Onc2024 Stories

Storms tended to bring change. Solving Neridia's first ever murder case wasn't exactly what Nemera had in mind. The overworked yet semi-retired bartender had seen her fair share of death and destruction within a world full of dragons and demons. But when Aidari Rainheart, a young Stormspell elf is accused of murdering one of her own, Nemera is dragged in to follow in her former Master's footsteps. Whether she liked it or not. The role of the Night Rider is a heavy burden to carry and without the usual comforts of following others' lead, Nemera finds herself drawn to secrets hidden deep within the Brink. But nothing is ever that easy when elves are involved and much like a good mead, the truth starts to get a lot murkier the more she delves in. Especially when Aidari turns out to be hiding far more than any elf in Neridia. Caught between a peace treaty, the aftermath of war and a complicated relationship with a happy go lucky pyro spirit things go from bad to worse when Nemera learns who exactly the victims are. Political coups turn into a full on power vacuum and how poisoning a dragon could lead to the murder of two of the most prominent elves in history. After all, killing an immortal race had never been done before. Somehow, Nemera has to learn to put aside her biases, her booze and most importantly, her bad mood to help those truly in need and maybe get a free tip at the end of the day. With a healthy dose of wit and a sobering reminder of what every Traited faces, perhaps her Master's last wish was for her to become something more than being a drop in the barrel.

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Whether it's your first time or your seventh 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 wrote a winning novella and look forward to writing every year. 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 Chaika

ONC 2024 SHORTLIST ************ For the longest time, it's been just Mitchell and Hayley against the world. Between hustling and trying to be a good big sister, Mitchell's only happiness comes from romcoms. But she has a dream - the day when the two of them will be free and happy. With Hayley pursuing her internship at a prestigious food research lab and Mitchell experiencing an encounter with a man, both of them get exposed to a whole lot of new things and people. The two sisters will have to work hard for their dreams amidst balancing the new additions to their lives. And boy will that be a whole rollercoaster! This story is created basing on prompt 8: You start singing along to a movie soundtrack late at night forgetting that your window is open. Someone from the outside starts singing with you. - Featured on Celestia Cove's New Adult reading list

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!

There's no bond like a girl and her first dog. And, once it's all said and done, there's no loss like it, either. Hugo has lived a long, happy life with Bay, his one and only human. When their time together comes to an end, Hugo watches Bay's life unfold from an afterlife designed just for dogs. While Hugo watches from Dog Heaven, Bay makes a grief-stricken wish from the heart and Hugo vows to answer it for her, even if she doesn't know it. Forced to watch the rest of Bay's life unfold from a distance, Hugo plots to bring joy back to her, and he knows just how to do it. Content warning: pet loss ONC 2024 entry, prompt 24: A wish made from the heart is always answered, sooner or later. Total word count: 23,049 Recognition: - 2024 Open Novella Contest Shortlist - Contemporary Lit Experimental list - Ambassador's Slice of Life list - Ambassador's Reads list - Featured in February 2025 Ambassador's Recommendations

When Essa sees their villainous future, they use the prophecy as a ploy to defeat their three brothers and force each one into a better work-life balance. Their first so-called battle restarts an old tradition for family dinner, leading Essa to bond with their brothers, all while struggling to balance their guilt and their alter-ego, Muse, whose name comes with a reputation of its own. **** Written for the Open Novella Contest 2024 (ONC), using prompt 87. Cover by @Nicoismysenpai !!

** When their beloved mistress is murdered, a white raven and a black fox embark on a journey for revenge. Will the brave familiars manage to recover the stolen heart in time - or would they lose themselves? ** "Sometimes love is what drives you to take your next breath. Other times, it's revenge." - ONC24EN Prompt #27 - When the guardian of a fairy grove is cruelly murdered for the source of her power, her two familiars and faithful protectors are left broken and lost. But soon, their despair changes, and from this moment on, they are driven by one desire alone: Revenge. They embark on a death-defying journey with the little strength they have left to reclaim the stolen heart. Will the black fox Cian and the white Raven Lir manage together to steal back the soul of their beloved mistress before their magic is used up and their lives are forfeit? Or will they turn back into what they once were and lose themselves forever? Time is running out, because the two nature spirits don't have much fairy magic left, as the cruel thief has his own sinister plans... *** English Version of our ONC 2024 Entry. Story by BellOfSilence & DearNovalee Cover by Thinkerling

[FIRST DRAFT] Wren Deisy, a young girl plagued with hallucinations and strange dreams, has just discovered that maybe they weren't all in her head. Wren has the ability to portal to another world. And she couldn't have been less prepared for her adventure in the Land of Dreams. __________________ "𝘐'𝘮 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘢𝘯𝘦," 𝘐 𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘥. "𝘕𝘰, 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨." "𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘨𝘰𝘥." 𝘈𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵, 𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥. "𝘐 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥. 𝘠𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮. 𝘠𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘢 𝘕𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘸𝘢𝘭𝘬𝘦𝘳." __________________ This is my story for ONC 2024! Please enjoy! (NOT EVEN CLOSE TO DONE, STILL WRITING/EDITING!!!)

