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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 a character picking a lunch table on their first day at a new school.
On your commute to work, you expect to see the sun rise as usual. This time, two suns rise.
Describe your definition of a good life.
A couple gets in a fight after one finds out that the other has secretly wasted $50,000 on lottery tickets over the past 15 years.
Write a children's book about diversity.
Write a story about a character who can only tell the truth.
You are a space kitty, traveling from planet to planet. You write a letter home and this is what it says.
Everyday you are delivered a newspaper at your front door that accurately predicts what will happen in the next 24 hours.
You find your grandparent's old chessboard in the attic. Absentmindedly, you move a piece. The next day, an opposing piece has been moved.
You've just made the discovery of secret playground deep in the woods... and only you know of its existence.
You are an astronaut spending your last few hours on Earth before a journey into space.
Write a dark story in which everything that someone Tweets comes true.
Write about a time you broke a promise. What did it feel like? Why did you break it?
Write about a time that you were challenged in a belief that you had.
A character on their deathbed tells their family about their regrets.
"Today is the last day," you decide, staring up at the 67-story building that has owned your life for the last 10 years.
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