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539 Best Short Story Ideas for Authors in 2026
Showing 539 short story ideas curated by Reedsy.
You're cleaning the attic when you find something terribly old, terribly fragile, and terribly powerful...
Write about a story where Mondays are deleted from the universe.
Because of a freak science experiment, you just had a body swap — with the principal of your high school! What do you do with your newfound role?
The world's wealthiest person has recently been put in prison for life. They offer half their fortune to any person, organization, or country that will free them.
You're beginning to believe the person writing the daily crossword puzzle in your newspaper is trying to send you an encoded message.
Write a story about time passing from the perspective of a young child who tends to plants every day.
Write a story from the perspective of a snowman who has just come to life. Plot twist: he's missing eyes.
A ghoul, a ghost, and a mummy walk into a bar. What happens next?
Write a story that takes place entirely in the dark.
Write a story about a character picking a lunch table on their first day at a new school.
Write a story about a character who doesn't know how to share.
While dozing by the fire in your winter cabin, you hear a knock at the door. Blizzard conditions have closed all surrounding roads, and the nearest neighbor is miles away.
Write a short story inspired by your favorite song.
While transferring between international flights at an airport, you befriend a strange person while passing through security.
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.
You're a food critic eating the best meal of your life. You're at McDonalds.
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