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Novellas & New Roast: Tips from an ONC Winner

Reads 8,891
Votes 982
Parts 36
Time 1h 12m

Reads 8,891
Votes 982
Parts 36
Time 1h 12m

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Whether it's your first time or your sixth 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 did it. 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 ChaikaAll Rights Reserved

advice guidebook help howtowrite nonfiction novella onc onc2021 onc2022 onc2023 onc2024 onc2025 opennovellacontest random tipsandtricks writingadvice writingcontest writinghelp writingprompts writingtips

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Tumblefields [ONC 2021] by JanGoesWriting

It was a rite of passage for many of the young people in town. Spend the night in the abandoned hospital and return with trophies. Many people had taken the challenge and won. Many more had failed. Rachel accepts the challenge along with her three best friends, staying the night and taking trophies. Only after they leave do they come to realise their mistake. A mistake they may pay for with more than their lives. Someone never left Tumblefields Hospital. Until now. An ONC, Open Novella Contest, participant. Based upon Prompt: 32 - "All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream." - Edgar Allen Poe. Placed in the Horror category. ** ONC**: Shortlister, Round Two Winner (Tied, 5th place), Round One Ambassador Pick.**,**Wattpad Chronicle Monthly Spotlight (May 2021)** #OpenNovellaContest #OpenNovellaContest2021 🥇 1st Place, Horror Category, in the Aeryn Awards (2nd Dec 2021)🥇 🥈 2nd Place, Horror Category, in the Time Turner Awards (30th Dec 2021)🥈 🥉 3rd Place in Horror, Big Dipper Awards (May 26th, 2021).🥉 Cover by @LynaForge

Going the Distance -Write to Rank Anthology- by EchoStoriesMB

This is a book that will contain all of my entries for Write to Rank in 2023. Warning: Mature rating has been turned on just for precautionary measure that I do not know where my entries will take me. I am not certain how far into the Mature category they will go. So, I stated, the mature rating has been turned on for precautionary measures. #WriteToRank #W2R Ranking As of June 14, 2023 #8 - w2r #14 - writetorank2023 Ranking As of June 15, 2023 #4 - w2r #10 - writetorank2023

Thirteen Points of Light by SteveJBWO

After a night on the town, Sarah wakes up to a miserable hangover. But it's nothing compared to what comes next. After attempting to light a cigarette, she feels that something isn't quite right. Soon she'll discover that everything is very wrong. My entry in the Open Novella Contest III, Feb 2020. April 28. Just got the news that Thirteen Points has made it through the second round. Now I have to finish by May 5th. I'm not as far along as I had hoped at this point, but I'm sure I can make it. May 4th. 12:10 am. Finished. Submitted. Good night. May 20th. Well, 13 Points made the Long List. I have no idea how many original entries there were but about 940 made the first cut. There's 150 on the Long List. Not bad for my first time out. Now we'll wait and see how we fare on the Short List. May 30th. Well, Sarah and company didn't make the Short List. I can't say I'm disappointed though. This was my first attempt at this type of writing . Thanks for reading and voting. Now back to Short Story writing If you are also in the ONC, Good Luck and have fun!

Vengeful Creations || ONC 2021 by MarCafeWrites

🏆 ONC 2021 Ambassador's Pick, Shortlister, & HONORABLE MENTION To the outside world, young novelist Cristina Castillo appears to have nothing but success. With four published works under her belt, she is a literary wunderkind. But behind closed doors, she has a secret shame: countless notebooks filled with unfinished stories. Cristina's waking mind is plagued with the underdeveloped characters, incomplete plots, and cliché themes of her countless abandoned and discontinued tales. So many dreams, forgotten. While attending the release party for her latest published novel, Cristina comes face-to-face with none other than the protagonist of one of her most beloved (and unfinished) passion projects. He tells Cristina that he wants an ending for his story. And he warns her: he is not her only forsaken character seeking fulfillment. As Cristina's vengeful creations begin coming out of the woodwork, she is plunged into the depths of her very vivid and expansive imagination. A journey of humor, adventure, terror, and startling self-discovery ensues as Cristina tries to return to reality. She soon learns, however, that the only way to escape the fictional worlds she dreamed into being is to appease her creations by writing their endings. *Rated MATURE for language 32,000+ words ☆☆ FEATURED STORY ~ Eight Times!! HIGHEST RANKINGS ~ #2 Hamlet #4 Edgar Allan Poe #5 Writer's Block #6 Open Novella Contest 2021 #14 Shakespeare #42 Alice in Wonderland

Lucky! by Emrys_Noah

Quote Things we lose have a way of coming back to us in the end, if not always in the way we expect. Now where to begin? I'm Enid Lloyd. I have a sister and two loving parents, note my sarcasm. My parents never showed any care or love my way. They were always addicted to Esme, my older sister. As usual, we took a trip to our hometown, London for the winter. I didn't expect it to turn out like that. Really, I didn't expect it! An entry in Romance Winterfest 2020 Honourable mention in Teen Fiction in The Strawberry Milkshake Awards 2021 63 - lucky (16-03-21) 44 - lucky (17-04-21) 5 - winterfest2020 (16-03-21) 11 - romancereads (16-03-21)

