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539 Best Short Story Ideas for Authors in 2026
Showing 539 short story ideas curated by Reedsy.
You've just moved into a new house. You wake up one night to the sound of Siri responding to a query. You turned off your phone before you went to sleep.
Write a story about moving to an entirely new city where everything is new and unfamiliar.
Write a story that inverts a popular YA trope. You get to pick the trope.
Santa Claus had one too many pork chops during the pre-Christmas feast, and now he's stuck in the chimney — and there are footsteps approaching!
You start hearing sounds, but when you ask your friend about it, they look at you with a confused expression.
Petals fall to the ground as someone picks apart a flower and says, "they love me, they love me not."
Write a story about your dream vacation.
While looking through old photos you discover something that unequivocally settles an argument that ended a childhood friendship decades ago.
Write about a time you failed.
Your parents named you Holly after your grandmother, and you just accepted an invite for a group called The Jolly Hollies thinking that it was a club for people with your name. Turns out that it's actually an annual caroling group, and you can't sing.
It's show and tell day! Write a story about what you most want to bring to show to your class.
Set your story at the bleachers of the track and field.
Someone just knocked on the door late at night, but you weren't expecting anyone. When you open the door... no one's there.
You are on a solo camping trip in the woods. After a deep night's sleep, you awake to the voice of someone saying, "Rise and shine!"
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.
One day, the world wakes up to find the Easter Island heads facing the opposite direction.
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