25 Short Story Ideas

Posted on by Bryn Donovan
laptop with city lights in the background, representing awesome short story ideas

In my years of blogging, I’ve tried to share lots of awesome story ideas (like my Mystery Writing Ideas, Fantasy Story Ideas, and Romance Plot Ideas.) I’m sure some of my previous lists of plot ideas could be short story prompts, but I thought I’d do a list specifically for good short story ideas.

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I wrote all of these with contemporary, real-life fiction in mind, but you could always add a science fiction or magical element, or imagine it in a historical setting. Like all my writing prompts lists, each one of these can be taken in countless different ways, so you can use any of them and still be 100% creative and original.

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25 SHORT STORY IDEAS | writing prompts to get your creative juices flowing! | image of woman holding notebook and pencil, smiling
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1. A breakup or a reunion happens in an emergency room.

2, Someone winds up with a pet they didn’t intend to adopt.

3. A person has a good reason to pretend they’re much older than they actually are.

4. A person who isn’t a bride-to-be is shopping for a wedding dress.

5. A bride or groom strongly regrets their choice for maid of honor or best man.

6. Two strangers have a trivial argument on the internet, but wind up being friends or getting crushes on each other.

7. Two strangers at a funeral learn that they have something in common other than knowing the person who just passed.

8. Someone inherits something from a deceased relative and hardly knows what to do with it.

9. Someone gains an understanding of what their future life is going to be like if they take the job, leave the job, marry the person, or leave the person.

10. A church or a business faces the prospect of closing.

11. Three months after setting up a profile on the dating app, someone finally shows interest.

12. People on a first date both pretend to be people they aren’t.

13. A long-married couple tries something new in order to add some excitement to their marriage. 

14. Someone accidentally sends a text about a person to a person.

15. A visit to a hair salon, nail salon, or tattoo parlor takes a strange turn.

16. Something happens to make a person abandon a deeply-held belief.

17. Someone wins an award that they find very embarrassing.

18. A mother and/or father completely embarrass someone.

19. Someone is shocked to find that their significant other or best friend acts completely differently when they’re around their parents or coworkers.

20. One rival or opponent winds up defending or helping the other.

21. Someone intervenes with something their next-door or upstairs neighbor is doing.

22. Someone learns a dramatic secret about their “boring” family member.

23. A stroke of “bad luck” turns out to be very lucky.

24. Someone gives up on a dream—for a very good reason.

25. Someone achieves their dream…when they’re in their 90s.

 

I hope you liked these short story ideas! And if you want more fiction writing inspiration, check out my book 5,000 Writing Prompts. It’s not only a good way to never have writer’s block again—it’s also a good way to keep going on the story you’ve already started!

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If you have comments about the post or about short story writing in general, we’d love to hear them—please share them below. Thanks for stopping by, and happy writing!

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12 thoughts on “25 Short Story Ideas”

  3. Theresa Church says:

    Your prompts are always helpful. These would also make great secondary themes to help flesh out the middle of a story. For example, I can see a romantic couple strengthen their connection by working together to secretly make a dream happen for an elderly relative or friend.

  4. Chris says:

    Very unique and specific prompts. I think I’m going to get into writing short stories. I’ve been debating what to do with my ghost-town of a blog. This would be interesting. Thanks for the inspiration!

    • Bryn Donovan says:

      Chris, as you know, this blog is also too much of a ghost town at times. They can always be revived! 🙂 Feel free to link to yours any time! Thanks as always for the kind words!

  6. Pingback: How Many Words Are In a Short Story?

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