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539 Best Short Story Ideas for Authors in 2026
Showing 539 short story ideas curated by Reedsy.
You're a busker in Central Park on a spring day.
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.
You start hearing sounds, but when you ask your friend about it, they look at you with a confused expression.
While looking through old photos you discover something that unequivocally settles an argument that ended a childhood friendship decades ago.
Write about a time that you were lost (metaphorically or literally).
In the closet of your new home is a portal through space and time. You accidentally travel to Mars.
Write a story about a character whose reflection no longer appears in the mirror. (It's up to you whether or not they're also a vampire.)
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.
While spring cleaning, you come across something you had forgotten all about.
It was the most epic senior prank your high school had ever seen.
You find a blank book. Whatever you write in it becomes true.
What is the memory that you remember the most? Why?
Petals fall to the ground as someone picks apart a flower and says, "they love me, they love me not."
You are a curmudgeonly old man whose name is Writer S. Block. You just spotted your next victim.
A former party animal lives in a retirement home. They've decided it's time for one last bash.
Write about a time that you encountered an obstacle, and how you overcame it.
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