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539 Best Short Story Ideas for Authors in 2026
Showing 539 short story ideas curated by Reedsy.
Write a story set at a peppermint convention for people obsessed with peppermint.
You're on a train when someone sits across from you and begins to cry.
Write a story with an open ending.
Money really does grow on trees and is heavily regulated by governments.
It was just a regular day at the office. Then the power went out.
You just invented the first time machine in Physics — but you accidentally sent yourself to the future instead of the past during the initial test drive. Now you must race against time to travel back to the present after learning of a secret that might change everything as the world knows it.
Petals fall to the ground as someone picks apart a flower and says, "they love me, they love me not."
Write about the first time you learned to do something.
Write a story that ends with a Happily Ever After.
You are an expert spy for the British government, trained to perfection. Your only weakness is that your background music alerts enemies to your presence.
It's your first winter… and it's just started snowing!
Write a story from the perspective of a snowman who has just come to life. Plot twist: he's missing eyes.
Overheard at the track-and-field: "I! NEVER! WANT! TO! SEE! THAT! DOG! POKING! HIS! HEAD! IN! HERE! AGAIN!"
Describe your greatest fear, and how you have or have not overcome it yet.
Shaking, you take a step back from the sight in front of you. You'd never seen so much blood in your life.
As the floor trembles and the walls shake, you know there is only one way to survive.
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