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Are you ready to write but don’t know what to write about? Prepare to kick your writing into gear by browsing through our list of 200+ short story ideas. New prompts are added each week, and you can search by genre. But don’t let our categories stop you from putting your own spin on a writing prompt: if you find a short story idea tagged as sci-fi, but you think it would make a great romance plot, run with it! For tips on how to come up with your own story ideas, scroll to the bottom of the page.

20 Best Science Fiction Short Story Ideas

Showing 20 short story ideas curated by Reedsy.

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Time travel is real and time tourists show up in large numbers around major historical events. One day, thousands of time tourists are in ships above the earth, quietly waiting.

Science Fiction

You volunteer to be the first human to test time travel, only going an hour forward in time. But when you leave the travel pod, all other humans are gone.

Science Fiction

Your Tesla has stopped in the wilderness. The last thing you remember before the panic set in was someone hacking into the car's computer, steering you far away from the safety of the city. In the darkness, a light moves towards you

Science Fiction

You're driving down a lonely road when you see a machine-looking object jet across the night sky.

Science Fiction

20 Best Science Fiction Short Story Ideas

Time travel is real and time tourists show up in large numbers around major historical events. One day, thousands of time tourists are in ships above the earth, quietly waiting.

You volunteer to be the first human to test time travel, only going an hour forward in time. But when you leave the travel pod, all other humans are gone.

Your Tesla has stopped in the wilderness. The last thing you remember before the panic set in was someone hacking into the car's computer, steering you far away from the safety of the city. In the darkness, a light moves towards you

You're driving down a lonely road when you see a machine-looking object jet across the night sky.

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Your Tesla has stopped in the wilderness. The last thing you remember before the panic set in was someone hacking into the car's computer, steering you far away from the safety of the city. In the darkness, a light moves towards you