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DIRECTORY
539 Best Short Story Ideas for Authors in 2026
Showing 539 short story ideas curated by Reedsy.
A drama club is horrified upon reading a review of their performance in their high school newspaper.
Write a book with anthromorpohized characters.
A character starts remembering things that never happened.
Write a story about coming out. The ending is a happy one.
It was the most epic senior prank your high school had ever seen.
You find a treasure map.
The old bus driver who drives you to work every day always tells you rambling stories about his friends, who all seem to have passed away. Eventually, you begin to suspect he is immortal.
Set your story at a disastrous gift exchange.
There is a fountain that truly does grant wishes to those who throw coins in it.
You could only watch in disbelief as the work-place prank you had planned turned to chaos.
In front of you lie two doors. One contains your worst nightmare. The other, your greatest dream.
After the crash, he vanished. Some say he moved to a compound in Africa, some say he went off the grid. But the Silicon Valley genius who engineered the greatest stockmarket disaster in history is hiding in plain sight
Write about a time you were given responsibility.
Write a story where your character faces a deep fear.
You wake up the day after an epic party. You're not where you expected to be.
It's Groundhog Day... and the day that keeps looping for you is the day of the most disastrous prom in the history of proms.
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