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539 Best Short Story Ideas for Authors in 2026
Showing 539 short story ideas curated by Reedsy.
You find a treasure map.
You caught the girl in classroom 3B stealing your favorite eraser, which means war.
Write a story in which it becomes night forever. The sun has gone.
Time travel is real and time tourists show up in large numbers around major historical events. One day, thousands of time tourists are in ships above the earth, quietly waiting.
It's Valentine's Day and when you open your locker, a note falls out. What does it read?
As you ride your motorcycle off into the sunset, you see something unexpected on the horizon.
You were put in charge of getting your great-grandmother a gift this year by your family — but she's old enough that she's already seen, heard, and experienced everything under the sun. What do you get her?
Write a story centered on the theme of persistence when it comes to exams.
You open a door, but before you can go through, someone sneaks in front of you without saying "thank you." You've had an awful day and this is the last straw.
It's a Thursday evening, and Greg Richerson is flashing his sports cars again.
A character who loves reading finds out that their library has just been forbidden from carrying banned books.
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.
Write a story that evokes the feeling of nails on a chalkboard!
Overheard at the track-and-field: "I! NEVER! WANT! TO! SEE! THAT! DOG! POKING! HIS! HEAD! IN! HERE! AGAIN!"
You're sitting at your desk eating candy hearts. You start to realize the notes on the hearts are trying to give you a message.
You've been put in charge of pulling off the most daring, the most spectacular senior prank that the school's ever seen.
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