Spooky season is upon us, which means it's the perfect time to start writing a monster romance novel. And as it's October, we're now also in Orctober, a month-long celebration of all things orc, including orc romance, a monster romance sub-genre that takes elements from both paranormal and fantasy romance and offers readers stories of alpha orcs, golden retriever orcs, and every orc in between.

If you've always wanted to write an orc monster romance, now is your time! And I have five writing prompts to get you started.

The first three of these prompts are story starters that drop you right into a scene. These are perfect if you're more of a panster than a plotter, and love diving straight into your manuscripts when an idea strikes you.

Story starter #1

He ambled into the massage room, heavy feet thunking on the floor. To anyone else—heck, to me, five weeks ago—he would’ve seemed a brute. A villain, even. But I’d learned so much about the orcs in the past month and a half I’d spent in the village. I knew beneath that terrifyingly muscular chest beat a golden heart. 

Story starter #2

“Tell me,” he said, his bottom teeth scraping against the line of my jaw. 

“Tell you what?” I breathed, glancing around at the crowd of dancers only feet away. They were too busy linking arms and stripping the willow to notice us. We might as well have been in a room all by ourselves; no one would notice if I leaned in and kissed him. Would they?

Story starter #3

Fitz sputtered, whipping wet hair out of his eyes. Wet, his skin was an even deeper green, close to emerald, and it reminded Seamus of the hills near his parents’ farm, dotted with sheep and slick with dew every autumn morning. 

The following two prompts are more detailed, with tropes, settings, character types, and premises, ideal if you lean more toward plotter than pantser.

Prompt #1

• Tropes: Opposites attract

• Setting: Paranormal/low fantasy version of Seattle

• Main character 1: Orc barista

• Main character 2: Human flower farmer

• Prompt: Write the meet-cute scene when the orc sets up a coffee stand right next to MC’s flower stand, and he, by complete accident, makes her favorite coffee order

Prompt #2

• Tropes: Fated mates

• Setting: Paranormal/low fantasy small Southern US town

• Main character 1: Orc carpenter

• Main character 2: Witch huamn

• Prompt: Write the first kiss scene between the orc and the witch, when they accidentally lock themselves in the storage closet in the witch’s lotions and potions shop

If you love monster romance prompts like these, you're in luck, because next week, I've got a new batch, this time focusing on minotaurs, another much-loved monster in the romance community. Until next blog post, happy reading and writing!