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Are you wondering what prompts we've used in past ONCs? You can find them in this book as we gathered all the prompts used in the past installments. You may use these prompts as inspiration for any story you want to write - no credits necessary! Have fun!

Ian has always had very vivid dreams that feel like memories. Seeing people she's never met before and even places she has never been to before. Her therapist told her that there are just dreams and not memories. She performances hypnosis to help her shut out her memories. But not all dreams have disappeared. The moment she arrives in a town called "Zoey." Upon her arrival, she continues to be mistaken for Anna. But the question is: Who is Anna?

Before the Lattice. Before the Silence became a war. Before anyone knew his name mattered. There was Aris. Daniel believed he was studying a flaw buried deep inside an experimental architecture-a space where systems that should have consumed, rejected, or overwritten one another somehow remained separate. Varga saw something else. A threat. Zero saw something neither of them expected. A possibility. Then, during a failed experiment in the middle of the night, a question appears on a dead monitor: **WHO IS ARIS?** There is only one problem. Aris does not exist yet. As Daniel follows the impossible signal deeper into a project already slipping beyond his control, the line between discovery and creation begins to disappear. Old secrets surface. Friendships fracture. And the choices made in one hidden laboratory begin shaping the life of someone who may one day stand between humanity and something far older than it understands. But this is not the story of a chosen one. It is the story of a man before he knew what others expected him to become. Of the people who feared him, protected him, studied him, and made decisions in his name before he could make any of his own. And of the first question Aris would spend years trying to answer: Was I made for a purpose-or did I become one? ARIS: ORIGINS is a companion novella to the main series: an intimate science-fiction mystery about identity, creation, choice, and the dangerous difference between giving someone life and deciding what that life is for.

Two teachers. Two rivals. Two hearts. Poppy Newman, an English Literature teacher, has worked at Twin Oaks Academy for the last six years. When she finds out that Logan Matthews, her high-school rival, is going to become her new colleague she can't quite believe it. With his classroom next door, there really is no avoiding him, and when the head teacher announces a competition, in order to get the A-Level students more engaged with their learning, their rivalry is sparked back into life. And with competition comes something unexpected: the students shipping their two English teachers. Will Poppy and Logan see each other beyond the competition, or will they just focus on being number one? *** This story was originally written for the ONC 2026, but this version complete with a new cover has been updated and rewritten for the Wattys 2026.

"The sky seems empty of the stars tonight," she mumbled, gazing at the sky. "Stop looking at the sky then." He said, coming closer. "Because they keep falling in your eyes." ________________________________ Violetta Evanston's plain and simple life takes a turn when she finds out that the person she trusts more than anything, the person who knows her more than anyone, the person whom she's been Penpals with, since years, is none other than THE KIM TAEHYUNG. Will she be able to protect her heart from the man whose dark, lethal gaze is enough to steal the heart of anyone he wants? ________________________________ [ONC 2020 LONGLIST] [ARMY AWARDS 2021 - 4th place winner in Taehyung Category]

#38 in Mystery as of 2/1/18. #93 in Chicklit.... A pair of beautiful warm lips, a rush of passion, a feeling of being complete once and forever, a pair of beautiful eyes as deep as the ocean, beautiful dark hair reaching up to his neck, which shone brown in the sun, and then he comes near me and holds my hands gently. I lose myself in his eyes, there's nothing except those liquid eyes which could see into my soul, I tried to see his face. But it was all a blur, a soft pair of lips touched mine as gentle as a feather but it created a rush of electricity in my body. I wanted to own every bit of him... then again my head was spinning...I lost my balance, I fell down and my head hit the floor. The whole world spun and I found my sight dimming. My head hurt and yet I tried to push through the curtain of darkness, His face...I had to see his face...and yes I could see a pair of eyebrows, a perfect smile and then the outline of his face was forming....I was sweating from the exertion and then the world plunged into darkness. And I lost myself in the endless abyss of unconsciousness. What do you think happens when you can't remember the person you loved? #543 in Romance as of 30.11.17

