Valentine's Day Prompts

Love is in the air...or is it?

Here are some Valentine’s Day prompts to get you started on a romantic story…or a story very much lacking in romance.

1. Angela is having the worst Valentine’s Day ever. Her partner, Derek, seems to have forgotten all about it, leaving Angela waiting alone at a restaurant.

Set the scene, with Angela waiting excitedly and then exasperatedly, as she sits at the table surrounded by other couples. She is also having to deal with the waiter who keeps asking her if she is ok and whether she’s expecting someone.

Once you’ve set the scene, decide what Angela does. Does she stay? Go? Vent at the waiter? Join another table?

Close 3^rd-person. Present tense.

2. George, 80, is convinced his wife, Alice, is having an affair. Despite arranging a wonderful evening for her, which includes a violinist serenading them outside their room that's in a care home, and carefully bought gifts - the most thoughtful of which is a restored home video of their wedding day - Alice seems to be more interested in finding out what resident heartthrob Bob is doing for Valentines.

   
   

Write a scene where George is playing the home video for Alice but instead of watching it, Alice is looking out of the window commenting on whatever Bob is doing outside.

Close 3^rd-person. Past tense.

3. Write a happy valentine scene that comes with a proposal that is ecstatically accepted. Your love birds can be any age, any sex, but this love is very new and the proposal has come very fast. Write about the excitement and giddiness of reciprocal love. Set your scene – where are they and what are they doing?

Switch between two close 3^rd-person narratives (your loved-up couple).

4. Stick with the scenario in exercise 3 but this time you’re going to write the scene from the point of view of an onlooker (or eavesdropper if your scene doesn’t feature any onlookers). This onlooker/eavesdropper is cynical but can’t help, by the end of the scene, but be a little bit touched by the romance they are witnessing/listening to.

1st person, present tense.

5. Friends Flora and Leo made a promise in their early twenties to spend every Valentine’s Day together, even if they are dating someone else. And thus far – they are now 35 – this is what they have done. But things are different this year. When Flora is chatting to Leo (they have adjoining desks at work) about this year’s Valentine’s Day activity (karaoke), Leo breaks the news that he won’t be spending the day with her – he’s going to spend the day with someone else: a new boyfriend/girlfriend.

Write from Flora’s point of view. How does she feel? Does she try to save face or does she tell Leo how disappointed/angry/sad she is?

1st person, past tense.

Happy Valentine's Day!