Gothic romance is a sub-genre that, up until a few years ago, was often overlooked. But thanks to the uptick in dark romances, and in particular dark academia and fantasy romances, many of which are gothic to their core, the sub-genre is back on people's lips and bookshelves.

And what better time to start writing your own gothic romance than spooky season? With that in mind, I've created 3 gothic romance romance writing prompts in the form of story starters, each complete with the story starter's sister sub-genre and tropes so understand the story's context. But it's up to you where it goes next.

1. Sister sub-genre: Dark academia Tropes: Bully, stalker

   Story starter: "Rachel . . ." Just the sound of his voice brushed cold down my spine, and clogged my throat with a fear I couldn't shake. Because he'd found me. There was nowhere left to run. The flimsy, rusted stall door was all that separated me from my tormenter, and if I knew Brayden—and I did, better than I wanted to admit—he was blocking the doorway. Blocking my only escape.

   "Rachel, why are you always hiding from me? Aren't you tired of running?" His footsteps echoed on the tile, his shadow growing closer, closer, until it was right outside the stall door. Only a foot away.

   "Give it up, Rachel. Open the door. You know you want to."
   

2. Sister sub-genre: Gilded Age historical romance Tropes: Class differences, age gap Story starter: Edwin raised a finger to his lips, signalling me to stay quiet. But there was no way I could have spoken, even if I wanted to; the dark choked me, stole the voice from my throat. Without the flickering flame of his candle, I could hardly see. He took my hand, his skin warm against my frigid palm. A squeeze seemed to say trust me, and despite myself, I did. He opened the door, revealing an abyss of black, and tugged me forward. Shaking, I followed, wondering if what Helene had said was true. That monsters worse than imagination lurked down there.
   

3. Sister sub-genre: Romantasy Tropes: Arranged marriage, enemies to lovers, witch, vampire Story starter: I waited until he was asleep before venturing out to explore my new home. I went straight for the library, having been thinking all day about the stuffed shelves I'd seen when his head of house gave me a tour. But the door to the library, when I tried it, was locked.

   "What do you think you're doing?" I whipped around, back thudding against the wooden door and stared straight into the dark eyes of Matthew. My husband, as I kept reminding myself to call him. "Shouldn't you be asleep?" I asked, unable to keep the recalcitrance from my tone. "Isn't that what your kind do at night?"

   "Shouldn't you be out draining the blood of innocents? Isn't that what you're kind does at night?" he countered.

I can't believe we're halfway through October, but that means there are still two weeks of spooky season romance writing prompts coming your way!

Until next post, happy reading and writing!