Opennovellacontest Stories

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!

She wakes with missing hours, a burning imprint carved into her shoulder, and no memory of who put it there. Nyxara Blackvein is an assassin who survives by control. Control over her body. Her blades. Her choices. But the mark beneath her skin has a will of its own, pulling her toward Stillreach-a city protected by an impossible shield and a power no one dares to name. Torin Cross was never part of the plan. A half-elf bard with a charming smile and secrets of his own, he's headed in the same direction for reasons that don't quite add up. When violence forces them to fight side by side, trust forms before either of them is ready for it. Whatever waits in Stillreach is already watching. ONC 2026 Prompts used. 32. Two assassins from rival organizations are sent on the same secret mission, only to realize the assignment holds a much bigger truth. 86. A wasteland hides pockets of thriving communities protected by mysterious shields. 99. You wake up with a strange mark on your skin after a late-night encounter you can barely remember, and its meaning grows more unsettling by the hour.

In the silk-producing valleys of the Kingdom of Naples, Renza, the daughter of a respected silk merchant, has been raised within the careful order of family and tradition. Lucien arrives as a restless outsider, marked by a past he cannot escape. Around them move others bound by secrecy and survival, including a spy for the Inquisition trained to live between two worlds. As tensions deepen and suspicion spreads through Silk County, their lives draw toward a tragic event history has nearly erased. Echoing the ancient myth of Galatea and Acis in a 16th century setting, Silk County explores how love endures in fragile and often dangerous spaces, where even the most delicate threads can bind souls across time. #ONC2026 contest. Story is complete. Prompts: #16 - Into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul. And a slightly modified version of #104 - while wandering through the woods, you dismiss the rustling behind you as nothing more than the wind through the trees until you turn around realize it isn't wind at all. Content Note: This story contains references to non-graphic sexual situations. It also draws on historical accounts of the Inquisition, including themes of religious persecution and some chapters contain acts of violence. While these elements, as well as 16th century attitudes toward women, are handled with care, they reflect the realities of the period and may be difficult for some readers. They do not reflect this author's viewpoint.

Jareth Coppersmith and Pol Flynt have one thing in common. They kill for a living. One works for GAME, the powerful Guild of Airship Mechanics and Engineers and the other, for the Royal Spymaster. But what happens when they are unknowingly sent on the same secret mission? At best they are rivals, at worst, mortal enemies. SciFi / Thriller/ Steampunk/ LGBT

A slipstream in time. A cloak of eternal night. Something stirs in the dark. [ ✶ ] Upon returning from a weekend getaway to celebrate their last time together before college, a group of friends discover the residents of their hometown have vanished without a trace, leaving behind a shroud of mystery, sunless skies, and an unshakable horror. [ extended summary inside] original novel / all rights reserved olivia siobhan © 2026 onc prompts #97, #44 and #24 [ ✶ ] open novella contest 2026 round 1 winner

Welcome, recruits! Here, we don't skip leg day-er, page day. With the ONC open, this club is about building strong plot muscles and emotional cardio. If you're reading this, congratulations. You've taken the first step into the most intense, elite, and mildly concerning ONC training program on Wattpad: the Pink Literary Society's ONC 2026 Book Club. Please place your snacks to the side, hydrate responsibly, and stretch your scrolling thumb. Injuries sustained during aggressive page-turning are not covered by management (unless you feed Ducky).

Adventure, friendship, explosive action (and diarrhea), this book has it all! Blending surreal comedy with soft, psychological sci‑fi, "Local NPC discovers dreams" feels like Inception meeting meme culture. The result? Dream travel gone wrong. Two strangers accidentally meet in a shared dream and get stuck there - one a sarcastic girl who never asked for a sidekick, the other a lost NPC-like guy who doesn't even know how he got here. Their differences in character aren't even the worse things they'll have to overcome... « Do you see it? - What? - There. Right behind that tree. He squinted at the green uniform mass of bushes. Nothing particularly shocking around them, except perhaps a bald head poorly hidden between two shrubs. Great, another bald head. But this one was probably trying to put them back in jail.» Welcome to the nightmare they never asked for. 🏅ONC2026 Round 2 Qualifier

Open Novella Contest 2026- Round Two Qualifier After Hyppa's village is destroyed, she sets out on a path of vengeance to bring those who have taken everything from her to justice. Aided by Wren, the machine-intelligence that powers her Galant- a suit of magic-powered armour- she journeys out across the wastelands of a world ruined by war and shattered by greed. Will she walk the same path as those that destroyed her world? Or will she be able to retain her humanity despite the fact that the only magic that still exist is used to power machines of war? A post-apocalyptic tale blending elements of Science-Fiction and Fantasy, Galant is a story about revenge and how much it can cost when weapons are the only tools we have to hand.

Have you ever wondered who your soulmate is? In the world of 'Moonlit Dreams, Moonlit Fate', you get to meet them in your dreams, right after you turn twenty years old. However, you do not know what they look like. As Yvonne Blythe keeps dreaming about her soulmate on the nights following her twentieth birthday, she becomes determined to find them. During her relentless search for the person of her dreams, she meets Reid Wells, a senior at her university. The encounters do not stop there - Yvonne and Reid keep running into each other at the most unexpected places. But, these encounters make a realization dawn on Yvonne - Reid was not just a random guy, he felt like the very person who had appeared in her dreams for the first time. Entry for Open Novella Contest 2026. Prompt used: 21

My journey in reading an writing! How I fell in love with expressing emotions through books and and the dangerous beauty of feeling too much and the fragile pieces of myself I found hidden in every story. Oh, and some tips as well!✨🌸

Bee's life is sort of stable: she has a flat, a bipolar diagnosis she's getting a handle on. Well, as much as possible, considering she also has a personality that treats impulse control like a creative suggestion. Theo - her childhood neighbour, moral compass, and lifelong critic - has moved back into the apartment across the courtyard. Now he's in her bar. In her kitchen. In her friend group. And, judging by the way he pointed at the window last night, extremely aware of which bedroom is hers. They've spent the last decade living separate lives on purpose. Different cities, different people, one annual birthday party where they confirm they're still wildly incompatible and leave again. But Theo isn't leaving this time. And apparently, neither is the possibility of whatever they've spent ten years avoiding. Prompt: You will meet many people in your life. Many will come and go, but some will leave footprints on your heart.

