Romance
Please note, you are free to use these story ideas however you so desire. You can take them in their entirety and build on them, use them as sources of inspiration or even cannibalize them for spare story parts.
If you do this, all I ask is that you mention it somewhere on your blog, social media or in your book.
Heartbroken
Tells the story of Emma La Frein, a modern woman who has been in several bad relationships, mainly due to her always putting work first. She lives in Paris and works as a fashion designer for her father's company, La Frein Fashions. As her 30th birthday approaches, her father gives her an ultimatum: either find a husband by her birthday in two weeks or forfeit her inheritance.
She soon sets out to find a man who will pretend to fall in love with her and propose, and encounters Juan Pierre and his younger brother Derrick. The two men reveal that they have different fathers, Derrick's was an American businessman who had an affair with his mother and then left after she became pregnant, which caused her to commit suicide after he was born, which Juan resents him greatly for.
Juan agrees to fall in love with Emma in exchange for a large sum of money, however, he secretly has a girlfriend who encourages him to blackmail Emma, telling her to either marry him and give him control of the company or he will reveal the ruse to her father. Meanwhile, Derrick has secretly been seeing Emma, and has fallen in love with her. Unfortunately, Juan has already met Emma's father and arranged for the wedding to be on her birthday. Derrick tries to get Emma to tell her father the truth, but she reveals that the company is the only thing she's ever cared about.
As the wedding draws close, Emma discovers Juan's secret girlfriend, but cannot do anything about it. On the day of the wedding, Emma tries to tell her father about the deceit, but he brushes her off as anxious about the wedding, before reiterating the inheritance deal. Just before Juan and Emma kiss, Derrick bursts in and declares that he is in love with her, and that he's willing to sacrifice an easy life if he can be with Emma.
Derrick also tells Juan that they both loved their mother, and that she wouldn't want them to fight. Emma's father calls off the wedding and asks Emma if she truly loves Derrick. She answers that she's willing to throw away her inheritance to be with him. He accepts her words and asks her to forgive him for his insistence on marriage, revealing that he married Emma’s mother too early and their marriage suffered for it. He gives his blessing for Derrick to court Emma but states that she is not yet ready to marry and that he will look after the company until she is ready.
Pride
Tells the story of Raga, a male lion, and Nalan, a female wolf, who were raised together in the Canadian wilderness. Raga was stolen from his pride at an early age by poachers, but was freed by Nalan's mother who raised him as her own. They have grown up as brother and sister, but have always been mocked by the other members of the pack, with the meaner wolves calling Raga a hairless wolf as an insult. One day, one of the wolves, Sabre, tells Raga that if he goes to the aurora borealis he can meet the Great White Wolf, who will tell him how he can become a true wolf.
However, Sabre actually wants Nalan, but she is always with Raga and continuously refuses his approaches. Secretly Raga slips away, in search of the borealis, accompanied by Nutt, a kleptomaniac squirrel who loves adventure. Once they are gone, Sabre tells Nalan that Raga told him to tell her that he's running away because he is tired of her. Instead of believing him, Nalan chases after Raga, with Sabre and his lackeys, Masher and Nasher, following her, intent on killing Raga before she finds him.
Meanwhile, Raga meets several animals who teach him the importance of being unique, such as the aging wolf Blue-Eyes, the Moose twins, a recently divorced beaver and an old hunter who mistakes him for a dog. Eventually, Nalan catches up with Raga, who admits to being unhappy and alienated. In a fit of anger, he tells her to go back to the pack and be with her own kind. He soon realizes his mistake, but a heavy snowstorm blocks his path, almost freezing him to death. As he struggles to stay awake, he sees a vision of the Great White Wolf, who tells him that appearances and species don't matter, and that heart is the only thing that matters.
The storm clears, revealing the aurora. However, Masher and Nasher attack, stating that Sabre will soon become the leader of the pack after killing Nalan's mother in an "accident" and that Nalan will be their new matriarch. With help from his friends by using the things they taught him, Raga defeats the duo and heads after Nalan. He arrives just in time to catch Sabre in the act of luring Nalan's mother to a patch of thin ice in order to make her fall through. However, Nalan also arrives, having figured out Sabre's plan. Sabre decides to kill them both, but Raga's powerful roar breaks the ice, killing Sabre but also sending him through the ice. Nalan and Nutt save him, and the entire pack apologize to Raga for how they treated him. The story ends with Raga and Nalan howling/roaring together, with the aurora overhead.
