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539 Best Short Story Ideas for Authors in 2026
Showing 539 short story ideas curated by Reedsy.
Write a love story using dramatic irony.
Adapt your favorite fairy tale to take place in your home town.
A character who loves reading finds out that their library has just been forbidden from carrying banned books.
A character doesn't know how to break up with their partner, and keeps putting it off until the very moment that the partner bends down on one knee and proposes.
Instead of trying to get a man on the moon, every nation raced to be the first at the very bottom of the ocean.
Pick a color and write a story based on the feelings that that color evokes for you.
It's your first spring… and you have allergies!
You were staring out the bus window idly when someone sat down and said, "What a DAY!"
Who would you choose as the TIME Person Of The Year? Why?
A wand-maker goes to the forest ready to work, only to find a group of environmentalists camped out in front of their favorite hemlock tree.
Write a descriptive story about a household using only one of the five senses: sight, smell, hearing, touch, or taste.
You come across a cheaply printed book of magic tricks. You try one out and discover the book is truly magic, and teaches you how to break fundamental laws of physics.
You're digging in your garden when you unearth something that makes you stagger from shock.
Write a story about a world in which spirit animals exist. What kind of animal is your spirit animal? Why?
A character must overcome their fear of running to join the soccer team, where their longtime crush is.
A character's best friend is leaving town forever, and they haven't told them that they love them yet.
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