Welcome to the monthly newsletter from Write Club, authored by yours truly. Each month I publish some writing tips and inspiration as well as our writing prompt of the month.
February is here. The month of hearts, roses, chocolate, and celebrations of love… or in the absence of it, longings thereof.
In the literary world, the heart is a magical thing. It tells us stories. It harbors pain and injured passion, and more tales than can be told in a million lifetimes. Yet it’s one of the most difficult things to write about, isn’t it? Is it just my imagination, or have writers been trying and often failing to capture the true essence of this powerful emotion as handily as Shakespeare did in Romeo and Juliet? I still remember that moment, while watching the movie in my AP high school English class, when Juliet whispered “His lips are still warm” and my heart shattered into countless tiny shards and I sat bereft in my chair, awash in embarrassing tears yet powerless to stop them.
When writing about love, wouldn’t we all be thrilled to get that response from readers?
And so, let’s launch this auspicious month with thoughts on how to capture those stories and make them real and unique.
In her blog post, How to Write About Love, on the novlr blog, Crystal Kamm writes:
When it comes to writing about love, you must have an understanding of how love looks.
She then goes on to list some books and shows that are exemplary in that regard. Check out her interesting list, which includes Outlander (the book) and Little House on the Prairie (the TV show).
I thought that was an interesting suggestion. What does love look like? If you can capture it’s essence — not in clichéd descriptions such as “eyes like limpid pools,” of course — but really capture it, imagine the emotions you could bring out in your readers. To me, that is what literature is all about: bringing people in touch with thoughts and emotions, and transporting them beyond whatever is happening in their lives at this very moment to a remarkable place beyond.
What does that love look like?
What light causes those eyes to glint like water? What is that look that comes over her when she sees the object of her affection? How does he smile when he feels her soft skin?
Love Is Not Just for Romance Novels
You knew that already, but it’s important to note. Every story has some aspect of love, doesn’t it? Whether it’s some traditional view of romantic love, or a child’s love for her dog, a grandson’s love for his grandmother, or a man’s love for his son.
I once wrote a 100-word short story about the love of a campground, and the bittersweet feeling of loss upon leaving it, attempting to capture that passion and that swelling of the heart. The story is called Happy Trails. You can find that story, and other stories I’ve published, on this page of my website.
And that brings me to Write Club!
In case you’re not familiar with Write Club, and you’re looking for a) writing prompts, or b) a writing workshop to join, you’re in a good place. Below, I’ll share a little information about our group (yes we are open to new members), and provide the prompt of the month as well as some inspiration for writing a story based on the prompt.
Write Club’s February, 2025 Writing Prompt
For the month of February, 2025, Write Club members must write a story based on this simple prompt: heart. And anyone else who chooses to do so can write for this prompt as well.
As we’ve discussed, the opportunities are wide open for writing a story from this prompt, from lost love to the love of a child to one’s love of nature. All of these capture our hearts.
Now, I will also say that some of our write club members are horror writers, and it’s always interesting to see what they come up with. That may give you some ideas!
Horror is a genre that I dabble in myself, though I never veer into the grotesque. I’m more keen on the bizarre and the strange. I’m a fan of Stephen King, the Coen Brothers in the cinema world, as well as David Lynch, rest his soul. I recently read the term “psychological horror” in reference to Lynch, which is a great term for those of us who love dark literature and films, but not gore.
Short Story Ideas for the “Heart” Writing Prompt
I love AI as an idea generator. Even if I don’t use the specific ideas (and I rarely do, in fact), there’s something about the process of generating ideas that I find inspiring.
The following results from a ChatGPT prompt honestly made me laugh out loud, but they are certainly ideas one could run with! The thing that made me laugh was that every single one of them is about a physical human heart, vs. the emotions and traumas we associate with a heart. So check these out and then keep scrolling, as I’m next going to provide the results of a prompt more targeted at the emotion and feeling interpretation of the heart prompt.
The ChatGPT prompt for these first three ideas was, “Write the synopsis of three fresh short story ideas for the writing prompt “heart”, with one story being a literary drama, one story being a mystery thriller, and one being a psychological horror story.”
Check them out:
1. Literary Drama: “A Heart in Waiting”
Emilia, a retired schoolteacher, spends her days in quiet solitude, her world shrinking after losing her husband to a sudden heart attack. When she receives a call that a young man, Daniel, has received her husband’s donated heart, she feels an inexplicable pull to meet him. As they form an unlikely friendship, Emilia wrestles with the boundaries of grief, identity, and the strange idea that a piece of her husband still beats in another’s chest. But when Daniel starts exhibiting memories that aren’t his own, Emilia is forced to confront whether love and loss are truly matters of the mind—or if the heart remembers more than we realize.
2. Mystery Thriller: “The Last Beat”
Detective Rowan Miles is assigned to a bizarre case—renowned heart surgeon Dr. Julian Vance is found dead, his chest cut open, and his heart missing. As Rowan digs into Vance’s past, she uncovers a chilling pattern: several of his patients have also turned up dead under mysterious circumstances. The deeper she investigates, the more she realizes the missing heart is more than just a macabre calling card—it holds the key to a medical conspiracy involving illegal transplants, powerful figures, and a patient desperate enough to kill for another chance at life. Racing against time, Rowan must find the stolen heart before it disappears—and before she becomes the next victim.
