Opennovellacontest26 Stories

Aunt Mabel is dead, found lying amongst her daisies in her garden. Two eyes anxiously watch over her. The police arrive, but questions soon crop up. Is it actually Aunt Mabel? And who or what did it? A wild animal? A person? A baby dragon? Something strange is afoot in the Auntie's garden and it's up to Officer Holt Martinez, Estelle, and her cousin Julia, to figure it all out before it's too late. Little does she know that an unplanned trip to the Dragon's Lair Bookshop will upend everything she thought she knew about life, this world, and those beyond. *The Novella Version was a Open Novella Contest ONC 2026 Long List Winner!

Adrienne Julieta Fernandez, a Brazilian female formula driver's whole life changes due to one promotion. There's one more thing. A man. A man she never thought she knew of until she reached the top. A man who wrecked her life as much as he got her high on it. He has a secret which could change everything. She is unknowingly in the mess of the dirtiest tricks in racing. In the end, she will have to face her wrath. Brought to her by none other than her closest. ONC 2026 Long List

The last thing Maya wanted was to get caught up in a rivalry within the underground world. Mason, her childhood friend, was supposed to be the one she brought home. Not a crime lord with eyes too calm for a man in handcuffs. She didn't plan to start a war. She didn't plan to be hunted... And she definitely didn't plan to fall for him. But some disasters don't destroy you. Some look at you like you're the only thing in a burning room worth saving. And she's starting to realize... she might be his disaster too. #ONC26 #No. 51

It was supposed to be simple. One mission. One target. Substantial compensation. Instead, two elite assassins from rival organizations show up with the same assignment, the same instincts, and wildly inconvenient chemistry. Ezra and Elaine had everything planned and organized. The guests. Fake, but whatever. The food. Which they did not get to eat. Tragic. One dreamy gown. Ruined by an idiot who also smashed their wedding cake. Oh. And the bullets. Because when you make a living pulling triggers, it is only fair that the past shows up armed. Now the guest list is bleeding, the vows are under fire, and the mission they thought they understood is unraveling into something far bigger than either of them signed up for. Turns out, when your love language is violence, your happily ever after comes fully loaded. ---- [First draft - unedited]

A series of murders, a school magazine and an obnoxious colleague in the way. Suspicious letters pop up in the magazine Zoey Tan heads, she is forced to find the perpetuator who has landed her in the trouble. When the perpetuator proves to be more than just trouble to her, things take a deeper dive. When his low-key persona slips, Yuvan Tejas desperately tries to re-assemble it and protect those who shelter under it. When murder dots the city and the murderer seems closer than he thought possible, tides turn. Together they discover a truth that shakes their worlds.

"Hello and good whatever time of day it is! It's me, TinyOctopus, coming at you with fresh content." Cameron has heard those words dozens if not hundreds of times. The problem? He's in love with the gamer who goes by TinyOctopus but he's always known her as Brooke, his best friend since middle school. After a long day dealing with 'the customer is always right' he's content to curl up with a bowl of nachos and watch her play and dream that one day he'll have the courage to tell her how he feels. After one of the worst shifts of his life, Cameron falls asleep mid-stream. When he wakes up he's most definitely not at home and everyone in sight is strangely... obsessed with one person. Enter the farmer and with a sinking feeling Cameron knows exactly why this valley looks so familiar.

The dream always ended the same way: with the salt-spray of an ocean I'd never visited and the warmth of a hand I couldn't quite grasp. He never had a face-just a silhouette cut out of the moonlight-but his voice was a low rumble that vibrated in my chest. "Find me," he'd whisper. "Before the clocks stop." When I woke up, the silence of my apartment felt like a physical weight. I checked my pulse, my skin still buzzing from a touch that didn't exist. I told myself it was just stress. I told myself that "Thorne" was a name I'd probably seen on a billboard or a dusty law book. But then I saw him.

Beth Reynolds is running on three hours of sleep, a dying phone, and a very precarious subway coffee... until the train lurches and she dumps the whole thing on a ridiculously hot stranger. Then she shows up late to the biggest callback of her modeling career and realizes the "coffee guy" is Chris Martinez - her co-model for the shoot. The one she has to get half-naked with. Maybe kiss. For the camera. On set, the chemistry is real enough to make the photographer cry. Off set? Chris is sweet, steady, and somehow still sends mixed signals that make Beth feel like she's losing her mind and her oracle cards aren't helping. So Beth does what any anxious romantasy girl with catastrophic impulse control would do: she buys a love spell on Etsy. And after that... everything she's been dreaming about starts happening. Except now she can't stop wondering: did he choose her... or did she pay for him?

Myia Hollowbourne receives an antique pocket watch in the mail from an unknown sender. When she winds it, she slips into the future-where she witnesses what she believes to be her own death. The more she winds, the darker the visions become. She soon discovers a hidden world that exists alongside her own, known only to a select group with divine connections. As she delves deeper, Myia uncovers her true identity and royal lineage, revealing the mystery behind her family's past. Now, she must find a way to save her family and confront the dangers that lie ahead.

