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DIRECTORY
539 Best Short Story Ideas for Authors in 2026
Showing 539 short story ideas curated by Reedsy.
The biggest tsunami in a decade is here. You're told to leave the city immediately, and you're on your way out when you see a dog struggling to stay afloat in the distance.
A forgotten object is found in an attic during spring cleaning.
Instead of trying to get a man on the moon, every nation raced to be the first at the very bottom of the ocean.
Write a story where your character is at odds with a family tradition.
Sweet Sixteenth? More like Salty Sixteenth!
Write a short story in the form of a text message exchange between two best friends during history class.
Everyday you are delivered a newspaper at your front door that accurately predicts what will happen in the next 24 hours.
Set your story at a graveyard overnight.
Write a story about a character learning a new sport.
Write a story based on an experience from your childhood... but have that experience happen to a person or group of people who are nothing like you or your family.
Write about a family with secrets that get stuck in a corn maze overnight. One by one, all of the secrets come out in the course of the night.
"When i grow up, I want to..."
Write about Christmas from the perspective of the local cat.
It's your first day in a new city where you don't speak the language.
Describe your greatest fear, and how you have or have not overcome it yet.
A romance told through a series of texts.
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