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539 Best Short Story Ideas for Authors in 2026
Showing 539 short story ideas curated by Reedsy.
Write about a law in your country that you would change.
A writer becomes trapped inside their own book.
Five competitive students are invited to board game night. Only one can win.
"I'd like to buy a plane ticket to your furthest destination today," you told the airline employee.
An elderly married couple toast each other over a pint on St. Patrick's Day.
You are born with the ability to stop time. One day, you see something else moving when you have already stopped time.
Write a story about a festive neighborhood battle between one family who loves Halloween and another family who loves Christmas.
You just found a key in your pocket that wasn't there when you last checked.
Someone steps out of your television set… and you were watching a horror movie.
A student has to fight against societal expectations in order to fulfill a lifelong dream.
You work the night shift at a 24 hour laundromat. The job seems normal until someone crawls out of one of the washers and tells you that after dark, every machine leads to a different world.
It's your first spring… and you have allergies!
You're sitting in a coffee shop watching someone type on their computer. They type the words, "It begins raining outside", and it instantly starts raining.
You get lost in the woods during a hike. It's starting to get dark, when you see the glow of a campfire nearby.
You just discovered that you can teleport into one Hallmark Christmas rom-com of your choosing. Which movie do you choose, and what happens differently in the movie because of your arrival?
"Hi. It's me."
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