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539 Best Short Story Ideas for Authors in 2026
Showing 539 short story ideas curated by Reedsy.
A young child discovers a passion for baking. Write about the crazy kitchen adventures that they embark upon with their allergic-to-gluten family, one that culminates in a national baking competition.
An anxious and unsure person becomes extremely decisive.
What is the memory that you remember the most? Why?
A character who loves reading finds out that their library has just been forbidden from carrying banned books.
Write a story about a character who moves from a small town to a big city for the first time.
A logical person starts acting irrationally.
Due to collision of powerful spells, two wizards are sealed into a tree during a fearsome battle. That tree is now your coffee table.
You just got the new dog that you've wanted for such a long time, but you're finding that it's a lot more responsibility than you expected.
While on a leisurely stroll through the forest, you find strange footprints. Do you follow them?
"Today is the last day," you decide, staring up at the 67-story building that has owned your life for the last 10 years.
A cell phone is found inside a sealed Egyptian tomb.
You're moments late to everything. You watch busses pull away as you run behind them, you miss the first 5 minutes of every movie, and you have never caught a green light. One day, you arrive on time.
Santa Claus is backed up with orders recently, and you're in charge of writing the official letter of apology to all of the children around the world informing them that their presents may arrive a week late this year.
Write a story about a family's Christmas tradition that has to change this year, for one reason or another.
Write a story about a character's first day at an after-school job in a retail store.
Petals fall to the ground as someone picks apart a flower and says, "they love me, they love me not."
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