Eureka! That idea of a perfect story pops up—but wait a minute! Is it an excellent short story?
Yes, it happens to all of us most times. The question thrown to you now is, are you ready to write a short story, but you’re unsure where to start? You need not look any further; all you need to do is get some new ideas today with these diverse and engaging short story ideas I’ll be sharing with you shortly.
Below are my thirty short story ideas for all your favorite genres—trust me, you can’t get over what I’ll be sharing with you today. And you can also use them for stories to publish in literary magazines, writing prompts for writing contests, or simply using them for fun.
Well, let’s move…. wait, hey, wait a minute, we haven’t talked about how to write a short story yet? That wouldn’t be nice for the rookies reading this, right guys?
So, let’s all be gents and ladies and spell it out simply to them.
How to Write a Short Story?
1. You need to read other people’s short stories:
Well, I got you in that one. If you’ve never read a short story before, then I can rightly tell you that you’ll be having a heck of a troubling time writing one. Now, you might ask where in the world would I find excellent short story ideas? You don’t need to worry, mate; there are lots of free online short stories…I guess that’s one of the advantages of having the internet.
Read also, 45 Amazing Mystery Short Story Ideas
2. Single Sitting short stories:
A short story is a short story because it’s short—dang! I love how I rhyme. Put, if you’re writing a short story, make sure you try to write it in one sitting; a page or two would suffice.
And you need to trust me; this works. Everyone hates the tag, to be continued, in a short story; if you add that tag, then why is it called a short story to the end. What I’m trying to say here is to write that short story to the very end.
3. Carefully read the draft:
Make sure you read your story through once and do not change anything. This will surely give you a sense of what work it needs or what needs to be added while you go forward.
4. The Premise:
After reading our first draft, you need to get your head around the main idea behind the story by summarizing your story in one sentence premise. Make sure your premise contains three things; a goal, a character, and a circumstance.
5. Write and Edit:
When it comes to good writing, it entails rewriting. Make sure to use the second draft to fill in the plot holes and cut out the unnecessary scenes and characters you discovered when you read the first draft in step 2. Then all you need to do next is, polish up your final draft on the next round of edits.
6. Submit:
When it comes to writing, real writers don’t keep it to themselves. They’re known to share it.
That done, let’s move… this time.
Thirty Short Story Ideas
1. A stranger offers your character money to carry a mysterious package onto the plane at the airport. The stranger assures your character that it’s nothing illegal and points out that it has already been gone through the security check. Your character seems to have serious doubts but needs the money and therefore agrees to it…
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2. A man elbows your character in a crowd. After he is gone, she discovers their cell phone too. She calls their number, and the man answers. She explains that the cellphone has personal information on it and asks the man to send it back. He hangs up. And instead of going to the police, your character decides to take matters into her own hands…
3. A missionary visits your character’s house and attempts to convert her to his religion. Your character is trying to get rid of him just as storm warning sirens go off. Your character now feels she can’t send the missionary out into the storm, so she lets him come down into her basement with her. Your character now realizes that this is going to be a long storm.
4. There’s a significant outbreak of an unknown disease in the world, and your character doesn’t know what to do. She feels she’s safe, for she doesn’t have the disease, and ends up secluding herself from the world. But as chances do come, your character has the disease, but she isn’t dead. That’s strange to her. As time goes on, she realizes she has a mission in the world. She was born to be the cure…
5. Your character felt hopeless; he had lost everything. He had lost all that meant the world to him; what does he have to do now. One day a strange person knocks on his door, hands him a rough note, and disappears without mincing a word. He reads the rough note and is set on a journey to find his true self…
6. Your Elvis impersonator books a concert that is so good, people believe the real Elvis has come back to life. The next thing he knows, he is the leader of a superstitious Elvis cult. (Elvis can be changed to any name that comes to mind)
7. A tale of a high-fashion penguin who goes shopping for a tuxedo in Antarctica and ends up enrolling in the model industry. Make sure you make as many crossovers between fashion and birdlife as possible.
8. Your character has been in solitary confinement for about two years and hasn’t experienced any human contact, not even a letter, at least till she starts receiving mysterious notes under their door.
9. Your character, in which she is a shy web designer, thinks she has found the man of her dreams online. It turns out he is being impersonated by a member of a competing company who is probing him for information.
10. An American actor is cast as the star of a movie about a multi-lingual travel agent. Instead of buying Rosetta Stone, he packs all of his belongings. He decides to travel to four different countries across the world, but he doesn’t expect in any way to fall in love with his guide.
11. After the crash, he vanished. Some say he moved to a compound in Africa; some say he went off-grid. But the genius who engineered the bombing of the capital is in plain sight.
12. Every day, you tend to visit the exact moment from your past.
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13. A man who seeks to find the truth of life.
14. A little girl whose parents were killed when she was just a child is all set to find the killer of her parents as an adult.
15. A young couple runs into the path of some psychopath.
16. An old lady discovers a ghost in the house she just bought.
17. A shy young woman unexpectedly bumps into her soulmate.
18. A boy is said to steal a jet packet that can help him fly, and he gets adopted by flocks of birds as they migrate down south for the winter. Make sure you show how his relationship with them evolves until hunters try to kill the birds and shuttle him back home.
19. A relative is hiding a secret from his family, and when they find out, they react (good or bad)
20. A young kid is a mutant who is trying to escape from the government. He finds a way to use his power to enter another dimension.
21. Two childhood friends stopped talking after a high school feud till they found themselves on the same international flight five years later. What conversations unfold over the next twelve hours, and do they keep in touch or go their separate ways forever?
22. A famous sprinter is under fire for using steroids. It turns out that she’s the one who’d leaked the story to detract attention from the fact that she’s a drug lord selling a highly addictive new substance that makes you high and pops your brain later on.
23. A long journey is interrupted by a disaster. Who hasn’t been longing to get to a destination only to be delayed by something unexpected?
24. A poor young girl comes into riches. And we all know how not all fortunes are termed good. Sometimes discovering a fortune may as well destroy your life.
25. A group of children discovers a dead body; what do they have to do. They escape without reporting what they’d seen. The dead body haunts them one after the other in their dreams as well as their everyday lives.
26. A group of people becomes curious to find God, and they do find God, for he came out within them…
27. A man murdered his wife because she asked for a divorce and dumped her body in the attic for months without anyone knowing, not even the children. But the smell of the mother calls…
Read also, 22 Romance Short Story Ideas to Boost Your Writing Life
28. A lady writes a book and finds out all she’s been writing is coming to life, and she’s the character in what she wrote.
29. A girl invites her husband to dinner. She wants to make a good impression, but her husband tends to drink too much and say exactly what’s on his mind…
30. A girl starts receiving flowers and strange gifts. She has no idea who’s sending them. Her husband is suspicious, and the gifts begin to get stranger…
Conclusions
Well, I do hope the short story ideas given have generated good short story ideas for you? Well, all you need to do now is leave some comments if a short story idea I had given you worked pretty well for you. Gracias Amigos!