Open Novella Contest 2024 writing prompt #83: Earth's climate is becoming increasingly inhospitable. Humans have located another planet to live on, but there's not enough room on the spacecrafts for everyone. Who stays and who goes? One wrong question has the power to condemn . Following the Martian discovery of a jump drive, the United Nations of Earth formulated a plan. There is a rumored list of seventeen crimes - modeled after the nineteen crimes that could get one sent to Australia. It seems a very similar one would get white collar corporate criminals, fringe political activists, terrorist operatives, bigots and climate law violators sent to Mars. Publicly, it's all denied. Then Brie Reyes (nee Hodges), finds herself arrested after a contentious briefing with the United States Climate Initiative Czar. Researching her absent father - who long ago left to be among the first settler of the Martian colony Selah - caused a cataclysmic shift in her life and her thinking. Meeting the half-brother born to her father after he settled on Mars may either bring her salvation or condemnation. Either way, Brie Reyes is going to Mars. Its either as a political prisoner. Or political refugee.

Running from an arranged marriage, Elaria wants nothing more than a life of her choosing. On the night of her escape she finds she's not the only one making a run for it. -- The two countries of Coastalis and Mossvale have an agreement since their founding to arrange marriage and keep the friendship held for ten thousand years intact. However, when Elaria is faced with this head on, she realizes her life has been lead into complacency, and she's had enough. Ready to finally live her life on her own terms, Elaria ties her sheets into a rope and scales down the wall of her own palace to escape. But she's not the only one. Erik, who has his own struggles, is desperate to return to Mossvale to reunite with the love he left behind. Together they forge an unlikely pairing as they traverse both love and fate. However, fate has much more in store than either of them expect. -- An ONC Novella Prompt #88 Your father is forcing you to marry someone you have never met. The night before your wedding, you tie your sheets together and make your escape through the window. Halfway down you make eye contact with someone doing the exact same thing a few windows over.

As the saying goes, 'Not all heroes wear capes,' and in the case of Chloé Godoy, the statement had never been more true. The promiscuous, twenty four year old intern finds herself with supernatural abilities one morning after a night out and she thinks why not try to put them to good use and fight crime? There's one problem though. Her powers only work when she's drunk off her ass. ** That only turns out to be the tip of the iceberg when roped into a mugging case, Chloé's life is catapulted into chaos after every turn; there's conspiracies within the police, she's caught in the crossfire of warring mob groups and headhunted by a cult. To make matters worse, her only means of help is her psychotic childhood frenemy who's sex on a stick, and a shifty private detective with ties to the underworld who constantly gets under Chloé's skin. And her skirt. On second thought, she probably might be better off not doing this sober.

Power. Some kill to get it... Some kill to keep it... Some kill to keep others from having it. Aside from being a Ranger's daughter, Aurora Amethyst Makepeace (yes, that is her real name, bless her ever-loving Mum) is about as normal as normal can get. She has to study hard to get through school just like most people, she has to do laundry and help with the family business like every other young person in her District, and she has to walk on her own two feet just like God intended. She has never raised a flag on the Flameseeker's visits to her settlement. She is absolutely certain she is NOT a Spark. As the only son of High Councilor Kederov, Dane Kederov is a fourth-generation Sparkblood. Not only does that make him royalty, it makes him an Inferno - one of the most powerful Sparkbloods on the planet. It also makes him an extremely valuable political pawn. He lives a life of extreme privilege, high above the tensions and riots that have been escalating between the Sparkbloods and the Norms... until his father is murdered after leaving an ominous message for him, and Dane is suddenly a liability. Someone wants him gone. Someone who has the resources to kill an Inferno. Someone who is determined to claim power for themselves at any cost. Dane flees the Capitol, flying into the vast expanse of untamed wilderness that surrounds the city state of Firestone. Two weeks later, Rory goes on a tracking mission to find whatever is killing Biddy Correl's hogs... and discovers a lot more than a rogue bear out there in the Wildlands. She finds her exact opposite, in more ways than one. With Sparkblood hunters on Dane's trail, and Rory's father going after the bounty, Dane and Rory wind up thrown together in a mad, desperate attempt to solve the murder of Dane's parents before the riots and inter-racial tension boil over into all out war. No matter what, their lives are never going to be the same.

