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539 Best Short Story Ideas for Authors in 2026
Showing 539 short story ideas curated by Reedsy.
It's Valentine's Day and when you open your locker, a note falls out. What does it read?
You are home alone watching TV. A character dials a number on their phone. Your phone rings.
You know how when you see a bear, you should stay calm and make loud noises? For this… creature… you have to do the opposite. You have to run.
You find your grandparent's old chessboard in the attic. Absentmindedly, you move a piece. The next day, an opposing piece has been moved.
Write about the origin of April Fools' Day.
"When i grow up, I want to..."
A character's best friend is leaving town forever, and they haven't told them that they love them yet.
Write a love story using dramatic irony.
You wake up with no memory of the previous night. On your nightstand, your cell phone is lighting up with texts.
Write a story that takes place over the span of the longest Monopoly game ever.
"By the time I wake up in the morning, I want them dead."
Some fishy things have been going on at school. Write about a group of friends who establish their own detective agency to get down to the bottom of it, once and for all.
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.
A cell phone is found inside a sealed Egyptian tomb.
Two super competitive colleagues meet at the office's monthly Bingo night.
After the brief pause that follows your mother's angry question of "Who did this?", all of you look at the cat.
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