a short creative writing story

How to Write a Short Story: The Short Story Checklist

Rosemary Tantra Bensko and Sean Glatch  |  May 7, 2024  |  7 Comments

The short story is a fiction writer’s laboratory: here is where you can experiment with characters, plots, and ideas without the heavy lifting of writing a novel. Learning how to write a short story is essential to mastering the art of storytelling . With far fewer words to worry about, storytellers can make many more mistakes—and strokes of genius!—through experimentation and the fun of fiction writing.

Nonetheless, the art of writing short stories is not easy to master. How do you tell a complete story in so few words? What does a story need to have in order to be successful? Whether you’re struggling with how to write a short story outline, or how to fully develop a character in so few words, this guide is your starting point.

Famous authors like Virginia Woolf, Haruki Murakami, and Agatha Christie have used the short story form to play with ideas before turning those stories into novels. Whether you want to master the elements of fiction, experiment with novel ideas, or simply have fun with storytelling, here’s everything you need on how to write a short story step by step.

How to Write a Short Story: Contents

The Core Elements of a Short Story

How to write a short story outline, how to write a short story step by step, how to write a short story: length and setting, how to write a short story: point of view, how to write a short story: protagonist, antagonist, motivation, how to write a short story: characters, how to write a short story: prose, how to write a short story: story structure, how to write a short story: capturing reader interest, where to read and submit short stories.

There’s no secret formula to writing a short story. However, a good short story will have most or all of the following elements:

• A protagonist with a certain desire or need. It is essential for the protagonist to want something they don’t have, otherwise they will not drive the story forward.
• A clear dilemma. We don’t need much backstory to see how the dilemma started; we’re primarily concerned with how the protagonist resolves it.
• A decision. What does the protagonist do to resolve their dilemma?
• A climax. In Freytag’s Pyramid , the climax of a story is when the tension reaches its peak, and the reader discovers the outcome of the protagonist’s decision(s).
• An outcome. How does the climax change the protagonist? Are they a different person? Do they have a different philosophy or outlook on life?

Of course, short stories also utilize the elements of fiction , such as a setting , plot , and point of view . It helps to study these elements and to understand their intricacies. But, when it comes to laying down the skeleton of a short story, the above elements are what you need to get started.

Note: a short story rarely, if ever, has subplots. The focus should be entirely on a single, central storyline. Subplots will either pull focus away from the main story, or else push the story into the territory of novellas and novels.

The shorter the story is, the fewer of these elements are essentials. If you’re interested in writing short-short stories, check out our guide on how to write flash fiction .

Some writers are “pantsers”—they “write by the seat of their pants,” making things up on the go with little more than an idea for a story. Other writers are “plotters,” meaning they decide the story’s structure in advance of writing it.

You don’t need a short story outline to write a good short story. But, if you’d like to give yourself some scaffolding before putting words on the page, this article answers the question of how to write a short story outline:

https://writers.com/how-to-write-a-story-outline

There are many ways to approach the short story craft, but this method is tried-and-tested for writers of all levels. Here’s how to write a short story step-by-step.

1. Start With an Idea

Often, generating an idea is the hardest part. You want to write, but what will you write about?

What’s more, it’s easy to start coming up with ideas and then dismissing them. You want to tell an authentic, original story, but everything you come up with has already been written, it seems.

Here are a few tips:

• Originality presents itself in your storytelling, not in your ideas. For example, the premise of both Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Ostrovsky’s The Snow Maiden are very similar: two men and two women, in intertwining love triangles, sort out their feelings for each other amidst mischievous forest spirits, love potions, and friendship drama. The way each story is written makes them very distinct from one another, to the point where, unless it’s pointed out to you, you might not even notice the similarities.
• An idea is not a final draft. You will find that exploring the possibilities of your story will generate something far different than the idea you started out with. This is a good thing—it means you made the story your own!
• Experiment with genres and tropes. Even if you want to write literary fiction , pay attention to the narrative structures that drive genre stories, and practice your storytelling using those structures. Again, you will naturally make the story your own simply by playing with ideas.

If you’re struggling simply to find ideas, try out this prompt generator , or pull prompts from this Twitter .

2. Outline, OR Conceive Your Characters

If you plan to outline, do so once you’ve generated an idea. You can learn about how to write a short story outline earlier in this article.

If you don’t plan to outline, you should at least start with a character or characters. Certainly, you need a protagonist, but you should also think about any characters that aid or inhibit your protagonist’s journey.

