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539 Best Short Story Ideas for Authors in 2026
Showing 539 short story ideas curated by Reedsy.
You wake up unable to say a word, but can all of a sudden write the most amazing music.
Write a Halloween story based on your latest nightmare.
A character's best friend is leaving town forever, and they haven't told them that they love them yet.
You hear a scream and it's coming from inside your own home.
You stumble across an abandoned house in the woods.
Write a story about a family who goes pumpkin picking, only to discover that at some point their prize pumpkins have been mysteriously switched with others from the patch. What happens next?
You work the night shift at a 24 hour laundromat. The job seems normal until someone crawls out of one of the washers and tells you that after dark, every machine leads to a different world.
You are a curmudgeonly old man whose name is Writer S. Block. You just spotted your next victim.
Write a story about living a lie. You get to choose the lie.
A writer becomes trapped inside their own book.
A group of high school students go on an educational field trip to a graveyard to learn about the history of the area. But when a storm starts up and they get trapped, they have to figure out how to survive the night.
Two strangers have an interesting encounter on a park bench during a snowy, winter evening.
You've been asked to watch the class pet over a long weekend. It gets loose on its first night at your house.
You've just moved into a new house. You wake up one night to the sound of Siri responding to a query. You turned off your phone before you went to sleep.
You have wondered how to bring down Jane Lotsacash for years. Now, the key to her demise rests on your desk...
Describe yourself to a stranger.
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