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539 Best Short Story Ideas for Authors in 2026
Showing 539 short story ideas curated by Reedsy.
In a series of letters to Santa, write a story about growing up.
You're sitting at your desk eating candy hearts. You start to realize the notes on the hearts are trying to give you a message.
Write a story about the friendship between two different species of animals.
Mars is the new wild west, complete with gunslingers.
Time travel is widely available. However, you can't interact with the past, you can only observe it. On a trip to the past one day, you bump into someone.
There is a fountain that truly does grant wishes to those who throw coins in it.
Write a story about a character who must confront their past.
Write a story about the friendship between an introvert and an extrovert
You discover a secret family member you never knew existed.
Many action movies involve the hero jumping into a vehicle and demanding the driver to "follow that car!" Write from the perspective of the driver.
Your diary has started leaking blood. You have to find out what this means, but you have a time limit because the more blood that leaks from it, the weaker you seem to get.
Two colleagues with poor communication skills have to collaborate for the first time on a project.
You find a treasure map.
You check into a seedy hotel and discover halfway through the night that it is made up entirely of thirteenth floors missing from other hotels.
"Breaking news: a mirror Earth has just been confirmed..." was not what you expected to hear on the news when you turned on your radio that morning.
When people die, they are transported to the event that ultimately caused their death. One day, you are hit by a car and sent 12 years into the past.
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