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539 Best Short Story Ideas for Authors in 2026
Showing 539 short story ideas curated by Reedsy.
A character doesn't know how to break up with their partner, and keeps putting it off until the very moment that the partner bends down on one knee and proposes.
This was the moment you'd been waiting for. Gleefully, you raised your camera to take a picture and then... the battery died.
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?
It's Wednesday evening and you're off to the weekly meeting of your writer's block support group.
"I love you," you said. Before you could hear a response, your phone died.
Each year, the Springers host the town's most epic Halloween costume party. You're determined to win the grand prize this year, except that this year the theme is "Willy Wonka."
Write about your goals at ages 5, 10, 15, and 20.
You volunteer to be the first human to test time travel, only going an hour forward in time. But when you leave the travel pod, all other humans are gone.
An evil king has seized control of the land. The world's only hope? An even eviller witch who has the powers to stop him.
You meet someone who's different from you. Write a story about how you become friends.
You hear music emanating from aisle 3 of your local grocery store. No one else hears it.
A friendly pranking rivalry between two colleagues in an office starts to get serious.
Write a story about a world in which Mondays don't exist.
Write a story that's entirely set in the cafeteria.
An elderly married couple toast each other over a pint on St. Patrick's Day.
It's the year 5000 and humanity's first expansions into space, colonization of the solar system, etc., have faded into myths, much like the journeys of Odysseus. Write about these fabled legends.
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