Are you thinking about writing a short story and looking for story ideas or inspiration for your story? Then, you are at the right place as we have created some great short story ideas, and many with a twist to let you start writing right now.
Related: 101 Flash Fiction Writing Prompts
Whether you are a beginner or a published writer, we all sometimes need the inspiration to spark our imagination and turn it into a full-fledged story of our own.
So reading story ideas and writing prompts are a great way to help you brainstorm and expand your imagination in creative writing.
Below is the list of hundred great short story ideas to inspire and tickle your imagination to start writing right now.
You can use these story ideas as an inspiration for your short story, novel, novella, flash fiction, or as a writing prompt for any writing competition.
Related: 101 Horror Story Ideas (With a Twist)
101 Short Story Ideas (Many With a Twist)-
#1
–A character could see the dreams of anyone sleeping nearby him.
#2
–A character who is an introvert teen has no friend, and can talk to cats.
#3
–A character found his missing uncle’s secret diary with a note on how to find him.
#4
–A stranger sold your character a magical pill.
#5
–An orphaned boy searching for his parents finds out that he doesn’t belong on this planet.
#6
-A character has two best friends, but one loves her and she doesn’t know.
#7
-A character finds out that their parents were not his actual parents and they had been hired by a billionaire to foster him.
#8
-A character finds out that he is just a character living in a computer simulation.
#9
–A man living as a paying guest turned out to be dead years ago.
#10
–A family of adventurers decided to go on a boat trip to a mysterious island.
#11
-A character finds out that her husband has a twin brother and they both were secretly living with her.
#12
-A group of scientists secretly made a device that could teleport people into anyone’s body.
#13
-A psycho date strangers and kills them on their birthdays.
#14
-A character found billion of dollars credited into his account by a stranger.
#15
–On an expedition to a cave, the archaeologist finds a wooden box filled with a strange glowing jelly that was alive.
#16
-A boy started liking the new girl in her class, but soon she left the school.
#17
-One day, the sun suddenly disappeared.
#18
-A psycho college student fell in love with her professor and started stalking him.
#19
-One day, the gravity of earth decreased and people started levitating away in space.
#20
-A man started writing his everyday dreams and ended up writing a bestseller.
#21
-A character wakes up a decade before in time and gets a chance to correct all his mistakes done in the past.
#22
-A stranger knocked on the door of a person at night asking for help but soon your character found the stranger standing in his home.
#23
-A character gets stuck in a time loop and has to live the same moment again and again until he finds the way out.
#24
-The people of the country are unaware that their president is killed and their government is ruled by a secret organization through a look-alike of the dead president.
#25
-A character was driving his car in the rain when the lightning struck him and he found himself in another world.
#26
-A character looking at his old pictures finds out that his sister is adopted.
#27
-A character finds more than a hundred gold bricks hidden underneath his basement.
#28
-A character bought an expensive painting from an auction, but at night he found, it has been not just a painting.
#29
-A boy fell asleep in his class and woke up at midnight.
#30
-It was the character’s first kiss in the backyard at sixteen.
#31
-A character who has no friends in real life created an imaginary friend in his mind, but soon he started seeing him in real life.
#32
-A character is left behind by his trekking group on a trip.
#33
-A character had died in an avalanche, but he again found himself waking up in his bed on the same day.
#34
-A character decided to only lie about everything and see where it takes his life.
#35
-A character was walking on the beach at night when he sank in the sand and found himself in a different place.
#36
-A character was on a train trip when finds that the woman sitting next to him was his school crush.
#37
-A character returns home and finds a note, “take care of yourself and your little sister as we may not come back”.
#38
-A character suddenly forgets everything he had learned before his exam.
#39
-A character was getting married the next day when he found out that her fiance fled the country without giving any reason.
#40
-A character finds out that a drone was following him everywhere.
#41
-A character builds an AI which could catch the murderer using all the data related to the case.
#42
-A character meets an old friend and finds out that she had a child with him.
#43
-A character got late to catch his school bus and instead of returning home he went to a fair.
#44
-A character was watching TV when he accidentally tuned a channel where he finds the characters started talking to him.
#45
-It was a clear, warm day when lightning struck and many giant humans appeared.
#46
-A character found an old diary in his backyard, which contained the location of secret treasures.
#47
-A character was going to visit his grandpa when a cute girl sat next to him on the train.
#48
-A character returns home and finds a girl sitting in his room. He asked his mom, who said she’s her friend’s daughter who is out of the country for a week so she will be staying here.
