ONC2025: My second novella entry. | The WriMo Blog, with E. H.

Welcome to The WriMo Blog where I share my monthly writing goals, project progress, and more! So, this update might come as a little bit of a surprise. Or it might make perfect sense. Depends on how well you know me. I am writing a second novella for Open Novella Contest, 2025. If this interests you, keep reading!

I know. It seems crazy, but I did enter 2 novellas in ONC2023, and qualified for 2 rounds with both entries before taking one all the way to the Shortlist. If you’re new here: my second year participating in the ONC was when I was a finalist—for the first time—with my novella entry, THE OUTSIDE WORLD.

Anyway, writing a second novella, or a second project in general, is second-nature for me. I tend to work on multiple projects at once, unless I give myself strict orders to focus on just the one.

Technically, I did not give myself any limits. I just assumed I would only want to write one. Nope, I feel very motivated to write 2 novellas. Even if I don’t take them both through all the rounds. THE UNICORN’S BLESSING will certainly go through all 3 rounds. I just feel it in my bones.

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For my second novella, even though I did use the Picker Wheel to look through my list of favorite prompts, I didn’t actually use it to choose anything at random. I spun those options until I liked what I was seeing.

As you can see, I chose my new prompt(s) with care. And these just mesh so well together! My twist—a very minor change—to the prompts is that the childhood imaginary friend is a fairy who is also the creature trapped in the ring. See how it works?

Now, I am still doing some brainstorming—because having an outline is really working with THE UNICORN’S BLESSING. I don’t have a description (blurb or summary) but I have a title:

Cover created with a template from Canva.com

Rowan is not the fairy, he is the protagonist. The fairy’s name is Aria. That’s all I have at the moment. Well, that and the start of an opening paragraph and a notepad of brainstorming notes.

It really is a shame that prologues don’t count toward the end word count. Because I think this opening paragraph is leaning prologue… Prologues, depending on the story, are necessary and should count toward the word count. I’ll have to figure something out.

I mention this over on my Wattpad conversation board, but I am, technically, in the brainstorming stage for this book. And I might be for a few more days. There’s a lot I am trying to figure. Setting—real world or fantasy world? Magical realism or full fantasy surrounding? These are important questions.