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539 Best Short Story Ideas for Authors in 2026
Showing 539 short story ideas curated by Reedsy.
Write a story about your dream vacation.
You are home alone watching TV. A character dials a number on their phone. Your phone rings.
Write a story about a haircut that doesn't go exactly the way that a character wanted it to.
You saw something that you weren't supposed to see. Telling the truth could fix a horrible situation for one of the colleagues involved — but it would get you fired.
While transferring between international flights at an airport, you befriend a strange person while passing through security.
A comedian bombs every time every time they get up on stage.
You are a server at a restaurant, having the busiest shift of your life.
Describe your greatest fear, and how you have or have not overcome it yet.
You wake up to the sound of a voice. Nervous, you look around the room until your eyes land on your pet. You swear you just heard it sleep-talking.
The money is good. But the lies have built up. This empire of yours has been built on a secret, a stolen technology, and the guilt has reached its peak. You have to come out with the truth
Someone told you a secret that you shouldn't know about a friend. What do you do with this information? Write a story about it.
Write a retelling of a fairy tale — from the perspective of a child.
Write a story about a character picking a lunch table on their first day at a new school.
Write a story about moving to an entirely new city where everything is new and unfamiliar.
It's Groundhog Day... and the day that keeps looping for you is the day of the most disastrous prom in the history of proms.
Each year, the Springers host the town's most epic Halloween costume party. You're determined to win the grand prize this year, except that this year the theme is "Willy Wonka."
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