The Eternal Love
Elaborates on the story of Diane de Witt, a young woman who drinks from the fountain of youth with her boyfriend Ricard La Roché after being pressured into doing it, as Ricard wanted their love to be eternal. They do this during an expedition to the new world in which her father was the captain of a English exploratory ship, and he and the rest of the crew are killed by natives, who leave Diane and Ricard alone seeing as they are "cursed".
They are found by Thatan, a native immortal who drank from the fountain by accident, and who explains how the fountain works. He tells them that they must remain close to the fountain’s waters in order to remain immortal, and that the water has the power to heal any injury if ingested. Diane comes up with a way to leave the fountain by placing a small amount of water into two vials, which allows them to remain immortal wherever they go.
The story follows their lives over the centuries, where Ricard's jealous, violent personality slowly surfaces and Diane grows tired of their eternal life. The story then jumps ahead to modern day Los Angeles. Here, Diane meets an aspiring script-writer named Gareth Munnigan, and, at first, she treats him as a pet project to keep her mind off her failing marriage whilst she tells him stories of her life, which he uses in his scripts; but she quickly falls in love with Gareth for being "everything Ricard is not".
However, after Gareth's script is turned into a big-production movie, Ricard discovers her affair. Ricard attacks them when they are together, fatally wounding Gareth in a jealous rage. Seeing this, Diane finally snaps, and forces Ricard out, condemning him to wandering the world unloved, forever. Remembering the words of Thatan centuries before, Diane gives up her immortality and heals Gareth using the vial of fountain water. After apologizing to him, they start dating, both mortal, determined to create new stories together…
The Billion Dollar Courtship
Tells the story of Lucy Walker, the daughter of real estate mogul and Emperor's Casino and Resort owner David Walker. Fed up with his daughter's inability to settle down and start a family, he places an internet ad asking for three men to try and woo her. Whoever succeeds will be named as his heir and will inherit his billion dollar empire. The first, Thomas Cole, is a world class thief and con-man who plans to get Lucy to help him break into her father’s vault and steal its contents; the second, Blake Anderson, is a renowned movie star, singer and male model.
He is known as a playboy and cannot resist the challenge of capturing Lucy's heart. Thirdly, Adam Garfunkel, is a former classmate of hers who harboured a crush on her during high school, but was only ever seen as a friend due to the mistaken impression of him being gay, which was caused by a nasty rumour. Seeing this as his last chance to be with her, he lies about his credentials in order to be picked. However, Lucy catches wind of her father's plan, and begins giving the three men increasingly hard challenges while pitting them against each other.
However, she does not remember Adam, as he has changed his appearance greatly since high school. In the end, Thomas, seeing that Lucy has already fallen in love with Adam, kidnaps her and forces her to open the casino vault. Blake and Adam, both caring for Lucy, team up to stop Thomas. Blake, using his acting skills, convinces Thomas that he is surrounded by cops, while Adam who was part of the gymnastics team in high school, navigates past the various security measure and saves her. Thomas is eventually arrested, Blake finds a new passion for acting, while Adam and Lucy start dating.
She reveals that she had liked him during high school, but had stopped when she thought he was gay, her heartbreak preventing her from loving anyone else. When she realized who he was during the competition, she was ashamed of how she had acted towards him, and was unable to bring herself to apologise. In the aftermath her dad appears, clearly irritated, with three obnoxious women trying to get his attention, and it is revealed that Lucy placed a similar ad for her father as revenge for trying to meddle in her love life.
The Space Between Us
What if you could never touch your loved one again? Ashley Sabine, an English student studying abroad in Moscow and Viktor Marcovich, a pharmacist and Russian native have just started dating; however, when Ashley's unique medical condition is revealed, their nascent relationship is tested.
Due to an intense and possibly fatal allergic reaction, Ashley cannot be touched directly by anyone, including Viktor. The book follows the duo as they learn to cope with the unexpected complications from her condition, their physical intimacy and their future plans. They learn of ways to touch each other using latex gloves, artificial insemination, and anti-allergy medication which has devastating side effects and their love grows as they become closer, yet they are never able to fully connect.
