Opennovellacontest Stories

Do you have an ONC? Wish to get feedback as well as discover other ONCs? Then stop by and join our ONC book club!

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!

Mari thought that coming home to a ghost town was bad. It turns out it's worse having to attend her estranged father's wedding and letting her childhood best friend break down the walls she carefully built. ***** Mari Chasey's life is suspended. She returns to her hometown in a cold November day following her mother's death, after years of studying abroad in Europe. Pinewood is sleepy in the bitter cold, the deserted shoreline stretching further than she can reach, but that's okay. Mari is good with temporary things and at not lingering. She's not planning to stay for long, just enough to sort out her mother's affairs without poking at open wounds. Then her father returns. Jack Chasey, former renowned superstar, absent for most of her childhood, is getting married to a woman Mari hardly knows. He gets to begin again, build something new, while Mari grapples with a fractured life and all the scattered pieces of herself. Her mother was supposed to live forever; Jack was mercurial and always at arm's length. But now he's here to stay. Enter Kinney St. James. Once Mari's closest friend, then another person that passed by like a comet, she still knows Mari and all the shards of her. Even the sharper ones. In the stillness of winter, Mari reconnects with the quiet life Jack always wanted for her, the softer parts of her that only Kinney can tap into, and what it truly means to be her mother's daughter. ***** Open Novella Contest -- prompts 24, 29, 46, & 77 © 2026 caterina george // all rights reserved

This space is created especially for writers participating in the Open Novella Contest 2026 Writing a novella is exciting... but also confusing, lonely, and full of self-doubt. ❤️ Is my story good enough? ❤️Is my opening strong? ❤️Will readers understand my characters? ❤️Am I even on the right track? You don't have to figure this out alone. This book club is a place where contestants can: ✔ Share their entries ✔ Get genuine reads ✔ Receive honest and helpful feedback ✔ Improve their chapters ✔ Support fellow writers Here, we don't compete. We grow together. If you are writing for the Open Novella Contest and want readers, reviews, and real feedback - this circle is for you. Let's help each other write better stories.

Every time you feel like you've failed at something, a flower appears in your yard. You now have the most spectacular flower garden in the neighborhood, yet all you want is grass.

She was born a witch - but magic never answered her. When her mother trades her future for political gain, Xylia refuses to become a pawn and flees in search of answers about the power that never awakened within her. But freedom is short-lived. A curse older than kingdoms binds her to Xanderis - a prince she considers an enemy. The spell is merciless. Enemies forced into proximity, they must work together to unravel the answers they both ask for. But the closer they get to freedom, the more dangerous the truth becomes.

A world at war. Spies fighting in the shadows. Niko Sapphire, a dedicated young agent of the Quorum, must unravel the sinister plots of a notorious alchemist and his alliance with the Siren kingdom of Lokesha before his homeland is ravaged by a new breed of creature, born of chaos and hellbent on tainting the ocean tides with blood for eternity. *** As the war between the evil Dragoness and the noble Lightsworn rages across the shores of the Southern Isles, tensions rise as new pawns of darkness arrive to swing the pendulum of fate in their favour. Recruited to seek out the mysterious dealings of corrupted alchemist, Doctor Kief Thondial, Quorum Agent, Niko Sapphire, joins forces with mermaid operative Skilla Striker to uncover the mysterious alliance between Thondial and the Siren Queen of Lokesha. Rivals by nature forced to work together for the sake of their people's survival, Niko and Skilla soon discover that Thondial has returned to his wicked experiments, and this time, what he creates could guarantee the outcome of the war. James Bond and Mission Impossible meet Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides in this action-packed novella about spiritual warfare, second chances, and the dangerous consequences of resentment. *** Entered into the 2026 Open Novella Contest Prompt #32

Zara is a hardworking baker and one contract away from success. David is the corporate king of Abuja real estate, a man who values order above all else. When a collision in a VIP elevator douses one of David's most vital land documents in hot espresso; their two worlds finally clash. David views Zara as a chaotic, sugary mess, Zara sees him as a cold, unyielding wall of stone. But when David is caught in an ugly custody battle with his volatile ex for their daughter, Annabelle; David realizes he needs more than just steel to save his family. He needs the one woman who isn't afraid to get her hands messy. Now, Zara and David must decide if they can build a future on the ruins of their first meeting.

