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539 Best Short Story Ideas for Authors in 2026
Showing 539 short story ideas curated by Reedsy.
A man sidles up to a woman in a bar. Little does he know she's an undercover cop following him.
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?
For years, four characters have met for a monthly card game. Write a story in which one character realizes that another is cheating.
Write a story that ends by coming full circle.
You are a server at a restaurant, having the busiest shift of your life.
Amazon has invented time travel and introduced pre-emptive shipping. Today, you receive something completely unexpected from your future self.
You wake up the day after an epic party. You're not where you expected to be.
You've been put in charge of pulling off the most daring, the most spectacular senior prank that the school's ever seen.
The objects in the Chemistry classroom come to life when students and teachers are not around.
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.
Turn one of your grandparent's old stories into fiction.
Write about a character who is confused about what a White Elephant gift exchange is, and ends up going on a search for an actual white elephant.
Write a story about the small kindnesses that you see every day.
Two friends are meeting at a high school reunion. They have not seen each other in ten years.
Write a story that includes these three words: "clown," "purple," and "apple."
Doctor Seuss has grown weary of writing children's books and finds new work as a reporter covering violent crime for a newspaper. Despite his new line of work, he keeps his classic Seussian style.
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