The book ends with them in their old age, with Ashley dying of organ failure. The last scene has Viktor finally kissing and holding her for the first and last time before she passes away...
The Prince of Lies
Tells the story of the country of Savos, a tiny Central European country ruined by an ancient monarchy and on the verge of bankruptcy. On the eve of the visit from Princess Marisela of Monaco, who has been promised to the crown prince, Prince Domovoi, the royal family absconds with the entire treasury, leaving the country truly destitute. Desperate, the ministers of finance, tourism and foreign affairs come together to make a plan.
They decide to have Havier, a young gardener, impersonate the prince, and keep up the charade long enough for the wedding to commence. The ministers reckon that the marriage will allow greater trade between the two nations, as the Princess's country is much richer than Savos, restoring the country’s finances. The ministers eventually involve the whole nation in the charade, having people donate money and items to be used during dates and have people pretend to work at the popular tourist spots which have otherwise long since been abandoned.
The charade works and Marisela greatly enjoys her visit, until the real Prince hears of how things are going and returns, having already burned through most of the stolen money, and the ministers are forced to keep him away from the couple. Eventually the charade is revealed, but Marisela forgives Havier due to his earnestness and love for his country, realizing that he only lied to her to help his people, while the Prince is forced to work as the gardener to earn the nation’s forgiveness.
As the two countries come together, the new King and Queen set about restoring Savos to its former state, their first act being to demolish the exorbitant palace and build a small cottage for themselves with low-income housing and soup kitchens on the grounds for the people.
The Heart that Beats
Tells the story of Malcolm Swindon, a 17 year old boy who was diagnosed with Stefon-Jahtsky syndrome when he was five, which causes an irreversible degradation of his heart muscles. After receiving an emergency heart transplant at age 9, the disease has weakened his new heart to the point where doctors can now estimate exactly how many heart beats his heart has left before failing, giving him a wrist monitor that keeps a running total of his remaining beats.
When the story begins he has about a year left to live. Due to this, he has lived a boring, uninteresting life in order to keep his heart rate low. One day, at the start of the new term, he meets new student Scott Larkin, falling in love at first sight, which is signified by his count rapidly dropping.
Knowing that he cannot pursue Scott romantically, he tries to avoid him, but fate keeps bringing them together. Ultimately, Scott, unwilling to let Malcolm avoid him, helps Malcolm to experience life to its fullest, getting his heart racing but shortening his lifespan. Despite several obstacles and resistance from Malcolm’s parents, the two are finally able to be together after an impassioned plea from Malcolm.
Malcolm decides to make the most of the time he has left, and by the end of the story, he is held by Scott in the hospital as the monitor slowly counts down his last remaining beats. Before it hits zero, Malcolm tells Scott that every single time his heart beats, it is beating for him, before passing away with a smile on his face...
I Would Cross the Stars for You
Set in the present in Dalmellington, Scotland. The main character is Edmund, a 15 year old loner who spends his nights staring up at the stars, dreaming of what lies beyond. One day, he witnesses the arrival of a new family to the town. The daughter, Rose, is deaf, and struggles to fit in with the locals who are unable to communicate with her. After catching her staring up at the stars, Edmund learns sign language in secret and starts communicating with her. Eventually he takes her to his secret place, an old abandoned observatory that he has been repairing in his spare time.
Together they fix the telescope, until, one night, Rose points it towards a faint star and tells Edmund that she came from outer space. Not believing her, she takes off her necklace which is revealed to be a disguise projector, revealing her true form. Initially shocked, he tells her that she is beautiful in both forms, leading to their first kiss. They continue to grow closer and he learns that she and her parents came to earth from Ross 128 B (Progenitor in Rose’s language) as part of a scout program before attempting open contact. He claims that he would cross the stars for her, if necessary.
She explains that her species did not evolve vocal cords, thus their reliance on sign language, and also describes her home city which is in the shadow of the largest mountain on Progenitor. Things take a darker turn when Edmund’s father, upset that his son is dating a “weirdo” goes to her parents in an attempt to break them up but accidentally witnesses their true forms. Unable to understand their sign language, he believes that they are plotting an invasion and calls the police. Edmund, learning of this, goes to warn Rose and her parents and helps them activate the emergency shuttle, although Rose loses her disguise necklace in the chaos and Edmund is arrested for helping her escape, although their main ship (disguised as their house) remains on Earth and is taken away for study.
