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539 Best Short Story Ideas for Authors in 2026
Showing 539 short story ideas curated by Reedsy.
A character starts remembering things that never happened.
After the crash, he vanished. Some say he moved to a compound in Africa, some say he went off the grid. But the Silicon Valley genius who engineered the greatest stockmarket disaster in history is hiding in plain sight
A love story that starts and ends in 24 hours.
A ghoul, a ghost, and a mummy walk into a bar. What happens next?
It's the year 5000 and humanity's first expansions into space, colonization of the solar system, etc., have faded into myths, much like the journeys of Odysseus. Write about these fabled legends.
Re-tell Jane Eyre as a short story... but set it in the far future.
As a joke, you use your cell phone to dial your own number. Someone picks up.
"I'd like to buy a plane ticket to your furthest destination today," you told the airline employee.
It is the year 3000. The sun starts to flicker.
It's your first day in a new city where you don't speak the language.
Write a story about the day you are magically teleported into your favorite board game.
It is discovered that Earth actually IS flat.
Describe a change that you think you've gone through.
It's your first spring… and you have allergies!
You're stranded on a treasure island.
A group of high school students go on an educational field trip to a graveyard to learn about the history of the area. But when a storm starts up and they get trapped, they have to figure out how to survive the night.
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