Exit Wounds by violadavis

Harley had a bright future ahead of her, but that dream died a long time ago. ***** Harley vowed she would never return to the city that broke her heart, but old wounds never stop hurting if you keep poking at them. When the phone rings, the city stops, and she's summoned back, she discovers some doors are better left closed. Those you open might never be locked again. ***** Open Novella Contest 2023 -- prompts 42, 45, & 69 [[OPEN NOVELLA CONTEST 2023 ROUND 2 WINNER]] © 2023 caterina george // all rights reserved

Never Winter Again by daniavons

Open Novella Contest 2023 #ONC2023 SHORTLISTER Prompt #49: "Master the rules of the game until you can play it better than they can." ― Michael Scott, The Sorceress Who says that youth, beauty, money and privilege don't come with a price? When a group of friends, from a London's elite secondary school, are forced to spend four days together on a separate floor in a hotel in the Italian Alps, none of them expect what is about to happen. One falls in love. But also finds that true love can hurt. Two discover their bodies together for the first time. Three find out that three, indeed, is a crowd. Four learn how to play poker. Only five go back together. But all six will never be the same... Come with Lydia, Alex, Gloria, Mark, Nate and Patrick on the trip that started it all. #1 #itsalwaysbeenyou February 2023

Missed the Frame by WritingxNicole

✨ONC SHORTLIST, HONORABLE MENTION, AND AMBASSADOR PICK✨ Back home in his small town after suffering an accident, U.S. Marine Hayes McAdams tries to find a new purpose in life. Picking back up his old love of photography, Hayes agrees to let his friend Dylan set him up with a couple of photography gigs. But what Hayes never expects is for Dylan to accidentally set him up to shoot his ex-girlfriends wedding. Will Hayes be able to handle working with the girl who absolutely broke his heart, along with her unruly future mother-in-law, or will he once again have to say goodbye? "If the world is a frame I guess I belong somewhere out among the stars." - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - This is an entry for ONC 2021. The prompt I will be using is #29: "I am in the mood to dissolve in the sky." -Virginia Woolf Enjoy!

Let Me Be by LLSanders

After being ordered by the State to undergo Deep Sleep, a treatment for troubled teens, Jo awakens in the hospital with sporadic and unexplained memories. Upon celebrating her rebirthday, she recalls strange past events that makes her question reality. Did she really awaken, or has she become trapped in Deep Sleep? ***** 🏆 Round 2 Winner - Open Novella Contest 2020 🏆 Longlisted - ONC 2020 🏆 Shortlisted - ONC 2020 ***** ONC 2020 Prompt 15

Take No Notice ✓ by AdultOfTheFuture

[ A COMPLETED 2020 TEEN MYSTERY ] Life can take a turn for the worst when you least expect it, spiralling deeply out of control in mere days. It's hard to see the signs sometimes; it may be personality changes, or even just an odd remark, but if we don't recognise these differences then grave consequences await us. It could be failing an important test, missing a friend's birthday, but sometimes people take it a little too far... A text. A fire. A killer. Who can we really trust in this world? And do we need to look closer to sense great deception? _________________________ Achievements: 🥈Second Place in the EC Awards - Mystery/Thriller Rated Eighty Plus in Shreya's Book Reviews 🥈 Second Place in the Carnation Awards - Mystery/Thriller 🥇 First Place in The Candle Light Awards _________________________ (Cover by @-carawrites) (Images found from the internet, credits to Lily Collins and party) All Rights Reserved.

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Slide 1 of 10

Tumblefields [ONC 2021] cover

Going the Distance -Write to Rank Anthology- cover

Thirteen Points of Light cover

Vengeful Creations || ONC 2021 cover

Exit Wounds cover

Never Winter Again cover

Missed the Frame cover

Let Me Be cover

Take No Notice ✓ cover

Tumblefields [ONC 2021]

It was a rite of passage for many of the young people in town. Spend the night in the abandoned hospital and return with trophies. Many people had taken the challenge and won. Many more had failed. Rachel accepts the challenge along with her three best friends, staying the night and taking trophies. Only after they leave do they come to realise their mistake. A mistake they may pay for with more than their lives. Someone never left Tumblefields Hospital. Until now. An ONC, Open Novella Contest, participant. Based upon Prompt: 32 - "All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream." - Edgar Allen Poe. Placed in the Horror category. ONC: Shortlister, Round Two Winner (Tied, 5th place), Round One Ambassador Pick.,Wattpad Chronicle Monthly Spotlight (May 2021)** #OpenNovellaContest #OpenNovellaContest2021 🥇 1st Place, Horror Category, in the Aeryn Awards (2nd Dec 2021)🥇 🥈 2nd Place, Horror Category, in the Time Turner Awards (30th Dec 2021)🥈 🥉 3rd Place in Horror, Big Dipper Awards (May 26th, 2021).🥉 Cover by @LynaForge