ONC Entry based on Prompt #90: You were officially dead for 2 minutes. Ever since then you can see guardian angels, and not a minute goes by in your daily life that you don't see an annoyed angel doing their job.

ONC 2024 ENTRY |ONC 2024 LONGLISTER| |Nanowatt 2025 SHORTLISTER| |Ambys awards 2025 favorite| |2× featured| - |mystery|, |teen fiction| The holidays are over but the murders aren't. *** Deep in the city of Ikoyi, blood has become a daily alarm. With the amount of people being killed rising and the numerous calls to fight against this insurgency, the residents are doused with fear as the city tips between peace and utter chaos. Zara, an ever anxious and over thinking teenager, has come back with her family from their vacation to the United States, finding their hometown ablaze with all these news of murders that have suddenly become an epidemic. But with her goal to pass her external exams in flying colors and still keep herself together despite her family's many abuses, the murders are little more than stories that cause a stroke of anxiety before she is once again swamped with her own problems. But when Zara's mother is murdered in cold blood, she is suddenly thrust headfirst into this epidemic that has ransacked her home. Nothing ever happens without a reason and whatever killed her mother may be coming for her too. Beautiful cover by @ReynaBennett

IN TIMES OF PERIL, THE ANCIENT DRAGON LORDS WOULD APPEAR, providing aid and salvation to the Empires of the world. Their power brought many victories against the evils that lurked from the Realm of Ruin- the plane of hellish abominations and demonic power. That was- until a new force discovered a way to seal the realm up. Over the decades, the dragons have all but vanished with the dawn of the new age of peace. It was thought that tranquility would last far past Emperor Azrykis's reign, but an unexpected messenger, washed up on the shores of Vazrandin, reveals a dark twisted plot- to unearth a ruthless demon of destruction and gain control of the last remaining Dragon Lord.

[ONC2024 ENTRY] [COVER IN PROGRESS] Sixteen-year-old Fern was happy to be sent off to an innocuous boarding school, until she finds herself at the epicenter of strange events and the string of fate bonding her to the school. *** Monkeys, matrons, mattresses. Commonly unrelated to the average person, but students at Wailmouth would say differently. The impressive boarding school sits among swathes of green foliage whose simian residents are playful as they are unruly. As if their tailed neighbors aren't enough of a problem, the school's matrons seem dedicated to make their lives a living hell. The infamous Madam Matron rules with an iron fist, her unrelenting force intensified against the old mattresses they're forced to sleep on. Fern learns all this in barely a month of her enrolment into Wailmouth College. Her arrival, however, had sparked a chain of bizarre events within the gates of the school. Together with her friends, Fern investigates the connection between the peculiar incidents, and between Wailmouth and herself. *** Trigger warnings: Alluded teen pregnancy, animal abuse, violence, death

Rachel worked hard, looking forward to the vacation she saved up for, a break from family troubles, only for troubles to find her as the paparazzi take an interest in a certain pop idol and some of the other things going on at the Pokemon Resort, including her brother's friend group which includes a not-friend but rival who believes his mother is an alien. Because while Pokemon exist, aliens don't, right? Disclaimer - I don't own Voltron: Legendary Defender or Pokemon Concierge. This is one of my Open Novella projects for 2024. The main prompt is prompt nine, "After some long months of working harder than ever, you finally get to your well deserved vacation getaway but when you arrive at the hotel there is this one star that brings all the paparazzi and trouble with them and makes your vacation a one to remember." I'm also working with prompt four, "When life gives you ballons, you fly up into the sky," prompt thirteen, "Every family has that one member of whom no one speaks, and that's you, prompt thirty-one, "'Your Mom was an alien.' Exactly what a child needs t hear from their father as a bedtime story," and prompt thirty-four, "You wanted to go to the moon, see the silvery white glow of it for yourself. Instead, the moon came to you. One day, at your door."

It is when the bar is in complete silence that the barkeeper is the most content. That is until another companion comes to them in death and they are reminded of what they are still there for: memories of love. *** A woman who spent all her years in anger, but wants to spend her last minutes talking about her sister. A lover who remembers the one that got away. A man recounting the reconnection to his baby brother. A mother. A teenager. A barkeeper. TILL OUR FINGERS DECOMPOSE tells the stories of the ones who have passed on in conversations between the dead and a barkeeper who is only interested in hearing about their love. (ONC 2024 entry)

After a near death experience, James Jones, or Jimmy to his friends, begins to see ghosts. While in surgery, he meets Henry Costa, a renowned ghost buster. Henry is dead, but he's about to become Jimmy's best friend. when he's recovering from his surgery, Jimmy learns his sister has gone missing, and may also be dead. Flying off to America, he sets out to find his sister.