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539 Best Short Story Ideas for Authors in 2026
Showing 539 short story ideas curated by Reedsy.
Write about a wish that you once made.
Write a story about living a lie. You get to choose the lie.
Write a story about a meet-cute between competing Christmas tree shops in town.
You're driving down a lonely road when you see a machine-looking object jet across the night sky.
Write a story about a character who is under intense pressure to succeed at something.
Describe your definition of a good life.
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.
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.
An elderly married couple toast each other over a pint on St. Patrick's Day.
Write a story about two characters competing to take the worst ever picture-day portrait.
An introvert sits down next to an extrovert in the classroom. What happens?
Write a story about a group of five friends who set out at night for trick or treating… and when they return, they're only four.
Write a story about a character who moves from a small town to a big city for the first time.
You hear a scream and it's coming from inside your own home.
Write about a time that you taught something to somebody.
A man sidles up to a woman in a bar. Little does he know she's an undercover cop following him.
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