Gothic Romance Story Builder

This tool is designed to guide you to plot a gothic romance. It has 17 chapters and should yield 45-55,000 words, depending on your writing style.

Includes

Excerpt

What Is Gothic?

Gothic literature has a specific feel. It’s broody and gloomy, yet with unexpected and contrasting notes of beauty. The atmosphere can be almost claustrophobic, and it takes place in a self-contained area that limits the interactions, plot development, and even the characters’ options. Examples of gothic romances include “Jane Eyre” and “Wuthering Heights.” More modern examples come from authors like Eve Silver and some Simone St. James. “Dracula” by Bram Stoker is certainly gothic, though it can be argued it isn’t particularly romantic. “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley is another gothic classic without romance. This builder focuses on romances, but reading the classics is a good starting point for research.

Ch. 1

We meet the heroine and learn her circumstances. She’s in dire straits, usually, and forced to take a job she doesn’t want. It’s often for a family or employer shrouded in secrecy. One or more people might warn her off taking the job, but she feels she has no choice. She accepts and travels to the location.

The manor (or wherever) is dreary and foreboding. It immediately makes her question her decision to take the job, but she’s greeted before she can change her mind, or the cab/carriage driver has already left, leaving with a haste that makes her curious and a little fearful. She meets at least the staff, if not the hero. Whomever shows her to her room speaks ominously about the house, or they relay something sinister happened to her predecessor. She’s unsettled.