When thinking about character development, ask the following questions:

• What is my character’s background? Where do they come from, how did they get here, where do they want to be?
• What does your character desire the most? This can be both material or conceptual, like “fitting in” or “being loved.”
• What is your character’s fatal flaw? In other words, what limitation prevents the protagonist from achieving their desire? Often, this flaw is a blind spot that directly counters their desire. For example, self hatred stands in the way of a protagonist searching for love.
• How does your character think and speak? Think of examples, both fictional and in the real world, who might resemble your character.

In short stories, there are rarely more characters than a protagonist, an antagonist (if relevant), and a small group of supporting characters. The more characters you include, the longer your story will be. Focus on making only one or two characters complex: it is absolutely okay to have the rest of the cast be flat characters that move the story along.

Learn more about character development here:

https://writers.com/character-development-definition

3. Write Scenes Around Conflict

Once you have an outline or some characters, start building scenes around conflict. Every part of your story, including the opening sentence, should in some way relate to the protagonist’s conflict.

Conflict is the lifeblood of storytelling: without it, the reader doesn’t have a clear reason to keep reading. Loveable characters are not enough, as the story has to give the reader something to root for.

Take, for example, Edgar Allan Poe’s classic short story The Cask of Amontillado . We start at the conflict: the narrator has been slighted by Fortunato, and plans to exact revenge. Every scene in the story builds tension and follows the protagonist as he exacts this revenge.

In your story, start writing scenes around conflict, and make sure each paragraph and piece of dialogue relates, in some way, to your protagonist’s unmet desires.

Read more about writing effective conflict here:

What is Conflict in a Story? Definition and Examples

4. Write Your First Draft

The scenes you build around conflict will eventually be stitched into a complete story. Make sure as the story progresses that each scene heightens the story’s tension, and that this tension remains unbroken until the climax resolves whether or not your protagonist meets their desires.

Don’t stress too hard on writing a perfect story. Rather, take Anne Lamott’s advice, and “write a shitty first draft.” The goal is not to pen a complete story at first draft; rather, it’s to set ideas down on paper. You are simply, as Shannon Hale suggests, “shoveling sand into a box so that later [you] can build castles.”

5. Step Away, Breathe, Revise

Whenever Stephen King finishes a novel, he puts it in a drawer and doesn’t think about it for 6 weeks. With short stories, you probably don’t need to take as long of a break. But, the idea itself is true: when you’ve finished your first draft, set it aside for a while. Let yourself come back to the story with fresh eyes, so that you can confidently revise, revise, revise .

In revision, you want to make sure each word has an essential place in the story, that each scene ramps up tension, and that each character is clearly defined. The culmination of these elements allows a story to explore complex themes and ideas, giving the reader something to think about after the story has ended.

6. Compare Against Our Short Story Checklist

Does your story have everything it needs to succeed? Compare it against this short story checklist, as written by our instructor Rosemary Tantra Bensko.

Below is a collection of practical short story writing tips by Writers.com instructor Rosemary Tantra Bensko . Each paragraph is its own checklist item: a core element of short story writing advice to follow unless you have clear reasons to the contrary. We hope it’s a helpful resource in your own writing.

Update 9/1/2020: We’ve now made a summary of Rosemary’s short story checklist available as a PDF download . Enjoy!

Click to download

Your short story is 1000 to 7500 words in length.

The story takes place in one time period, not spread out or with gaps other than to drive someplace, sleep, etc. If there are those gaps, there is a space between the paragraphs, the new paragraph beginning flush left, to indicate a new scene.

Each scene takes place in one location, or in continual transit, such as driving a truck or flying in a plane.

Unless it’s a very lengthy Romance story, in which there may be two Point of View (POV) characters, there is one POV character. If we are told what any character secretly thinks, it will only be the POV character. The degree to which we are privy to the unexpressed thoughts, memories and hopes of the POV character remains consistent throughout the story.

You avoid head-hopping by only having one POV character per scene, even in a Romance. You avoid straying into even brief moments of telling us what other characters think other than the POV character. You use words like “apparently,” “obviously,” or “supposedly” to suggest how non-POV-characters think rather than stating it.

Your short story has one clear protagonist who is usually the character changing most.

Your story has a clear antagonist, who generally makes the protagonist change by thwarting his goals.

(Possible exception to the two short story writing tips above: In some types of Mystery and Action stories, particularly in a series, etc., the protagonist doesn’t necessarily grow personally, but instead his change relates to understanding the antagonist enough to arrest or kill him.)

