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539 Best Short Story Ideas for Authors in 2026
Showing 539 short story ideas curated by Reedsy.
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.
You get lost in the woods during a hike. It's starting to get dark, when you see the glow of a campfire nearby.
Write a story based on an experience from your childhood... but set it in a different time period. (Yes, the future counts!)
You eavesdrop on a hushed conversation taking place in the hallway. What's being said is not nice about someone you know.
Write about a time that you found out something surprising about yourself.
Think about a moment in your life that elicited very strong emotions. Write about a character going through a different experience that leads to the same emotions.
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.
You were sitting on a park bench, enjoying the sun, when a stranger sat next to you and started typing on an old fashioned typewriter.
A pessimist becomes an optimist.
Two friends are meeting at a high school reunion. They have not seen each other in ten years.
One character wants a snake, but their roommate has a phobia. They adopt one anyway.
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
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're stranded on a treasure island.
While looking through old photos you discover something that unequivocally settles an argument that ended a childhood friendship decades ago.
By the time this party is finished, three people's lives will be changed forever.
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