10 years later, Earth sends an expedition force to Progenitor using the reverse engineered technology to allow them to fold space and make the journey in less than 3 years. The Progenitorians surround the Earth ship and aim their weapons until one of the astronauts approaches a Progenitor in the crowd and hands it a necklace, Telling her “I told you, didn’t I, that I would cross the stars for you” in sign language, revealing himself to be Edmund who became an astronaut and travelled across the stars to reunite with the Progenitorian, Rose. The story ends with the humans and Progenitorians laying down their weapons and coming together in peace...
The Invisibles
Tells the story of Mark Gretcher, a teenager living in New York who suffers from bad eyesight. After going for corrective laser surgery (which unbeknownst to him had a malfunction, altering his eyes), he starts seeing a girl around the area who is seemingly invisible to the people around her. Following her, he discovers an entire family of invisible people, living in the cracks of society. Feeling invisible in his home (due to having two high achieving siblings) and at school (due to having poor social skills and no friends), he reaches out to the girl who is surprised that he can see her.
The girl, Heather, explains that her father, Ryan, used to work for DARPA, in their stealth technologies facility. He was close to a breakthrough when he was fired, citing lack of results. He secretly stole the machine and took it home, determined to finish it and reclaim his job and his honour.
However, it malfunctioned at home, exploding and dousing the entire family in a stealth cloak that cannot be removed. Mark and Heather grow closer and she shows him the hidden side of the city, while he allows her to do things that require being visible. However, DARPA arrives, looking for the stolen technology, and captures Mark, interrogating him. He does not reveal anything and is released, but DARPA secretly follows him and locates the family, capturing them.
They are unable to locate the machine, which is hidden beneath the house. In the DARPA facility, the scientists are preparing to operate on Heather in order to better understand her invisibility, when they are suddenly attacked by an invisible force. The force is able to help the family escape, where it is revealed to be Mark who recreated the machine’s malfunction and turned himself invisible. After leaving a note to his family explaining the situation, he leaves with Heather and her family, determined to keep them safe from DARPA…
The Party at the End of the World
Tells the story about the end of the world which will occur in 7 days at midnight on New Year's Eve due to a massive asteroid strike. Freddy Forthwrite, a loner and a nerd at his school, decides to host a small end of the world party and invite Ashely Pezter, his long-time crush, with the goal of confessing to her before the world ends reckoning that if she says no, he won't have to live with the rejection for long.
His parents spend the story in the family’s emergency bunker, having given Freddy their credit card so that he might enjoy his last few days. However, when word spreads about the party he is forced to travel across town and secure additional provisions, with the party quickly spiraling out of control.
During the party, he desperately searches for Ashley, finding her seconds before midnight. He confesses and kisses her, and they fall asleep due to some of the guests slipping sleeping tablets into the drinks. Just before they doze off, Freddy admits that he regrets not confessing earlier, wishing that they could have had more time together.
The next morning they awake and realize that the asteroid missed the earth (which was previously stated at having a one in a billion chance of happening). As they celebrate, the other guests leave and tell him to clean everything up. As he gets to work, Ashley smiles and joins him, telling him that she won’t let his regrets come true…
The Kiss of Death
Tells the story of Dane, the village smithy, and Maeliss, a waitress in the local tavern. Friends since childhood due to Dane's family helping to raise Maeliss after her parents passed away; they are inseparable and almost everyone in the village expects them to marry, however, when asked about marriage they always reply that they are just friends. However, one day while in the fields Maeliss has an accident and dies.
Dane mourns her, but is surprised when he is approached by the village seer, who tells him that Maeliss was killed by Agrammon, the King of the Dead for an unknown reason. Believing that her death was not fair, he smelts himself a sword and goes to rescue her soul from the underworld, with everyone assuming that he does this out of love for her. He heads to the nearby city to find someone who knows where the entrance to the underworld is kept and meets Patty, an apprentice bard who is known for arriving a day late and missing all of the action.
After hearing of Dane's mission she decides to accompany him and finally get the story she has always wanted. They soon find the entrance and, after defeating the gatekeeper, they head inside. Together they travel to the deepest part of the underworld and eventually face Agrammon who states that he will not let them take Maeliss, his bride and Queen of the Dead. Using information gleamed from the journey, Dane is able to defeat Agrammon, but before he can land the finishing blow he is stopped by Maeliss. She explains that she loves Agrammon and married him willingly after he proposed while she was walking outside the village.
