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Short story ideas
Forty-five short story ideas across nine genres, written by hand. Press one to open it in the free AI story writer with the genre already set, or use it as a prompt for a story of your own.
45 short story ideas, ready to write
Press any idea to open it in the story writer with the genre already chosen. Change the details before you press Write my story: a name, a place, an ending. The more of you in the idea, the better the story.
Fantasy
The royal food taster discovers the poison is meant for her, not the king.
A witch who sells weather in jars runs out of sunshine the week of her daughter's wedding.
A knight returns from a twenty-year quest to find that nobody remembers sending him.
In a town where every lie turns into a moth, the mayor's house is never dark.
Science fiction
The only person awake on a sleeper ship finds a second set of footprints in the frost.
A woman receives a voicemail from her own phone number, recorded tomorrow.
A lunar mining crew picks up a radio signal playing a song one of them wrote and never shared.
Memory is sold by the hour in a city where a debt collector is sent to repossess her own childhood.
Mystery
A piano tuner realizes the house he is working in has one more room than its windows suggest.
The village's best gardener wins first prize for her marrows the year her husband goes missing.
A forensic accountant notices that a charity's books balance perfectly, every month, to the penny.
Horror
A girl's imaginary friend from childhood sends her a wedding invitation.
The new neighbour's dog has started bringing back things that went missing from the cemetery.
A night ferry arrives at an island where every house has its lights on and nobody is home.
A radio host takes a late-night call from a listener describing the studio in real time.
Romance
A florist is hired to do the flowers for her ex's wedding and falls for the groom's brother.
A night-shift nurse and a night-shift baker leave each other notes on the same bus seat for a year.
Two rival climbers are stranded on a ledge overnight with one sleeping bag.
Funny
A sloth applies for a job as a speed-dating host.
The tooth fairy is audited by the tax office.
A grandmother joins a heavy metal band to win back her neighbour's respect.
Aliens land in a small town during its annual pie contest and are mistaken for judges.
Historical
A Victorian lamplighter notices that one lamp on his round is always lit before he reaches it.
A codebreaker in 1943 decodes a message addressed to her by her childhood nickname.
A medieval scribe copying a holy book finds that the margins of the original are full of jokes.
A Roman bath attendant overhears a plot and has until sunset to decide whom to tell.
Fairy tale
A miller's daughter is promised to whoever can make her laugh, and a fox enters the contest.
A tailor sews a coat that makes its wearer honest, and the king orders a dozen for his ministers.
A girl climbs a beanstalk to return what her brother stole.
The youngest of seven sisters is the only one who can see the bridge to the moon.
A clockmaker builds a bird that sings the time, and it starts singing the future.
Bedtime
A little cloud is too shy to rain on the garden that needs it.
A teddy bear goes looking for the button eye he lost under the bed.
The moon forgets to rise one night, and the owls go to wake it.
A tortoise who is afraid of the dark knits a scarf from starlight.
Your own
None of these? The best ideas are a person, a place and a problem. Write one sentence with all three and try it in the story writer.
How to turn an idea into a better story
- Name the person. "A librarian" becomes "Ruth, the night librarian who never takes a holiday".
- Pin down the place. A real town, a season, a decade. Specific places make specific stories.
- Decide what they want. A story is someone wanting something and something getting in the way.
- Pick a tone. The same idea is a different story as eerie, cozy or funny. Try two.
- Choose an ending, or let it surprise you. Adding "it ends with her keeping the secret" gives the story somewhere to land.
Questions
Can I use these story ideas for my own writing?
Yes. They were written for this page, and you are welcome to use them for stories you write yourself or with the story writer.
How do I write a story from one of these ideas?
Press the idea. It opens in the story writer with the genre set. Add a name or a place, choose a tone and length, and press Write my story.
Are these ideas good for writing practice?
Yes. Try writing the opening paragraph yourself first, then compare it with what the story writer does with the same idea. The differences show you your own voice.
- AI story writerDescribe an idea and get a complete short story, free.