cross again till many years later and Oscar can't help wondering what happened to the outgoing and vibrant Emily? Overshadowed by her cousin Cecily and treated horribly by her mother's brother and his wife, Emily is a shell of her former self. But with Oscar back in her life, can she overcome the hurts of her past and find herself again? And more importantly, can she still get her happily ever after? Prompt 33 They had their arrow aimed at their target's back, a perfect shot despite the crowded ballroom. Taking a deep, steading breath, they pulled the bowstring taught and prepared to let the arrow fly. But then their target turned and looked directly at them, finding them in the eaves as if they'd known they were there all along. The target winked.

💫ONC 2025 Honorable Mention 💫 In a world where magic is both a gift and a curse, Hex, a bad-tempered sorcerer, constantly battles with his mischievous pixie servant, Pickles. When Pickles defies Hex one too many times, the sorcerer transforms him into a carpet beetle, setting off a chain of events that leads to a thrilling adventure. Meanwhile, in a distant fairy forest, the greedy goblin Giggleton is on a desperate quest to find the last Gem Maker, a fairy named Rose, who can produce precious gems with her hiccups. Trapped and alone, Rose's only hope for freedom lies in the hands of Hex, who has his own plans for the Gem Maker. As Hex, Giggleton, and a host of magical creatures cross paths, alliances are formed, and betrayals are revealed. In a tale filled with dark magic and unexpected heroes, "A Wicked Magic" weaves a spellbinding story of power, greed, and the quest for freedom. Will Hex's wicked magic be enough to save Rose and defeat the forces that seek to control her? Or will the sorcerer's dark desires lead to his downfall? 50. A supervillain has a midlife crisis and decides to become a superhero. But redemption might be harder than they imagined.

Esme and Matt can't stand each other, even if they have to play nice for the cameras. As public speculation about their chemistry heats up, they're forced to confront what's real versus what's just for show. ***** Esme Mendoza is everything Matt Crain isn't--polished, optimistic, and proud of her golden girl image. He's brooding, arrogant, and impossible to work with. As co-stars in an indie romance film, they're forced to act like soulmates on screen while barely tolerating each other behind the scenes. When their banter and lingering stares spark fan speculation during the press tour, their PR teams jump on the opportunity, but Esme and Matt aren't too thrilled. Suddenly, they're everywhere--public appearances, exchanging snarky remarks in interviews, and fueling endless rumors. As their forced chemistry starts to feel a little too real, Esme and Matt are left questioning: are they just playing a role, or could this be end game? ***** WARM HANDS #1 Open Novella Contest -- prompts 45 & 127 [[OPEN NOVELLA CONTEST 2025 ROUND 2 AMBASSADORS' PICK]] © 2025 caterina george // all rights reserved