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539 Best Short Story Ideas for Authors in 2026
Showing 539 short story ideas curated by Reedsy.
Write a story that starts with the pick-up line, "I must be a snowflake because I’ve fallen for you."
Doctor Seuss has grown weary of writing children's books and finds new work as a reporter covering violent crime for a newspaper. Despite his new line of work, he keeps his classic Seussian style.
You start what was supposed to just be a business front for a money laundering scheme, but your silly idea is making more money than you ever dreamed.
Re-write Romeo and Juliet as a short story... but make it horror.
You are going home for Christmas for the first time in twenty-five years.
A long-standing feud erupts during a funeral or wedding.
Write about a time that you were lost (metaphorically or literally).
Write about the first time you learned to do something.
Re-tell Jane Eyre as a short story... but set it in the far future.
You're at your computer feeling heavy writer's block. Suddenly words start appearing on the screen.
You're on an island in the middle of the ocean. One day you find a bottle washed up on the shore with a piece of paper in it.
You come across a cheaply printed book of magic tricks. You try one out and discover the book is truly magic, and teaches you how to break fundamental laws of physics.
Write a story about a terrible, unfixable hair cut.
You just found a key in your pocket that wasn't there when you last checked.
Write a story that inverts a popular YA trope. You get to pick the trope.
You stumble across an abandoned house in the woods.
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