Writing

14 Romance Writing Prompts to Jumpstart Your Writing

Written by MasterClass

Last updated: Aug 24, 2021 • 2 min read

Writing romance requires a central focus on the development of a romantic relationship between two people. These romance writing prompts can help aspiring romance novelists get into the right mindset to write an effective love story.

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14 Romance Writing Prompts

If you’re staring at a blank page with a lack of romance story ideas and need help getting those creative juices flowing, these romance writing prompts can help you start writing your romance novel or story:

  1. 1. A character in an arranged marriage starts to develop feelings for the best friend of their spouse-to-be.
  2. 2. Two co-workers who can’t stand each other get locked in their office overnight, and are forced to confront their differences, leading them to see another side of one another.
  3. 3. A character has a love affair with an old love interest from high school the day after getting engaged.
  4. 4. A take on Romeo and Juliet where instead of a tragic storyline, both characters find their happily ever after with one another.
  5. 5. A fortune teller can predict the love lives of everyone they meet, except for one customer—who they’ve fallen in love with.
  6. 6. Believing that there’s no one right for them in their current era, a character time travels to the past to find their perfect partner.
  7. 7. A young adult romance novel where the main character is about to spend Valentine’s day with her boyfriend for the first time, but instead discovers it’s the one day out of the year he turns into a werewolf.
  8. 8. A sci-fi themed story where an alien from another galaxy comes to Earth to abduct a human, but starts to love one instead.
  9. 9. A character unsatisfied with their own real-life romance makes up their ideal soulmate—only to find that there might just be a thing as too perfect.
  10. 10. A private investigator starts to generate feelings for the target they’ve been paid to spy on.
  11. 11. A character somehow got their hands on a love potion, but used it on the wrong person.
  12. 12. A passenger on an airplane develops feelings for their seatmate, and has to find a way to confess before the flight is over.
  13. 13. Take two characters from existing works of romance and switch their genders or roles, retelling the story with newly envisioned characters and your own writing style.
  14. 14. Rewrite a real-life romantic experience, either from your life, a friend’s, or famous romances from the real world, and change a few details to create different scenarios in which your novel or short story can take place.

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