Valentine’s Day Writing Prompts: 30+ Ideas to Get You Started

Valentine's Day is celebrated by several countries around the world, including France, Australia, the US, and the UK. And no matter its potentially dark origins (martyred saints, anyone?), the day is one typically centered around romantic love.

If there's one thing that we know about the publishing world, it's that romance is a genre with voracious and loyal readers.

As such, we'd love to help you generate ideas for your next romantic book, short story, or novella with these Valentine's Day writing prompts. 

Using Valentine's Day Stories

Before we get to the writing prompts, let's take a moment to discuss how and why you may want to write a Valentine's Day-themed story. After all, it's good to have an idea of what you want to accomplish with any given story, even if that's just challenging yourself with a new writing activity. 

Provide a Freebie to Your Loyal Fans

As an indie author, your fans can make or break your career. Keeping them happy is always a good idea. And if you throw them a unique freebie from time to time, they're more likely to stick around and support you as your career progresses. 

Since Valentine's Day comes around every year (on February 14th, in case you were wondering), you can use a writing prompt below to craft a story to give to your readers. This doesn't have to be a full novel. It can be a novella or even a short story. And the nice thing about it is, you can always send it again next year to readers who've signed up to your email list since last Valentine's day!

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Write a Book with Seasonal Appeal

As mentioned above, romance readers are among the most dedicated of all the genres. If they like you, they'll devour your stuff. And that includes books that are out of season. So if you use a prompt below to kick off and then publish a Valentine's Day-themed novel, chances are it will still sell outside of February. 

But it will also have the added benefit of being seasonally relevant. With the right marketing, you'll probably see an uptick in sales around Valentine's Day, making it a win-win for both you and your readers. 

Polish Your Writing Skills

Sometimes we get stuck in a creative rut. It happens to the best of us. Maybe writer's block is rearing its ugly head. If so, the best way to push through it is to keep writing! And that's certainly what you can use the following Valentine writing prompts for. 

You don't have to take them literally. Let them inspire you. Get your ideas and creative juices flowing. Pick one and use it as a story starter and see where it takes you. Who knows? It may spark an entire series of books that will launch your career to the next level!

Valentine's Day Writing Prompts

While many of these prompts mention certain genders, they are only designed as placeholders. You can use them no matter how the characters in your story identify!

1. Write a story about a nonverbal character professing his love for another character only through the use of candy hearts. 

2. Explore a relationship between two characters that starts as plutonic but then morphs into something much more, taking both characters by surprise. 

3. Write an epistolary story of a romance only through the Valentine's Day cards the two characters have given each other over the years. 

4. Explore two characters helping each other realize that their previous ideas of true love were actually more about lust and ego than love. Luckily, they come to this realization together and finally experience true love with each other. 

5. Write about two teachers at an elementary school who are secretly in love with each other but are too shy to do anything about it. A small group of students can plainly see what's going on, so they hatch a plan to get the teachers together—on Valentine's Day.

6. Start off your story with a love letter from one character to another. But this isn't just any love letter. It's one the character writes only after she learns that she's dying. 

7. Write a fantasy romance story about a magical character named St Valentine whose job it is to get people to fall in love. The only problem is, St Patrick, the Easter Bunny, and even Santa are trying to thwart him at every turn. 

8. Write a story about a depressed man on Valentine's Day. He is head-over-heels for his best friend, but he thinks she doesn't like him that way. That is, until he starts gorging himself on conversation hearts. Instead of the normal messages on the hearts, they say things to urge him on until he finally asks the woman out. 

9. Write a story about a character learning the importance of self-love on Valentine's Day. 

10. Write about a creative writing teacher who spends her spare time writing and selling poems for Valentine's Day cards—but she can't seem to find the right words for the person she loves. 

11. Start your enemies-to-lovers romance story with the words, “Happy Valentine's Day, you jerk!”

12. A Valentine's Day party gets a little out of hand for two co-workers. When they wake up the next day, they both know they've made a terrible mistake . . . or have they?

13. Not every Valentine's Day story has to be about romantic love. Write a story in which two unlikely characters come together and form a strong friendship, bonding over their hate of Valentine's Day. 

14. Write about two divorced characters with kids who learn to make time for each other after they find that falling in love isn't as easy as it used to be. But, they soon realize, a little effort makes their burgeoning relationship flourish. 

15. Start off your story with a really sappy poem written by one character about another. Include as many personal details about the characters as you can in this character exercise writing prompt. 

16. Write a love story that starts with cookies and hot chocolate on a cold February day. 

17. Explore how a simple act of kindness can be a thousand times more powerful than anger or hate. Allow one of your characters to touch another's heart through this kindness, changing both their worlds for the better. 

18. Write a story about a single Valentine's Day card that changes a woman's life forever.

19. A man who always wanted to have kids but never did. A woman who has more kids than she can handle. They may just be perfect for each other—but only if he can win over the hearts of her children.

20. Write about two college students in fierce competition with each other falling in love. 

21. Write about a character whose new year's resolution is to take the year off dating. She soon meets someone who is seemingly perfect for her—but she refuses to date him so she can stick to her resolution. 

 22. Write an acrostic poem, in which the first letter of each line spells out a phrase or word. This is a great creative writing prompt to get the creative juices flowing. 

23. Write about two characters meeting and falling in love during a fun activity their respective friends drag them to.

24. Write about a time traveler who has to keep coming back to February 14th to find out why the course of history was changed that day. And why she keeps seeing the same man in different places each time she comes back. 

25. Write about a man getting dumped on Valentine's Day. At first, it seems like the worst thing ever. But as the day progresses, it becomes clear that it's the best thing that could've happened to him.

26. Write a romantic comedy in which one character goes all-out with romantic gestures to try and win their partner back after a breakup. 

27. Explore two characters who meet during speed dating on Valentine’s Day. At first, neither one of them really feels the spark, but they end up going out together just because. And as they each come out of their respective shells, they fall for each other. 

28. Write about a character who gets a mysterious invitation to a Valentine’s Day party, only to find that the billionaire who invited her did so by accident. 

29. Valentine’s Day is the worst day of the year for your character. She decides to stay inside, no matter what. But the universe conspires against her, and she ends up meeting the love of her life. 

30. A couple goes on vacation for Valentine’s Day even though they’ve both given up on the relationship. But when they get stranded in the wilderness and have to actually talk to each other again, they find that the love is still there. 

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Test Your Book Idea for Success

If you have your whole next series planned out thanks to the prompts above, don’t get too far ahead of yourself. Before getting a bunch of words down, it’s a good idea to test your idea and prepare it for success. The easiest way to do this is with Publisher Rocket.

You can think of the information you get from Publisher Rocket as the foundation for your writing career. You get insights directly from Amazon on:

• Keywords – Metadata to position your book on Amazon.
• Competition – Allowing you to see what's selling and how stiff the competition is.
• Categories – So you know where people who are looking for books like yours go to find them.
• Amazon Ads – Helps you quickly configure a list of profitable keywords for running ads.

Check out Publisher Rocket here to get started.