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539 Best Short Story Ideas for Authors in 2026
Showing 539 short story ideas curated by Reedsy.
Write a story that's set at a ski resort during Christmas.
Write a story where your character is acting differently on the outside than they feel on the inside.
Write about a time when you tried something unfamiliar.
You find a note in your locker that is not intended for you, but the person with the next locker over. What does the note say? What do you do with it?
As a joke, you use your cell phone to dial your own number. Someone picks up.
You come across an ATM that gives you the exact amount of money you need to survive for the day, how you spend it is your choice. Today you are given $10 million.
The last person on earth celebrates their own birthday.
Your mom has just sat you down and told you that you'll have a baby sister.
You discover a secret family member you never knew existed.
You just invented the first time machine in Physics — but you accidentally sent yourself to the future instead of the past during the initial test drive. Now you must race against time to travel back to the present after learning of a secret that might change everything as the world knows it.
It's Christmas, and you somehow need to manuever your parents into buying you the gift that you want.
You are in a bar when an elderly woman takes the stool next to you and says to the bartender, "Hey, Francine, make it a double. It happened again." You can't resist and ask her, "What happened again?"
You participated in your office's Secret Santa, but no one will admit to buying your gift. Write a story about the search for the mysterious gifter.
Write a story about two costume shops who try to outdo each other with bigger and crazier costumes each Halloween.
Two elderly people in a retirement home are a secret pair of detectives that have solved some of the biggest crimes and mysteries through anonymous tips.
Re-tell Jane Eyre as a short story... but set it in the far future.
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