3. Psychological Horror: “The Pulse”
After surviving a near-fatal accident, Evan undergoes an emergency heart transplant. But soon after his surgery, he starts hearing a faint, rhythmic pulse outside his body—at night, in the walls, in the whisper of the wind. The sensation turns into hallucinations of shadowy figures watching him, and vivid nightmares of a man being buried alive. As Evan’s paranoia grows, he begins to suspect that his new heart carries more than just life—it carries the last memories of its previous owner, a man who died in terror. The truth unravels when Evan follows the sound of the phantom heartbeat… and finds something buried beneath his floorboards that was never meant to be uncovered.
Emotional Ideas for Heart Stories
Here are the results of some additional ChatGPT results I generated in the attempt to ideate stories that tug at the heart, or call to mind stories of lost love, unrequited love, and of course story ideas for Valentine’s Day.
“Forgotten Roses” — Valentine’s Theme
Every Valentine’s Day, Margaret receives a bouquet of red roses at her doorstep, always unsigned. For over fifty years, the flowers have arrived without fail, even after her husband passed away. This year, as she sits alone in her quiet home, she finally decides to uncover the sender’s identity. With the help of her granddaughter, Margaret follows a trail of old letters, forgotten promises, and a love story she never knew existed. But as the truth comes to light, she realizes that love isn’t always about grand gestures—it’s about the quiet, unseen devotion that lingers long after the last rose has wilted.
“The Space Between Us” — Distance Makes the Heart Grow Fonder Theme
When Maya moves across the country for a new job, she and her longtime boyfriend, Caleb, agree to try long distance. At first, they text constantly, call every night, and make plans for visits. But as the months pass, silence creeps in—calls go unanswered, messages grow shorter, and doubt begins to settle in their hearts. Convinced that time and distance are pulling them apart, Maya prepares for the inevitable goodbye.
But one evening, a simple voicemail from Caleb changes everything. In his voice, she hears not just longing, but love deepened by absence—a love that, rather than fading, has only grown stronger. With renewed faith, Maya realizes that sometimes, distance isn’t about losing someone—it’s about rediscovering why you don’t want to let go.
I hope that gets your brain wheels turning!
Learn More About Write Club
As I mentioned earlier, our tiny little writer’s workshop is open to a few new members. Here’s a little more about us.
Write Club is an online writers’ group for short story authors. We are open to adding a few writers with experience who are looking for an online writing community for mutual support, writing critique and comradery.
Although Write Club is small, we are distributed across the globe, and we connect with one another through our Discord server. Discord makes it possible for us to benefit from involvement in a writing community, so we get support and feedback for our stories, without traveling or taking too much time away from everything else going on in our lives — especially writing!
If you’re not on Discord yet, it’s super easy to set up an account. Just start at the link above. However, if you’d prefer to get in touch directly, you are welcome to reach out via this contact page. https://bit.ly/ContactJayna.
The Focus of Write Club: Getting Our Work Published
In Write Club, we are all short story writers with a focus on writing for mainstream publications, literary journals and genre magazines. We are committed to publishing our work in the many professional publications and short story anthologies accepting submissions. Some of our members are successfully published, and others are on their way, with the help of the honest yet caring critiques from our workshop members.
How Does the Community Work?
Each month we launch a new writing prompt. Write Club members are required to write a short story based on the prompt, and then review and critique each other’s stories. These requirements are central to who we are. Every writer needs an outside eye to help them see what they may have missed and to provide perspective. This invaluable feedback can make all the difference in taking a story from promising to published.
The next phase is to revise our stories based on the workshop feedback, and (optionally) do another round of critiques. This method helps us to prepare our manuscripts for professional editors.
If you are a short story writer and are intrigued by Write Club, here are two options:
- Watch for our monthly writing prompts, which are published at the beginning of each month on jaynalocke.com. Feel free to use them to inspire your short stories. You can post them on Hive, Medium, Vocal, your WordPress blog, or wherever you like. Note that we do not offer critiques for those who are not members of our workshop. This is just for inspiration!
- If you are serious about short story writing and want to submit your work to publications such as literary, sci-fi or horror magazines, you are also welcome to check out our Write Club workshop.
What Are the Requirements for Write Club Members?
Here’s what’s expected of our members:
- You should already have a strong foundation in short story writing, excellent English skills, and a desire to continue your development as a fiction writer.
- You should have the goal of publishing your work in professional publications.
- You must be ready to commit to writing one story each month.
- You must be willing to provide helpful feedback to other writers and support their journey as well as your own. We are all required to critique every story produced within the community.
To connect with us and check out our workshop, just pop in as a visitor in our Discord server and tell us about your interests. We would love to connect with you to see if it seems like we’re a good fit for your writing journey!
Looking for Writing Resources?
I love to share tips and ideas about creative writing! Here are two treasure troves for you:
- You can find many of my tips and resources on my website, in the On Writing section.
- I also share writing tips in The Ink Well community on Hive. See the complete catalog for the full list of articles.
Have fun and keep writing!
Featured image source: Tom on Pixabay
About Jayna Locke
Jayna Locke is a Minnesota writer who has had a lifelong love of fiction. Her short stories have appeared in a range of literary journals, including Great Lakes Review, Portage Magazine, and Bright Flash Literary Review, as well as several anthologies.
Her collection of short stories, Somewhere in Minnesota, is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Kirk House Publishers, and indie bookstores. She is reachable through her contact form at bit.ly/ContactJayna.