Here are enough romance story ideas to write a story a week for a year. I hope you find your spark!
Romance Worksheets
If you need help developing your romance story ideas, I have a bundle of 11 worksheets you can use. Click here to download.
Write a story about…
- Two time-travelling scholars who compete to publish their paper first, but instead turn from enemies to lovers.
- A clockmaker who falls in love with a fairy they find in an antique clock.
- Two beachcombers who come together when they find two pieces of an ancient artefact.
- A bard who falls in love with the monarch by whom they’re employed.
- A lexicographer who incites a “manhunt” when they use their unrequited love as the subject for a series of puzzles for a local newspaper.
- Two gods from different mythologies who meet after the end of the world.
- Two paranoiacs who invent their own secret language to communicate with each other.
- A florist who writes notes on behalf of a client, only to find that the recipient has fallen in love with them instead.
- A fortune teller who falls in love with a scientist whose future they’ve foreseen.
- A philologist who falls in love with an illiterate person who they meet at a book fair.
- A librarian who exchanges secret messages with a writer with whom they’re in love, using book spine poetry.
- A student who is heartbroken when they meet their hero, but later get to know them anew.
- A truck driver who is planning to propose to a ship’s captain when next they meet.
- Two space cadets who fall in love during training, but are assigned to work in far-flung galaxies.
- A guide who organises travel tours for singles and falls in love with one of the travellers.
- A beauty guru who marries themselves.
- Two people who expected to go to hell but meet and fall in love in heaven.
- A cosplayer who meets another cosplayer at a convention and then goes on a quest to find them.
- A frail person who falls in love with their giant robot bodyguard.
- An actor who falls in love with a fellow actor in character.
- A fashion designer who falls in love with a slob who is touring their house.
- An archeologist who discovers an ancient recipe for a love philtre, and sets about trying to concoct it.
- A travel writer who decides to settle down when they meet a B&B owner in need of help.
- A princess who falls in love with an itinerant wizard who has a long-standing feud with her family.
- A werewolf who falls in love with an astronomer who agrees to try to help them.
- Two religious leaders of opposing factions who meet incognito at a leadership conference and hit it off.
- A ghostwriter who is secretly writing the biography of their famous spouse.
- Narcissus before he saw his own reflection.
- A sculptor who realises they’ve been recreating the face of an old flame over and over again.
- Two nuns who are planning to elope.
- An astronaut and a flat-earther who fall in love.
- A chauffeur who helps stage an intervention in their employer’s life, but ends up getting a bit too involved.
- A character who falls in love with their author.
- A gravedigger who loves their dog so much they’re willing to break the law.
- A pop star who teams up with a fan to escape their demanding record label.
- A stay-at-home parent who forms a crèche in order to meet other parents and find a partner.
- A linguist who is trying to create a neurolinguistic love spell.
- An architect who tries to win over the person they’re in love with by building them a home.
- An electrician who interprets their love affairs through electrical analogies.
- A taxidermist who is called in to restore the specimens in an old country house and becomes intrigued by the owner.
- A mathematician whose work inspires them to rekindle their love life.
- A gossip columnist who finds themselves the subject of their own column when they’re photographed with a celebrity.
- A publisher who is infatuated by a pseudonymous author they represent, and goes on a quest to discover the author’s identity.
- A tea taster who falls in love with a coffee addict.
- Two shamans who meet on the (astral) plane.
- A wand-maker who falls in love with a dryad.
- Romeo and Juliet in a parallel universe.
- A grieving person who falls in love with a candlemaker.
- A typewriter repairer who discovers a love letter from the future and sets out to find who will write it.
- An artist who falls in love with a picture only to realise that it’s their own self-portrait.
- A navigator whose spouse is imprisoned on a planet several lightyears away.
- A student who solves mysteries with the help of their deceased boyfriend/girlfriend.
How to Develop Your Romance Story Idea
If you’d like to learn how to develop your romance story using a simple plotting method, click here to watch this free writing workshop.
Tips for Using Your Romance Story Ideas
- Remember that switching the genders of the characters can be a good way to avoid stereotypes and make your love story more interesting.
- You can transpose these love storylines into any genre you like.
- Changing the era in which the story takes place can generate more conflict.
- Here is a great list of romance story generators from author, Darla G. Denton.
- Even if you aren’t writing a romance story, you can use these ideas for a romantic subplot.
- Combine these with the 100 Story Ideas for even more variations…