After discovered the opposition power and their fragments identity, Scarlet Bright and Lithanine "Lilith" Diesel continue their journey, discovered a new friend, Lucin and Lilith just discovered the new power. And not just that, Lilith will find new fragment identity soon or later. This story was Al-generative chat and edited by me to keep the fixed plot.

25-year-old Melody Marsh doesn't believe in magic. She might call herself a witch, but her witchcraft is just knowlegde of plants and a skill for healing people. Magic is just a thing of fairytales and legends, she believes. Until one day a massive black dragon appears in her garden, with his dirty, heavy feet right on her precious plants. He's a messenger of the gods and Melody was chosen for a quest. So after recovering from the trauma caused by the mass murder on her plants, Melody follows the dragon on a journey over the seven seas to the world's edge. It's there where she gets the chance to change one regret from her past, but everything has a catch. What's the right decision in the eyes of fate, when fate herself has been looking over Meldoy all her life? ______________ Written for the English edition of the Open Novella Contest (ONC) 2026. Based on prompt 74: You are offered the chance to rewrite one regret from your past, but doing so requires giving up a memory you treasure. The living library awaits your decision.

My ONC Journal 2026.

Editing!!! "You've gone soft, haven't you? Like a rotting peach." As a trained and highly skilled hitman, Eden isn't sure if she still qualifies as human. She remembers next to nothing of her parents, and only a bit more of her sister. All she knows is that she is angry. But when something she thought she had buried long ago resurfaces, she has a choice. Try to salvage what she long ago lost. Or face the consequences by watching everything burn.

Penelope has dreamed about one particular man nearly her entire adult life. There's just one problem - she doesn't know him in her waking life. Her best friend is convinced that Penelope is destined to meet him one day but as the years go by, Penelope becomes more convinced that he is just a figment of her imagination. Until she finally meets him while awake. As they get to know each other outside of their dreams, everything Penelope thought she knew about love is thrown out and she learns just how powerful a force love can really be. *Written for Open Novella Contest 2026 using prompt #18: At eighteen, you begin dreaming of a stranger who feels like your other half. When they finally appear in real life, everything you thought about love and reality begin to shift.*

This is the report of Lee's adventure in his phone. Lee downloaded the app "Adventure in Your Phone" and got trapped in the virtual world. To escape, he must complete a series of tasks hidden within his own apps.

He feared that his dream would become a reality. And when it did, he hated himself for being the cause of her ruin. .𖥔 ݁ ˖ ˚☽˚.⋆ .𖥔 ݁ ˖ ✦ ‧₊˚ ⋅.𖥔 ݁ ˖ ✦ ‧₊˚ ⋅ Just a random night in Hugo Moulin's life and he comes across the woman he could possibly dedicate an entire love serenade to. But when she accuses him of trapping her and ruining her life, what can the man do? Good for him, for he soon realises that this miserable situation was nothing but a dream. A dream with absolutely no meanings. But what's going to happen to this guy when he finds clues that point out about the existence of the woman in reality? And what's going to be his reaction when the woman turns out to be the one person he had vowed to be wary of for the rest of life? Was she real? Or just a fever dream? Or maybe just an enemy who had been eating up his thoughts? Or....what if...he was just losing his mind? #ONC2026

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!

A chaotic cafe owner. A rule-abiding lawyer. A wedding she wasn't supposed to crash. When Haein shows up a day late, thinking it's her ex's, sparks fly with Jungwon, the calm and composed groomsman who might just match her chaos. Messy, hilarious, and full of unexpected romance, some loves are worth bending the rules for. Warning: This story contains strong language and sensual undertones. [SUBMISSION FOR OPEN NOVELLA CONTEST 2026]

Usually, after-work suggestions from coworkers mean drinks and karaoke, both of which Opal normally declines in favor of a good nap. Finding herself in a creaky house surrounded by candles and spiderwebs? That should have been her first red flag. The ghost of the house realizes someone can finally see her and suddenly promises are being made to help a sister move on. The sister? A cop with her own vendetta. Opal is dragged into a cold case for a ghost she'd rather not be able to see because apparently, normal life was too much to ask for. Between late nights, dark corners, and dusty old documents Opal finds herself talking to the dead whether she likes it or not. Either they'll find the answers, or they'll be adding to the ghostly population.

Santa Claus is an old man in a tattered red coat, limping through a world whose failure to believe in him has caused him to vanish limb by limb. But before he disappears entirely, he has one last round to make - not with gifts, but with letters of apology, delivered to the people whose lives were derailed by a single, cold lump of coal. The greatest burden he ever carried was never the toys. It was his memories of the coal. This is one of my entries in the 2026 Wattpad Open Novella Contest. It is in response to Prompt 79: "A letter arrives addressed to you, written by someone who shouldn't exist."