Eighteen-year-old Emily is having a challenging first week at university. Her flatmates are into parties when it's not really her jam, there's a thief in the flat whose favourite target is her milk, and all in all she's rather homesick. In the spirit of new beginnings, she agrees to go to gardening club with a new friend, only to find herself trapped inside a shed with only one way out - a door into a land that shouldn't, and soon probably won't, exist. Emily's only chance of getting home is to set out on a quest to save the stolen prince from his tower, in the far reaches of Minaria, Land of the Small Folk. But the world is on the edge of hopelessness, and the clock is ticking. If Emily doesn't fancy falling into oblivion then she should get a wriggle on. Prompt 1: You stumble across a mysterious door made entirely of briars and thorns. As you step through, you're granted extraordinary powers. But with great power comes great responsibility - it's now your duty to save a crumbling kingdom. Title and related quotes are from 'The Greater Celandine Fairy' by Cicely Mary Barker. Original fiction partially inspired by Alice in Wonderland and The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap. ⭐️ ONC 2025 Short List

ALIEN AMONG US is a small-town sci-fi novella filled with humor, heart, friendship, and enough secrets to make you wonder what-or who-might be hiding in plain sight. ************************************************************************ Entered into the Open Novella Contest 2026 | @OpenNovellaContest - Rules & Guidelines: here: https://www.wattpad.com/story/406004197-open-novella-contest-2026 **Main Prompt** 25. You live with four other housemates, but one of them is secretly an alien trying to learn how to act human. ©2026 E. S. Elias, All Rights Reserved. Book Created & Published to Wattpad: 02.01.2026 Book Marked as Completed: 00.00.2026 Book Cover: Me @DesignsbyEH Word Count: 2,222 / 20,000 Goals: ✔ Round 1 ✔ | 2,000 words ✔ | Round 2 ✔ | 8,000 words ✔ Round 3 _ | 20,000 words LONGLIST _ | SHORTLIST _ Round Winner? _ | Honorable Mention? _ | Ambassadors' Pick? _ Mentioned in Ambassador Newsletter _ Top-5 Winner? _ Rankings: #ONC2026: #ONC #2 02.03.2026

When you think of vampires, you probably think of Dracula or--shudder--Edward Cullens. You know what I mean: the romanticized, sexy version of a vampire. The one with sparkly skin and a charismatic compulsion. Hot. Sexy. Let's be real here, Gary Oldman really set the bar, right? But what fiction doesn't tell you is that being a vampire is messy and, quite frankly, HARD. It's ugly and lonely, and don't even get me started about tracking down blood. I'm wanted in every province (ever hear of the Bloody Killer? Yeah, that's me. Totally lame serial killer moniker, by the way, RCMP). I didn't have the choice to turn into a vampire, but, boy, did my creator pick the wrong person. Out of control, clumsy, drunk, messy, blah, blah, blah. You get the idea. I know, I should probably see a therapist, huh? Well, my trail of bloodless bodies soon catches up to me when a chance encounter with a hottie in a cafe leaves me with his phone by mistake, and I realize just how f***ed I am. And as I do my best to keep him away (while trying to survive as a vampire), I can't help but fall for the cafe hottie, putting a stake on my life. *** ONC '26 prompts: #56 and #81

Zaketa presents a carefully crafted mask to the world; one of sharp edges, privilege, and bravado. Only those closest to her, her most loyal guards, know the real Zaketa. And she is so much more than what her warlord father has crafted her to be. In the somewhat distant future, disease and hunger is commonplace. The celebration honoring the King's only daughter's coming of age is to be the event of the decade. It is to be a great leveler of men, a chance to and eat and drink to their heart's content. While her father sees an opportunity building for alliances, Zaketa is disgusted by the idea of being presented as a prize to carefully selected suitors. Masked and flanked by her loyal guard, Zaketa intends to use the opportunity to make an impression on her people and let her father know she'll more than just a tool at his disposal.

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!

Feelings fade. Wounds heal with time. Pain fades too. But for Elyon, it's a different story. Four years of traveling around the world, carrying pain buried deep inside him, trying to lay off the shadows from his past. All to no avail. Now he's back into his country, and he comes face to face with his past. The woman he spent four years trying to forget, becomes the one he must protect at all cost. *** When the death of a loved one brings two people together, they must battle their differences to unearth the mysterious events happening around them. Charles, Glory's late husband may be dead, but his deeds while on earth, keeps him alive. Can Glory and Elyon get on with their lives without the interference of Charles, even while dead? Is it likely that the dead still speaks? Copyright©giddyforyou2017 #OPEN NOVELLA CONTEST #Heedless made it through the first round♥:-) #Heedless made it through the second round♥:-)

