Romance – October 10

“It’s hard to resist a bad boy who’s a good man.” -Nora Roberts, born this date in 1950 along with J.D. Robb. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist’s bad boy (or girl) proves to be a bad person.

Romance – October 9

“How helpless we are, like netted birds, when we are caught by desire!” -Belva Plain, born this date in 1915. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist is rendered utterly helpless by the presence of a paramour who expects your protagonist will accomplish a specific task.

Romance – October 8

“You have to study the people and the ones that measure up are not always the ones you expect.” -Walter Lord, born this date in 1917. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which someone your protagonist has personally and publicly written off saves your protagonist’s bacon.

Romance – October 7

“As a result, the hundred little pet names he used to have for her before the stroke have been replaced with non sequiturs like ‘my little bucket of hair’ and ‘spy elf of the morning hallelujahs.'” – Diane Ackerman, born this date in 1948, describing her husband’s stroke journey back to language. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist tells a romantic...

Romance – October 6

“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will, which I now exert to leave you.” -Charlotte Bronte in Jane Eyre, published this date in 1847. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist ditches a member of her/his family.

Romance – October 5

“Abnormal pleasures kill the taste for normal ones.” – Eduardo Sanchez in the filmed version of Anaïs Nin’s Henry & June, the first NC-17 film, which premiered on this date in 1990. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist makes him/herself the third point in a triangle involving a couple dedicated to tormenting one another.

Romance – October 4

“He forgot that love, which is a madness, and a scourge, and a fever, and a delusion, and a snare, is also a mystery, and very imperfectly understood by everyone except the individual sufferer who writhes under its tortures.” – Mary Elizabeth Braddon, born this date in 1835. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist and one of her/his romantic partners simultaneously learn that your protagonist...

Romance – October 3

“All things on earth point home in old October; sailors to sea, travellers to walls and fences, hunters to field and hollow and the long voice of the hounds, the lover to the love he has forsaken.” -Thomas Wolfe, born this date in 1900. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist goes back to an important location from earlier in her/his life and is cruelly disappointed when s/he can’t replicate...