The protagonist changes with an Arc arising out of how he is stuck in his Flaw at the beginning of the story, which makes the reader bond with him as a human, and feel the pain of his problems he causes himself. (Or if it’s the non-personal growth type plot: he’s presented at the beginning of the story with a high-stakes problem that requires him to prevent or punish a crime.)

The protagonist usually is shown to Want something, because that’s what people normally do, defining their personalities and behavior patterns, pushing them onward from day to day. This may be obvious from the beginning of the story, though it may not become heightened until the Inciting Incident , which happens near the beginning of Act 1. The Want is usually something the reader sort of wants the character to succeed in, while at the same time, knows the Want is not in his authentic best interests. This mixed feeling in the reader creates tension.

The protagonist is usually shown to Need something valid and beneficial, but at first, he doesn’t recognize it, admit it, honor it, integrate it with his Want, or let the Want go so he can achieve the Need instead. Ideally, the Want and Need can be combined in a satisfying way toward the end for the sake of continuity of forward momentum of victoriously achieving the goals set out from the beginning. It’s the encounters with the antagonist that forcibly teach the protagonist to prioritize his Needs correctly and overcome his Flaw so he can defeat the obstacles put in his path.

The protagonist in a personal growth plot needs to change his Flaw/Want but like most people, doesn’t automatically do that when faced with the problem. He tries the easy way, which doesn’t work. Only when the Crisis takes him to a low point does he boldly change enough to become victorious over himself and the external situation. What he learns becomes the Theme.

Each scene shows its main character’s goal at its beginning, which aligns in a significant way with the protagonist’s overall goal for the story. The scene has a “charge,” showing either progress toward the goal or regression away from the goal by the ending. Most scenes end with a negative charge, because a story is about not obtaining one’s goals easily, until the end, in which the scene/s end with a positive charge.

The protagonist’s goal of the story becomes triggered until the Inciting Incident near the beginning, when something happens to shake up his life. This is the only major thing in the story that is allowed to be a random event that occurs to him.

Your characters speak differently from one another, and their dialogue suggests subtext, what they are really thinking but not saying: subtle passive-aggressive jibes, their underlying emotions, etc.

Your characters are not illustrative of ideas and beliefs you are pushing for, but come across as real people.

Your language is succinct, fresh and exciting, specific, colorful, avoiding clichés and platitudes. Sentence structures vary. In Genre stories, the language is simple, the symbolism is direct, and words are well-known, and sentences are relatively short. In Literary stories , you are freer to use more sophisticated ideas, words, sentence structures, styles , and underlying metaphors and implied motifs.

Your plot elements occur in the proper places according to classical Three Act Structure (or Freytag’s Pyramid ) so the reader feels he has vicariously gone through a harrowing trial with the protagonist and won, raising his sense of hope and possibility. Literary short stories may be more subtle, with lower stakes, experimenting beyond classical structures like the Hero’s Journey. They can be more like vignettes sometimes, or even slice-of-life, though these types are hard to place in publications.

In Genre stories, all the questions are answered, threads are tied up, problems are solved, though the results of carnage may be spread over the landscape. In Literary short stories, you are free to explore uncertainty, ambiguity, and inchoate, realistic endings that suggest multiple interpretations, and unresolved issues.

Some Literary stories may be nonrealistic, such as with Surrealism, Absurdism, New Wave Fabulism, Weird and Magical Realism . If this is what you write, they still need their own internal logic and they should not be bewildering as to the what the reader is meant to experience, whether it’s a nuanced, unnameable mood or a trip into the subconscious.

Literary stories may also go beyond any label other than Experimental. For example, a story could be a list of To Do items on a paper held by a magnet to a refrigerator for the housemate to read. The person writing the list may grow more passive-aggressive and manipulative as the list grows, and we learn about the relationship between the housemates through the implied threats and cajoling.

Your short story is suspenseful, meaning readers hope the protagonist will achieve his best goal, his Need, by the Climax battle against the antagonist.

Your story entertains. This is especially necessary for Genre short stories.

The story captivates readers at the very beginning with a Hook, which can be a puzzling mystery to solve, an amazing character’s or narrator’s Voice, an astounding location, humor, a startling image, or a world the reader wants to become immersed in.

Expository prose (telling, like an essay) takes up very, very little space in your short story, and it does not appear near the beginning. The story is in Narrative format instead, in which one action follows the next. You’ve removed every unnecessary instance of Expository prose and replaced it with showing Narrative. Distancing words like “used to,” “he would often,” “over the years, he,” “each morning, he” indicate that you are reporting on a lengthy time period, summing it up, rather than sticking to Narrative format, in which immediacy makes the story engaging.