Patty and Agrammon expect Dane to declare his love for her and take her back, and Patty reflects that she has bad luck with men, as she always falls for guys who already have someone they like. However Dane and Maeliss surprise everyone by reaffirming their friendship which they had said since the beginning. Dane explains that he merely wanted to make sure that his friend was alright, hence his actions. Wishing her luck with her new life and asking her to come visit soon, he leaves the underworld with Patty. As they leave the underworld, he states that now he knows that his friend is safe, he can think about himself, before declaring his love for Patty. She accepts, and states that she finally has a story she can tell the world, and that it has the happiest ending possible.
What I Left Behind
Story of a young woman named Sarah who runs away from home after a fight with her parents in which they forbid her from seeing her boyfriend over allegations that he was selling drugs. She finds herself in a snowy graveyard and meets a young man named Jaden. Unwilling to give their real names, they come up with fake ones based on the flowers on nearby graves. Asphodel, the man, tells Iris aka Sarah that he has also run away.
He offers to show her the hidden side of their city and the two bond over their family troubles. Asphodel tells Iris that his mother started dating again after his father died but his mother's new boyfriend started stealing from her, beating Asphodel up when he found out and chasing him out of the house after his mother defended her boyfriend.
The two explore the city while Asphodel gives Iris advice, and they eventually come across Iris' boyfriend who is caught selling drugs. They make a pact to help each other return home with Asphodel going first. Afraid of his mother's reaction, he asks Iris to go in first but she is surprised to see an elderly woman. The woman explains that her son ran away 40 years ago and never came home. Iris realizes that Asphodel is a ghost who died in the graveyard and couldn't leave without being near her.
She confronts him and he tells her that he had to see his mother again before he could move on. After telling her his real name, he disappears in a flash of light which alerts Iris' parent's driving past and they catch up with their daughter who breaks down in tears and apologizes for running away. The story ends with Sarah laying down a bouquet of Asphodel and Iris on Jaden's grave before walking off to meet her parents.
The Phoenix's Tears
The Phoenix's Tears tells the story of a woman (she always calls herself Monica) who is reborn in a different body every 25 years. This is due to the Curse of Flame which she received from her father who tried to save her when she was dying at the age of 5 from a terminal illness. He died soon afterwards which was a requirement of the curse without telling her how to remove it. Monica grows up normally and falls in love with Francis Boreman (22), a struggling architect. However, on her 25th birthday the curse activates and she dies, leaving Francis devastated.
Monica, however, is reincarnated as a child and grows up again with her memories intact. The book follows her lives as she interacts with Francis throughout his life, as she tries to recapture their lost love. After reincarnating, she goes on to become his secretary, as he has become a successful architect (age 47) and remarried.
While working for him, they start an affair, however before she can muster the courage to tell him the truth she turns 25 and dies once more, leaving him thinking that she left him. She is reincarnated once more and goes on to become his divorce lawyer, helping him through his difficult divorce (age 72). They grow closer during the case, however, before they can get together, she turns 25 and dies once more.
She is reincarnated once more and curses her condition, unhappy that she is always killed just before finding happiness. Knowing that Francis does not have long left, she goes on to become his nurse in his retirement home. While treating him (he is now 97) they reconnect and he tells her that he never stopped loving her, revealing that he knows who she is. They kiss and hold an impromptu marriage ceremony attended by the other residents.
That night, they hold each other as he slowly drifts off into death. Suddenly she ages to her proper age (age 100) and a voice tells her that they will be reborn together, before drifting off into deaths embrace. It is revealed that she had broken the curse through her perseverance and determination to make her love succeed.
An epilogue then shows them in primary school drawing pictures, where she is drawing a Phoenix and he asks her what it is, and they start talking as the book ends. It is hinted that they have both reincarnated and will be given an entire lifetime together in which to share a proper love.
Traveling at the Speed of Love
Tells the story of the USS Aphrodite, a space ship/singles cruise that goes horribly wrong.