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.

It's about an a 23 years old korean man, and an another 23 years old woman

When Teia Cloto travels to Naples, Italy, hoping to steady a life already quietly unravelling, the last thing she needs is blind date that turns into an easy, unexpected friendship. Alden instantly makes the city feel strangely familiar in ways Teia didn't know she needed. Drawn deeper into Naples' ancient past and her own unsettling sense of déjà vu, the line between coincidence and destiny begin to blur. Staying friends is simpler. But Teia must confront whether destiny is a story we inherit, or one we choose to rewrite, no matter the cost. Water and Sand is a contemporary love story that reimagines the myth of Theseus and Ariadne through wit, longing, and the complicated reality of choosing love when friendship feels safer. Updates ongoing as part of the #ONC2026 contest. Prompt #24: Staying as friends is meant to be safe, but that doesn't mean it's the path you're meant to take.

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.

When a child of the ocean is abandoned on land, what is she to do but wait? Talia was never one to hope for a better life. Sirens were not known to be dreamers. Her pod abandoning her when she was only five years old proved that a better life was hardly a realistic goal. However, her mother's parting words stuck with her all these years: "I will come back for you, I will make things right." On the twentieth anniversary of her abandonment, she hoped the ocean would finally call her back home, but the message she was sent was nothing of the sort. She soon finds herself as far away from the ocean as she had ever been, surrounded by people she didn't trust. And why? Because of her mother. Will she find her way back home? Or will home prove to be something else entierly? ONC 2026 participant Prompt 7. One morning, the ocean washes up a message. One you've been waiting your entire life to hear.

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.

When the strongest mafia organization in Endouva crumbles from within, who would expect their most skilled assassin, Loralie Asterra to end up in the mysterious island of Arkaris as a nanny for a three-year-old girl named Mimi Catapult? Loralie finds out that something bad is swirling within the borders. She uncovers Arkaris' hidden secrets, all while protecting a tiny prince and a child who refuses to leave her side. Doing so, Loralie realizes that she has no choice but to piece her gang back together to break the Curse of Arkaris.

Lights, camera, action. When an Alien gets curious, too curious, things go... south. Calliope is from the species Llanci, and when her fascination to mankind grows, so does her list of major crimes. Her thirst for knowledge never wavers, quickly snowballing to a dead corpse of a human in her space station. No one can find out the truth. She shifts into the humans appearance, completely replacing the human with herself and taking on its life on Earth. All she has to do is play the part, just like all those humans she sees on those pixel light boxes, and make sure no one finds out. Easy, right?

After a mission goes catastrophically wrong, veteran operative Arin is reassigned to an unexpected role: live-in nanny for the child of an influential family whose wealth buys privacy and silence. The house is immaculate, the parents distant, and the security far too thorough for comfort. As Arin adjusts to a cover that feels more like confinement, he becomes aware of subtle irregularities. Inside a home that should be the safest place in the city, Arin begins to suspect that he is not the one doing the watching.

The world has always known Seren by one name: Ruin. Born to a mother history remembers as a monster, Seren has spent her life hidden, studying magic in secret, desperate to understand the unstable power growing inside her. Every surge of her abilities brings storms, destruction - and further proof to the world that she is destined to follow her mother's path. Rowan, a truth-seer bound to an ancient order, is ordered to watch her - and, if necessary, stop her. But Rowan's gift reveals something impossible: Seren is not a destroyer. She is the key to a truth powerful enough to shatter everything the world believes about magic itself. As a conspiracy centuries in the making begins to unravel, Seren and Rowan must navigate betrayal, fear, and a fragile bond neither of them expected. Because sometimes, the greatest ruin is not the storm itself... but the lies that created it.

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.

Ian starts having detailed dreams that feel like recollections. Seeing people she's never met before and places she's never been. Her therapist told her that these were dreams and decided to use hypnosis to assist her shut out her memories. She is invited to a wedding in the town of Zoey. Upon her arrival, locals continue to mistake her for Anna. But the question is: who is Anna?