You’ve earned the right to include Expository Backstory by making the reader yearn for knowing what happened in the past to solve a mystery. This can’t possibly happen at the beginning, obviously. Expository Backstory does not take place in the first pages of your story.

Your reader cares what happens and there are high stakes (especially important in Genre stories). Your reader worries until the end, when the protagonist survives, succeeds in his quest to help the community, gets the girl, solves or prevents the crime, achieves new scientific developments, takes over rule of his realm, etc.

Every sentence is compelling enough to urge the reader to read the next one—because he really, really wants to—instead of doing something else he could be doing. Your story is not going to be assigned to people to analyze in school like the ones you studied, so you have found a way from the beginning to intrigue strangers to want to spend their time with your words.

Whether you’re looking for inspiration or want to publish your own stories, you’ll find great literary journals for writers of all backgrounds at this article:

https://writers.com/short-story-submissions

Learn How to Write a Short Story at Writers.com

The short story takes an hour to learn and a lifetime to master. Learn how to write a short story with Writers.com. Our upcoming fiction courses will give you the ropes to tell authentic, original short stories that captivate and entrance your readers.

Rosemary – Is there any chance you could add a little something to your checklist? I’d love to know the best places to submit our short stories for publication. Thanks so much.

Hi, Kim Hanson,

Some good places to find publications specific to your story are NewPages, Poets and Writers, Duotrope, and The Submission Grinder.

“ In Genre stories, all the questions are answered, threads are tied up, problems are solved, though the results of carnage may be spread over the landscape.”

Not just no but NO.

See for example the work of MacArthur Fellow Kelly Link.

[…] How to Write a Short Story: The Short Story Checklist […]

Thank you for these directions and tips. It’s very encouraging to someone like me, just NOW taking up writing.

[…] Writers.com. A great intro to writing. https://writers.com/how-to-write-a-short-story […]

Hello: I started to write seriously in the late 70’s. I loved to write in High School in the early 60’s but life got in the way. Around the 00’s many of the obstacles disappeared. Since then I have been writing more, and some of my work was vanilla transgender stories. Here in 2024 transgender stories have become tiresome because I really don’t have much in common with that mind set.

The glare of an editor that could potentially pay me is quite daunting, so I would like to start out unpaid to see where that goes. I am not sure if a writer’s agent would be a good fit for me. My work life was in the Trades, not as some sort of Academic. That alone causes timidity, but I did read about a fiction writer who had been a house painter.

This is my first effort to publish since the late 70’s. My pseudonym would perhaps include Ahabidah.

Gwen Boucher.

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104 Of The Best Short Story Ideas And Prompts To Grab Your Readers

So, you want to write a short story — and not just a mildly entertaining short story but one your readers can’t put down until they’ve finished it.

You want a story that gets reactions like “Wow!” and “How did you do that?” and “Do you have more like this?”

What writer doesn’t want that kind of reaction, right?

And since short stories are short, you have less time to wait for your readers’ reactions — but you also have less time to grab their attention.

That’s why a great topic is worth its weight in gold when it comes to writing these little gems.

Even with the challenges inherent to short story writing, you’ll most likely finish a short story in far less time than you would a novel.

So, you’ll get to explore more story topics in less time than if you were writing longer works.

But how do you generate short story ideas that are worth the time you’ll invest in crafting a short story your readers will love?

If you’ve been writing for long enough, you already know good story ideas are everywhere, and you might even have some in mind as you read this.

But which of those ideas should be on your shortlist for story writing projects?

And if you don’t have any great ideas at the moment, where do you get some?

Short Story Idea Generator (how to generate story ideas)

Short story writing exercises, generating story ideas with the short story formula, timeless themes and emotional impact, 35 short story ideas, 69 short story writing prompts.

When it comes to generating new story ideas, you can take more than one approach. You might try these three:

• Writing exercises
• Writing prompts
• The Short Story Formula

Think of your school days when your English teacher assigned an essay or invited you to write a paragraph in answer to a question.

Maybe all you had to do was write one complete sentence. Or maybe your teacher wanted a haiku — or a rhyming couplet.

School isn’t the only place for writing exercises , though. If you’ve ever joined a creative writing group, your leader may have encouraged you to spend some time each day freewriting or writing a character sketch .