Halfway through the cruise, the ship's maneuvering systems fail and it starts to gain speed with no way to slow down. The captain soon discovers that the navigation system has locked the ship into a collision course with Europa, a populated moon. The main character, Tessa, is on the cruise trying to forget about her recent break-up which was the last in a long line of failed relationships.
She encounters an old school friend, Vincent, who she once turned downed and embarrassed in front of the entire school, telling him that he was a nerd and that she considered herself out of his reach. While they are catching up, it is revealed that he sabotaged the ship reasoning that if he couldn't be happy, no one should get the chance to fall in love, and he flees the scene.
While chasing Vincent down, Tessa is aided by an off-duty detective, Francois, who flirts with her because she is set to inherent an enormous sum of money from her father. She later realized that this is the reason so many men went after her, and at the time she always thought that she was just that popular, however in the end the men were always chased away by her overprotective parents.
After catching Vincent and locking him up, it is revealed that Francois was actually planning to blow up the ship after he stole all of the money from the ship's vault as he was dissatisfied after years of arduous work for the police yielded no respect or reputation.
Vincent had actually unknowingly saved the ship as his sabotage had destroyed the bomb Francois had planted. He reveals that he had been fleeing Tessa so that he could undo his sabotage, and that meeting her had made him realize that he had been wrong about love.
Francois, realizing that Vincent had stopped the bomb, had been tracking him because he believed that Vincent had discovered Francois was the original saboteur.
Francois, changing his plans, lures Tessa to a lifeboat by proclaiming his love for her, secretly planning to kidnap and ransom her to her family. Realizing that Francois was the saboteur, Vincent escapes from custody and races to save Tessa, eventually performing a space-walk with a defective space suit to reach her and defeat Francois.
The duo return to the Aphrodite with moments to spare, and Vincent is able to undo his sabotage and restore the ship's maneuvering systems in time for the ship to recover its course and avoid smashing into Europa. In the epilogue, both Francois and Vincent are jailed, however Vincent receives a much lighter sentence due to his heroic actions. The book ends with Tessa deciding to wait for his release, reasoning that true love is worth waiting for…
What Cannot Be Bought
Set in York, and tells the story of a group of homeless people who have gathered together and built a ramshackle town, Priceless. The story is centred on a man named Average Joe, so named according to the town's laws that all relics of pre-homeless life are to be thrown away, including one's real name, whereby a new name is decided by the town council.
Average Joe is a former businessman who worked tirelessly to rise to the top of a company, Locke & Ki, which produced various types of locks but after he caught his boss stealing from the company his boss framed him instead and he lost everything in the lawsuit. Joe is in love with Princess Primrose, whom he calls Prim, an eccentric woman who believes herself to be a princess and always acts as such. Joe struggles to connect with her and goes to Cupid, another homeless woman, for love advice. She suggests that he try to match Prim's hobbies and the two get closer.
After convincing her to go for a walk in the city, they are spotted by Dalton, an employee of Podworth, the Duke of York, who informs his master that ‘she’ has been found. After returning to Priceless, they discover that Doc, the town doctor, has left for his yearly trip in which he visits the grave of a child he could not save due to his arrogance. Podworth appears and reveals that Prim is in fact the Duchess Viola of York who disappeared one year prior. Claiming her as his wife, he takes her back to their estate. When Doc returns, he reveals that he was the one who found Prim and nursed her back to health after she suffered a terrible head wound.
It is revealed that she was injured by an assassin hired by Podworth who wanted to kill her and take all of her wealth after her "accidental death", however; he discovered that Viola never signed the marriage register and thus he had no claim to the money. Viola, brain damaged, assumed a new identity as Primrose but kept her noble upbringing. Joe heads after Prim but is caught breaking into the estate. He is handcuffed and thrown in the dungeon where he learns from Podworth that he will force Prim to sign the marriage register before locking her away forever. Using his lock knowledge, he frees himself and heads to Prim.
Cornering Podworth, he manages to defeat Podworth by handcuffing him to his desk while proclaiming his love for Prim, although her answer is not revealed. In the aftermath, Podworth is arrested and Prim, now going by Viola after seemingly recovering her memories, reclaims control of her estate. She meets with several dignitaries before excusing herself for a walk and heads into the fields of her estate, where it is revealed that she has moved the entirety of Priceless into her back garden. She greets Joe as Prince Joe and only answers him when he calls her his princess...