Story inspiration

Maybe your scary story could be inspired by people who collect things? Could you imagine what might happen if the Library of Birmingham was given a collection of books built up by a vampire, a witch or magician? Maybe the collection contains something more grisly than books!

Ariel is pictured as a beautiful woman here, flying on the back of a black bat. This curious combination is similar to many popular 'Dark Romance' books that tell the stories of humans who fall in love with vampires, werewolves, angels, daemons or other supernatural beings. Twilight by Stephenie Mayer is the most popular and well known of these books but there are loads more great Dark Romance reads out there! In Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater, Grace becomes fascinated by a yellow eyed wolf who disappears every summer. She discovers that he spends these months in human form and is even more fascinating in this guise. What will happen when the summer ends and the wolf form appears once more?

Check out this Booktrust Dark Romance booklist for more great reads! If you like these stories why not try to write one of your own? Could a spirit like Ariel fall in love with a giant shape-shifting black bat? Or maybe a human falls in love with Ariel? Whatever you decide, have fun writing your story.