The Siren's Lost Song
After a near-death experience, your character develops the ability to communicate with mythical creatures. On a retreat to reconnect with nature and themselves, they encounter a siren who has lost her ability to sing, trapping her on land. As they work together to find the cure for her curse, a romance blossoms, but each step closer to her freedom is a step toward their impending separation.
Suggested length: A short story: 1,500 to 5,000 words, or flash fiction under 1,000
Start the clock
Pick a sprint, press start and keep going until it stops. Momentum beats polish on a first draft.
Make it yours
Three ways to take this prompt somewhere nobody else will.
- Put them in close quarters they can't escape.
- Tell it from the point of view of the one who falls first.
- Write the first meeting so it goes badly, in a way they'll laugh about later.
Writing romance books
Not whether they end up together, but how.
Romance puts a love story at the center and promises a happy ending: happily ever after, or at least happy for now. Readers know where it's going. The pleasure is in the obstacles, the banter and the moment the two leads finally stop fighting it.
What readers expect
- Two leads the reader roots for
- Obstacles that keep them apart
- Emotional growth, not just attraction
- A happy ending, guaranteed
A tip before you start
The happy ending isn't optional. Without it you've written a love story, and romance readers will tell you so.
More Paranormal Romance prompts
- Letters in the LibraryIn a quiet town known for its unexplainable phenomena, your character, a local librarian, discovers a series of ancient letters between star-crossed…
- Love in the WindowpaneAfter a bizarre electrical storm, your character, a barista, begins to experience flashes of someone else’s life through reflections in mirrors and…
- Love Beneath the Full MoonEvery full moon, your character transforms into someone else—not a werewolf, but a different person entirely. During one transformation, they fall…
- The Woman in the AtticYour character, a young doctor, inherits an old mansion from a relative they never knew. While exploring the house, they find a striking portrait of a…
Fifteen minutes in? Keep going.
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