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539 Best Short Story Ideas for Authors in 2026
Showing 539 short story ideas curated by Reedsy.
As a joke, you use your cell phone to dial your own number. Someone picks up.
A character doesn't know how to ask their parent to stop calling them 2+ times a day.
You are granted one wish. But you have to use the wish for someone else.
Write a story about pumpkin picking… in the middle of a storm.
A door in the locker room leads to a magical fantasy world.
You discover a secret family member you never knew existed.
Write a story that inverts a popular YA trope. You get to pick the trope.
You open a door, but before you can go through, someone sneaks in front of you without saying "thank you." You've had an awful day and this is the last straw.
Write a story that takes place over the span of the longest Monopoly game ever.
Set your story at a graveyard overnight.
It is the year 3000. The sun starts to flicker.
You are a server at a restaurant, having the busiest shift of your life.
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?
As the sun set, the desert wasteland glowed an eerie red.
You work at an airport and notice the same person waiting in "arrivals" every week. Each time, they leave alone. One day you muster the courage to ask who they are waiting for.
Write a story that ends with a shocking plot twist.
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