Short Story Prompts
A short story can really be born out of anything, but if you are feeling a little stuck (as one does from time to time), here as some short story prompts to jumpstart your imagination. A lot of these can honestly apply to poetry as well, so if you find yourself writing a poem, try not to force it into a short story.:
1. Write about someone who encounters their reincarnated family member. What does they give your main character? Advice? Comfort?
2. Shape a story around the monster under the bed. The narrator choices are endless-- the bed, the child, the parent, or even the monster themselves?
3. Have your main character run into an old friend. Why did they lose contact, what is both of their initial reactions?
4. . Plan a story with an unreliable narrator that tricks your reader. Be it the identity of the narrator, where the setting is, etc., these are always interesting reads!
5. Tell a story in the form of a letter.
6. Take a spin in the fairytale world! You can take on a retelling of the story, create your own characters, or focus on the story of a side character.
7. Aliens have invaded our planet but refuse to communicate with us. Instead, they attempt to communicate with animals, and seem to communicate with the quite well. Immediately, the animals of the Earth start to turn on us, our pets included.
8. Write a story set in high school -- except 100 years into the future. What does the world look like?
9. Have your story be set in a historic time. World War I? The Holocaust?
10. Write a story about a person who has superpowers, but feels like their powers are more like a curse.
So, I hope these helped some! There are tons more short story prompts out there if you're looking for more, one great source being Reedsy. Thank for reading, and happy writing!
2 comments
I really like these prompts!!
ReplyDeleteHappy to hear that! Unfortunately it’s sometimes really hard to find good prompts, but I’m hoping to post a more generic prompt post (aka with prompts you can use for any genre) soon, but if you ever find any other short story prompts that you found really awesome feel free to drop them here in the comments! Thanks for reading :D
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