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DIRECTORY
539 Best Short Story Ideas for Authors in 2026
Showing 539 short story ideas curated by Reedsy.
A forgotten object is found in an attic during spring cleaning.
Write about a time you were given responsibility.
An evil king has seized control of the land. The world's only hope? An even eviller witch who has the powers to stop him.
You're on a train when someone sits across from you and begins to cry.
A person dictates who he or she will date based on quantitative measures, such as horoscopes, how they perform on a test, etc.
Write a story about pumpkin picking… in the middle of a storm.
Write about the way the sunset looks from the perspective of two characters. One is sad, the other is happy.
Write a children's book about a young child who gets transported into a magical world inside of a snow globe.
A ghoul, a ghost, and a mummy walk into a bar. What happens next?
You just discovered that you can teleport into one Hallmark Christmas rom-com of your choosing. Which movie do you choose, and what happens differently in the movie because of your arrival?
Write a story in the form of letters. Plot twist: it's revealed that the character who wrote them died from unnatural causes years ago.
You've been asked to watch the class pet over a long weekend. It gets loose on its first night at your house.
You're a food critic eating the best meal of your life. You're at McDonalds.
Someone just knocked on the door late at night, but you weren't expecting anyone. When you open the door... no one's there.
You wake up one day and find that you can suddenly talk to animals.
A bittersweet farewell: bitter for one person, sweet for the other.
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