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539 Best Short Story Ideas for Authors in 2026
Showing 539 short story ideas curated by Reedsy.
As the floor trembles and the walls shake, you know there is only one way to survive.
There's someone standing on the corner of the street you live on. It's the fifth time they've been there this week.
The biggest tsunami in a decade is here. You're told to leave the city immediately, and you're on your way out when you see a dog struggling to stay afloat in the distance.
Sweet Sixteenth? More like Salty Sixteenth!
Write a story where your character is acting differently on the outside than they feel on the inside.
"BOO!" you yell, grabbing the shoulders of a person you think is your friend from behind. They turn around and it's a total stranger.
Write a story about a good witch and a bad witch who try to outdo each other on Halloween.
You briefly go out in the snow and come back inside. When you go out again, your footprints from earlier lead in a different direction.
Write a story that evokes the feeling of nails on a chalkboard!
Write a story about a character who doesn't know how to share.
You're the director at a marketing agency. Your next project: to come up with an irresistibly catchy Christmas jingle. The only problem is that you hate Christmas.
You're the world's best photographer. Your secret? You can freeze time.
Your date finds an engagement ring inside a slice of cake they ordered for dessert. You weren't planning to propose.
An office worker's favorite coffee mug has gone missing, and the obsessive search for the mug throughout the workplace turns into a dire and ridiculous odyssey.
As a joke, you use your cell phone to dial your own number. Someone picks up.
You wake up one day and find that you can suddenly talk to animals.
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