When a cautious Formula One engineer crosses paths with a damaged comeback driver, she discovers that the most dangerous variable she should assess in the sport isn't speed-but attachment. ✦✦✦ Adriana Santos has always known her place on a championship-winning Formula One team is contingent. Excellence, she learned early, is not the same as security. She works in a role the paddock barely understands-simulating failures before they happen, answering 'what ifs' before they become 'what went wrong', and treating the car like a living thing whose future rests in her hands. Her work is quiet, precise, and easily erased the moment she becomes inconvenient. She is careful because she has to be. She knows Joshua Thomas long before she meets him: the driver who changed his name to fit in, the anomaly on a rival team forever tipped for titles. To Adriana, he's a reaction curve that never quite returned to baseline after last season's crash. His comeback is framed as resilience. Many are simply waiting to see him fail. They meet by accident, in a moment stripped of his usual extravagance and pretence. Adriana notices what she always notices-the face behind the mask, the way he laughs through failure like it doesn't frighten him. Adriana doesn't forget him, though. She keeps her distance but Joshua doesn't, and their reluctant friendship begins to bend into something riskier. And they both know exactly what it could cost them. ✦✦✦ ✦ Open Novella Contest 2026 | Prompts 24, 29, 30, 44 ᴄᴏᴘʏʀɪɢʜᴛ © 2026 ʙʏ ᴀᴜᴅʀᴇʏ ᴀʟʟ ʀɪɢʜᴛꜱ ʀᴇꜱᴇʀᴠᴇᴅ.

Rachel finds solace from the antics of her idiotic brother Lance by writing to her penpal Ryo Shirogane, yet does she really know him from those letters? She starts to doubt the fact she does when she starts learning some things he'd not told her. Disclaimer - I don't own Voltron: Legendary Defender. This is a spin off AU to my story Gemini, Touch the Sky. It is also written for Open Novella 2020. The prompt I picked for this one was prompt nineteen, "the one true friend you could trust happens to be a penpal you have been talking to since you were 12 through letters and emails. What happens if you find out that your penpal happens to be a part of a famous Kpop group?"

Death in the Downside is a museum of forever. Avery discovers that it's a lavish place and learns to lounge inside it, until a heartbeat breaks the silence. It pulses with a melody she once loved, leading her toward a forbidden stairwell and the impossible feeling that someone is waiting for her. She learns that: not all of the dead stay buried and not all of the living let go.

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."

Despite the fact their hearts no longer beat, vampires really aren't all that different from human counterparts. Some are kind, some are vile, and most are stuck trying to navigate the muddy middle. Enter our two vampires: One would never manage to fit all the candles on her birthday cake even if she desired to celebrate it. Armed with her fangs, centuries of knowledge, and ferocious desire for justice, she will do whatever she deems necessary to achieve her goals. The other is modern vampire who before being turned enjoyed life's simple pleasures: video games, surfing, and flirting.

ONC2025 Round 2 Ambassador Pick 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐎𝐬𝐤𝐚𝐫 𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐨𝐲𝐚𝐥 𝐩𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞, 𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐮𝐩𝐨𝐧 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞-𝐚 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐧'𝐬 𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐧, 𝐬𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐡 𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐝. Unicorns are sacred in the kingdom of Unara, their magic a gift only bestowed upon the worthy-or stolen through death. Someone is hunting them, and if the killings continue, their magic will fall into the wrong hands. Determined to uncover the truth, Oskar sets out to find the culprit. But the deeper he digs, the darker the secrets he unearths--secrets that could shake the very foundation of the kingdom. A standalone fantasy adventure, The Unicorn's Blessing follows Prince Oskar before the events of The Girl with Scars, revealing the choices that shaped the man he would become. Entered into the Open Novella Contest 2025 | @OpenNovellaContest - Rules & Guidelines: https://www.wattpad.com/story/387452246 **Main Prompt** 12. While hiking through a forest, you stumble upon a unicorn's horn. **Secondary Prompt** 130. Protect this with your life. ©2025 E. S. Elias All Rights Reserved. Book Created & Published to Wattpad: 02.01.2025 Book Marked as Completed: 04.08.2025 Cover: Me @DesignsbyEH I used Canva.com | Cover is temporary and subject to several changes. Word Count: 26,234 / 20,000 Goals: Round 1 ✔ | 2,000 words ✔ | Round 1 Winner ✔ Round 2 ✔ | 8,000 words ✔ Round 3 _ | 20,000 words ✔ LONGLIST _ | SHORTLIST _ Honorable Mention? _ | Ambassadors' Pick ✔ Mentioned in Ambassador Newsletter ✔ Rankings: #ONC2025: #21 on 02.02.2025 | #15 on 02.03.2025 | #12 on 03.24.2025 #opennovellacontest2025: #15 on