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539 Best Short Story Ideas for Authors in 2026
Showing 539 short story ideas curated by Reedsy.
Write about a time that you felt like an outsider.
"Have a good night," you say, and breath a huge sigh of relief the moment you walk away.
You're on an island in the middle of the ocean. One day you find a bottle washed up on the shore with a piece of paper in it.
Who would you choose as the TIME Person Of The Year? Why?
Money really does grow on trees and is heavily regulated by governments.
Write a story that takes place entirely in the dark.
Write about what you want to be in the future, whether that's in terms of personality, goals, or career.
Write a story about the local scarecrow coming to life and going on a revenge mission against all of those people who had dressed it badly in previous years.
Write a story that starts with the pick-up line, "I must be a snowflake because I’ve fallen for you."
Every week, you post an ad in the newspaper asking for a time traveller to contact you. One day you get a response, dated year 2200.
You enter a room where someone is having a phone call. They don't see you and you overhear a big secret that you clearly weren't meant to.
Write about a time that you taught something to somebody.
You just invented the first time machine in Physics — but you accidentally sent yourself to the future instead of the past during the initial test drive. Now you must race against time to travel back to the present after learning of a secret that might change everything as the world knows it.
There is a fountain that truly does grant wishes to those who throw coins in it.
Write about a power hungry wizard summoning an eldritch creature from a blood-stained spellbook.
You witness a total solar eclipse.
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