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DIRECTORY
539 Best Short Story Ideas for Authors in 2026
Showing 539 short story ideas curated by Reedsy.
A friendly pranking rivalry between two colleagues in an office starts to get serious.
You visited a psychic for romantic advice. Instead, they tell you that your spouse has a secret.
Your academic rival at school has joined the Art Club, so now you must also join the Art Club. Problem is, you're pretty sure that you're colorblind.
A forgotten object is found in an attic during spring cleaning.
Put yourself in your teacher's shoes for a moment, and write a story about a day at school from their perspective.
It's Groundhog Day... and the day that keeps looping for you is the day of the most disastrous prom in the history of proms.
You're digging in your garden when you unearth something that makes you stagger from shock.
A character doesn't know how to ask their parent to stop calling them 2+ times a day.
Write a story about a family adopting a black cat, just in time for Halloween.
You were put in charge of getting your great-grandmother a gift this year by your family — but she's old enough that she's already seen, heard, and experienced everything under the sun. What do you get her?
A group of kids get an invite to a costume party in the neighborhood… but when they arrive, the monsters aren't costumes. They're real.
You are a secret agent. Your mission? To steal the cookie jar back from your older sister.
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 about a time that you broke the rules.
Write a book with anthromorpohized characters.
While spring cleaning, you come across something you had forgotten all about.
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