#49
-A character was having fun on the beach when she found a magic ring left by the shore.
#50
-A character continuously started getting deja-vu when he visited her new apartment.
#51
-A team of scientists finally finds out what had existed before the big bang.
#52
-A character falls in love with his new online friend, who is from a newly discovered planet thousand light-years away.
#53
-A huge storm was approaching the city and the character’s daughter was alone at home.
#54
-A character is an army officer, who knows he will not return alive from his secret mission.
#55
-A character finds that he is soon going to be a dad and he has lost his job.
#56
-A character’s boat sank and everyone thinks he was dead, but he got stuck on a deserted island with his dog.
#57
-A character was sipping his everyday drink in the bar when a stranger approached and gave him a card printed with a strange address.
#58
-A secret ancient civilization was living deep underneath the earth’s surface until one day a deep mining company looking for gold found them.
#59
-A family of three living in an abandoned place was about to welcome an unexpected neighbour.
#60
-A character is invited to join a secret society.
#61
-On a cold winter day, suddenly many planets started appearing near the earth in the sky.
#62
-On a summer day, people wake up and got shocked to see heavy snowfall.
#63
–A group of scientists created a room where people from different dimensions started appearing.
#64
–Two newlywed couples were on their honeymoon vacation when in the hotel they overheard a murder conspiracy by the president of the country.
#65
–A character is living his daily normal life when one day an old friend knocks on his door and says that they have found out his location and are coming for him.
#66
-In haste, a character picks up the wrong luggage, at the airport and was shocked to see what’s inside.
#67
-A psycho man spread a virus in the world which was turning every person blind, but he has the cure which your character has to find out.
#68
-One day, all the colors in the world disappeared, except the white.
#69
-A character is an AI robot working as a teacher in a school where no one is aware of it, except the principal.
#70
-A character comes from a strange family but he tells everyone that he is an orphan.
#71
-A character never brings or lets any of his friends enter his house which contains a peculiar truth.
#72
-A group of scientists finds out a way to escape death and old age, but it comes with a deadly price.
#73
-A character who volunteered for a scientific experiment turned into a giant being.
#74
-A group of scientists created a superhuman.
#75
-A character is fed up with being bullied by his classmates until one day everyone saw her singing.
#76
-A character whom nobody takes on their football team.
#77
-A character who is obsessed with a group of cool kids of the university and does everything to get into that group.
#78
-A character hacked all his teachers’ phones.
#79
-A character is having a night out at her friend’s house when she finds out that her family is hiding a dark secret.
#80
-A character is a school teacher and hates his job.
#81
-A character went to a common friend’s house party where he got into big trouble.
#82
-A character’s dream is to become a chef, but her parents want her to pursue their family’s profession.
#83
-A character starts liking his friend’s girlfriend and soon finds that she too has the same feelings for him.
#84
-A character wanted to become a famous writer, but he only received rejections until one-day things changed.
#85
-A character dropouts from his university when he gets a revolutionary idea.
#86
-A character is involved in some suspicious activity and trying hard to hide it from his father, who is a police officer.
#87
-A character is the owner of a big company, but someone from the company knows what is he running behind.
#88
-A character finds a way to earn money fast, but later gets into big trouble.
#89
-A character’s childhood friend becomes a huge celebrity and now he’s looking for her.
#90
-A character has to decide whether to leave his comfortable life and accept the invitation of teaching as an English teacher in another nation.
#91
-A character works as a zookeeper, but the owner has asked him to leave to cut down some expenses, but the character has got attached to the animals.
#92
-In the future, a company started selling levitating houses in the sky, but one day they all started falling.
#93
-A character’s divorced mother is getting married, but the character thinks that the man is not the right choice.
#94
-Today is the character’s daughter’s birthday and he missed the last flight.
#95
-A character returns home and finds his family missing.
#96
-A character is a single mother looking for a perfect dad for her two children.
#97
-A character is in huge debt, but later finds out that a stranger paid all his debt.
#98
-In the future, a character lives on mars but returns to earth to find something important.
#99
-A billionaire finds that someone stole all his bitcoins.
#100
-A character escapes from a prison abroad, where he was held, being innocent.
#101
-A character visited by a women who claims that he is her son whom she had left in an orphanage.
Related: 101 Fantasy Story Ideas
Watch this below informative video by Ted-Ed on how to write great fiction.