At eighteen, she begins dreaming about a boy she has never met-yet somehow knows by heart. In her dreams, he feels like her missing half, someone who understands her in ways no one else ever has. She wakes up every morning wondering if he's real... or just a creation of her lonely imagination. Then one day, she spills her coffee on a stranger. Late, stressed, and embarrassed, she expects the moment to ruin her day. Instead, it becomes the beginning of something unexpected. The boy she drenched in coffee is kind, funny, and strangely familiar. Too familiar. As their awkward meeting turns into friendship, and friendship slowly turns into something deeper, she starts noticing unsettling similarities between him and the boy from her dreams. The same smile. The same voice. The same way he looks at her like he's always known her. With every shared laugh and late-night conversation, the line between dreams and reality begins to blur. Was their meeting just an accident? Or was fate slowly guiding them toward each other all along? And when love begins to bloom, she must face the truth- Some souls are destined to meet... long before they ever touch.

The year is 4056. How did two medieval princes enter the atmospheric city of Skymega? Jynxa Jyn, a little bit rebel, a little bit chaos, finds Tharen and Sorian, half-brothers, who were once rivals for their 15th century kingdom. Can the weapon, which only the Everlast Princes' blood can activate, be exactly what they need to save Earth and humanity? #ONC2026 Prompt Spring #1

Book Two Evie O'Doyle didn't come to Oxford to fall in love. She came to build a life that was hers, away from where she grew up and the parents who told her she wasn't worth much. She's done that. Against every odd, she's done that. Archie has spent his whole life stepping in front of his father's fists and taking it. It's the one thing he knows how to do. But this time his father is taking it too far, and messing with the one thing Archie won't back away from. For the first time in his life, he's going to have to fight back. Evie has survived harder things than a man in an expensive coat who doesn't think she's good enough. She knows how to hold herself together when everything is falling apart. She's been doing it since she was a kid. What she doesn't know how to survive is watching the people she loves most pay the price for who she is. Some storms you can outrun. Some you have to stand in.

|Round 2 Winner| |Round 3 Ambassador Pick| |Shortlist| Rhiannon "Banjo" Hart is a professional thief working her last ever job. The Hawk has promised a massive payout if she can steal data from Concorda International and Banjo needs the money to help her Mum get hospital treatment, but she is not sure The Hawk will stick to the adage of "honour amongst thieves". In her escape, she meets an android that adds complication after complication to her already complex life. Banjo needs to outrun the authorities, Concorda's security and The Hawk.

Amaury's debt is to be the Soul Reaper of one hundred souls to the keeper and master of his own. With Nilly, his assistant, he sets off to reap that final soul. But there's a catch. How can a lost puppy end up freeing the Soul Reaper and bringing the puppy's owner true happiness? Lorri's lonely life is about to change with a chance encounter, brought about by her escape artist of a puppy, and someone who isn't entirely human. Entered into the ONC2026 contest based on the following two prompts. #65: On the way to collect a soul, the grim reaper is distracted by a stray puppy. Instead of completing the task, he decides to find the puppy's owner, much to the frustration of his assistant. #52: You're on a first date when you suddenly realize the person sitting across from you isn't entirely human.

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.

She is the lost princess of the Twilight Ocean Clan-cursed, exiled, and forgotten by history. When the ocean begins to fracture and ancient forces awaken, she is summoned back to the depths to restore balance and break the spell that binds her fate. As she searches for the truth behind her curse, she is drawn into a dangerous love triangle: a feared leader of the war clan who threatens the seas, and the devoted Twilight Clan general sworn to protect her-even from herself. With kingdoms on the edge of collapse and her heart pulled in opposite directions, the greatest battle she faces may not be for the ocean... but for her soul. Submitted to the Open Novella Contest 2026.

The day Jade stumbles upon a forgotten temple and the god once worshiped there, her life changes forever. She's finds herself with a curse and no choice but to work with the mischievous god if she hopes to break it. However, he has an agenda of his own, and nothing is quite as it seems.

ONC 2026 Round One Qualifier❤️ Natasha is a young, published author whose book never quite found its audience. At home, her words are dismissed, her dreams met with silence instead of support. Slowly, she learns a truth that no one ever taught her-that before asking the world to choose her, she must choose herself. Her journey of self-love begins small and unremarkable: solitary café visits, writing without seeking validation, doing things simply because they make her feel alive. Like planting a single seed, she nurtures herself with patience, light, and time, watching her confidence grow in quiet ways. On a train journey meant to be nothing more than an escape, Natasha notices something unexpected-a stranger reading her book, smiling as if the story was written just for them. The sight moves her deeply, proof that her words mattered, even if the world never applauded. She gathers the courage to speak, but the stranger seems distant, uninterested, and the moment slips away. Fate, however, isn't done with her yet. When their paths cross again, Natasha realizes that her book has already spoken on her behalf. Through the story she once wrote in loneliness, she finds connection, understanding, and love-only after she has learned to give all of it to herself first.