30 Writing Prompts for Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day, the universal day of love, is just about upon us. You know what that means … stories with all the feels! If you've wanted to write a romance novel centered around the holiday, now's your chance. 

But sometimes, we just need a little help getting our stories started and writing prompts are a great way to get some inspiration. Even if you don't follow the prompts to the "T," they provide a jumping-off point that could lead to your next short story or even bestseller. 

Whether you write rom-coms, suspense romances, romantasy, or supernatural romances, we've got some prompts to get those wheels turning. 

Let's start out with some simple ideas. 

1. Write a scene where your love interests share their first kiss. What are their inner musings?

2. What does your protagonist really like about their love interest? Wax poetic about it from their point of view. 

3. Write a scene based on your favorite love song. 

4. A chance meeting at an airport leads to an unexpected love connection, but there are challenges. What are they and how does our couple overcome them?

5. A librarian begins receiving love notes tucked inside books. Who are they from?

6. Two people meet repeatedly, year after year, on Valentine's Day by sheer coincidence. What are their stories and could it lead to more?

7. A wedding planner opens an office across the hall from a divorce attorney. What could possibly go wrong (or right)?

8. A magical cafe has a single table but only allows two strangers to occupy it. There's a legend that every couple who meets there falls in love. 

9. Two people in neighboring apartments start having conversations through their balconies. Do these conversations lead to more? Unexpectedly falling in love, perhaps?

10. The protagonist discovers a romance novel with their own love story within, up until the present time. What happens next?

11. Write a story about a character who dials a wrong number, yet ends up in a fantastic conversation with a stranger. They agree to meet without exchanging names. 

12. A character hires a love coach after multiple failed relationships, but falls for the love coach. How do they navigate the ethical implications?

13. Unexpected gifts keep arriving. They're deeply personal, thoughtful, sweet, and funny. The sender is someone they never expected.

14. Rival wedding planners must work together to create the wedding of the century. As they battle, they begin to fall in love.

Need some more meat to get you started? Let's get a little more complex! 

1. Write a story about someone who receives a love letter in the mail, dated 10 years ago. For some reason, it was never delivered. The sender? Their first love, who is now engaged to someone else. Even stranger? They wouldn't have the protagonist's current address.

2. The protagonist is single on the holiday and decides to join a Valentine's Day challenge. Who shows up but their worst enemy … and they're paired together. They need to navigate to solve the puzzle, but butt heads initially. When they finally start working together, they realize they have more in common than they thought.

3. Write a story about a protagonist who wakes up on Valentine's Day unable to remember the past six months. They're shocked to find a ring on their finger, and even more shocked to find they are engaged to someone they know they'd never marry. What's happening?

4. It's Valentine's Day … again. Time is looping, repeating the same day over and over. Your protagonist goes on a date with a different person each time. It won't stop until the protagonist meets the one he or she is supposed to be with. Who is it?

5. Your protagonist is visiting an old bookstore where they find an old love letter in a book. Curious, they open it. It's addressed to the protagonist, but is too old to have been written in their lifetime. Is there a stronger force at play here? 

6. A snowstorm has wreaked havoc on your protagonist's V-Day plans. Now, they're stuck in the snow with just one house on the road. When they get to the house, they're shocked to see their ex-spouse. Things ended badly, but it seems they got a second chance. Will they work things out or will they end worse than before?

7. The ex is getting married and for some reason invited your protagonist. Not wanting to lose face, they ask their best friend to pretend to be their lover leading up to the wedding. Real feelings emerge. How does it play out?

8. Back in high school, the two love interests make a pact. If they're still single by V-Day when they're 30, they will go on a date together. Sure enough, they are still single, but life has taken them both down unexpected paths. Will this encounter lead to more or are they both too jaded to take a chance?

9. Your protagonist receives a heartfelt confession on Valentine's Day, but it's a wrong number. They ignore it, but more texts come in and they realize the relationship is falling apart. Do they play matchmaker and try to fix it, or convince the sender to move on… with them, perhaps?

10. Your protagonist has a premonition about a crime about to happen at a wedding on Valentine's Day of all places. They race to stop the crime (and the wedding). Once the crisis is averted, they discover the bride or groom is their ex, the one they never got over. Was this fate or just a very weird coincidence?

11. A witch who brews potions for others accidentally consumes their own love spell concoction on Valentine's Day. They find themselves drawn to the last person they ever expected.

12. Your heroine sends an over-the-top V-Day card to their work rival as a joke, but the card somehow ends up on their billionaire boss' desk. Hilarity ensues as the boss thinks the heroine is head over heels for them. 

13. The protagonist makes a bet with their best friend. Pick anyone and they will get a date with them by Valentine's Day. The friend makes the challenge difficult by picking someone who would never go for them. 

14. Your protagonist makes a pact with their best friend to avoid anything romantic on the holiday. Yet, with everything they do, something ridiculously romantic happens. Is fate trying to push them together?

15. Your protagonist signs up for the latest reality TV dating show to find they're paired with their worst enemy. Yet, facing elimination, they discover their feelings are the real deal.

16. Your protagonist is a cynic who doesn't believe in love because of a past experience. Now, they're thrown back in that person's orbit and things apparently weren't what they seemed at the time. How does it affect them?

Now, let those creative juices flow!

But, don't feel that you need to be pigeonholed into one of these ideas exactly as they are. I'm a strong advocate for mixing and matching prompts until you get something that's uniquely you. After all, some of the best stories are a modge podge of ideas that seemingly shouldn't work on paper but come together beautifully.

(and let's be honest, it's good to break away from the formulaic stories now and again, even if that's what the romance genre is based on.)

Want to turn one (or more) of these prompts into a full-fledged romance novel? See how Sudowrite can bring your author goals to life.