The purpose of writing exercises is to practice writing — or to practice a specific kind of writing (voice journaling, essays, persuasive ad copy, song lyrics, etc.).

So, whether it’s NaNoWriMo, Twitter’s #VSS (Very Short Story) challenge, or writing sprints, the more time you invest in these exercises, and the more you open yourself up to constructive criticism, the more quickly your writing will improve.

The most effective writing prompts and writing exercises make use of themes with a history of captivating and inspiring others. Because of this, either one might lead you to a story idea that you can hardly wait to explore.

Take one (or more) of those popular themes and combine them with a context that is both unique and relatable, and you have the formula for a compelling story idea.

Story writing ideas are generally more fully developed than writing prompts. It’s not unusual, for example, to begin with a writing prompt , develop it into a story idea, and then write the actual story.

And don’t beat yourself up if the first idea that comes to mind is a cliché. You’re human, and familiar ideas are the easiest to think of. Nothing wrong with that. The first idea is like a first draft , in that it gives you something to start with.

And don’t be afraid to mix it up — literally. Take one idea, mix it up with another, and play with it for a while. Who knows how you might juice up your story idea without even trying?

The best fiction story ideas make use of timeless themes. You’ll find one or more of the ten themes that follow in most stories that have been written, read, and shared over the centuries.

• The End of a Relationship
• Rags to Riches
• Scars / Wounds
• Ghosts / the Paranormal
• Deepest Fears
• A Soulmate Encounter
• A Journey Interrupted
• Monsters (human or otherwise)

The story idea itself — in its simplest form — doesn’t have to be original, and in fact, it shouldn’t be. But the way you embody and develop that idea should surprise your readers and evoke an emotional response in them.

It’s that emotional impact that makes your story not only worth finishing but memorable.

Short story ideas will look different from novel ideas, though — mainly because short stories have to make a big impact with fewer words. And because of this, the most powerful short stories have what James Scott Bell describes as the “one shattering moment.”

In his book, How to Write Short Stories and Use Them to Further Your Writing Career, Bell describes that moment as “something that happens to a character, an emotional blast which they cannot ignore. It changes them, in a large or a subtle way — in a way that cannot be ignored.”

Any one of the popular themes listed above could you give your main character a shattering moment that would change that character’s life or perspective.

Take a look at the following creative story ideas, many of which combine two or more of the popular themes listed, and feel free to modify any of them to create your next unputdownable short story.

1. Your character’s loved one has died , and he learns while going through that loved one’s belongings that the latter had a terrible secret that unnervingly correlates to your character’s deepest fear.

The rest of the story explores your character’s reaction to this discovery and how it affects his/her relationships and decision-making.

2. Your character has married the man she saw as her “soulmate.” During their honeymoon, he shows her his list of goals for their first five years together, and they have their first real argument over one of those goals — which requires something of her that she never agreed to.

She has a sudden memory of their first date and of the moment when she first decided he was the one, but she sees it now from his perspective, and it changes everything.

3. Your orphaned character inherits a house and moves in to find that it’s already occupied — by the spirits of the character’s long-deceased parents, who aren’t at all like the people other relatives have described.

4. Your character is having trouble getting past his anger over the wounds inflicted by those who raised him and by those with whom he had one failed relationship after the next.

After losing his job, he goes on a journey to change the direction of his life, but that journey is interrupted by the death of one of his parents — the one who hurt him the most.

5. Your character is widely regarded as a monster and doesn’t deny or hide from that designation.

When his closest confidante gets fed up with him, tells him off, and leaves the company they founded together, your character finds himself disoriented by grief and does something different.

6. Your character is content with her life but suddenly inherits a large sum of money and a palatial estate on the east coast.

She sees the inheritance as proof that the Law of Attraction works, and she invites family and a few close friends to move with her and share the wealth. On the first night of their stay, someone dies.

7. Your character’s snake-loving neighbor has just been found in the belly of her pet boa constrictor (who she swore was a better “snuggler” than her ex).

The ex shows up and is angry when he finds out that your neighbor left the house and everything in it to your character. He threatens to ruin her life if she doesn’t turn the house over to him.

8. Your character meets his/her soulmate on a flight that almost doesn’t make it to its destination; both of them respond to emergencies on the plane (one as a cop and the other as a doctor).

Once at the airport, your character learns that this soulmate is already in a relationship with a well-known philanthropist. But your character notices something odd and calls the philanthropist out.

9. Your character’s best friend just announced the end of a relationship, and your character is surprised to find this friend in a celebratory state of mind (rather than heartbroken).

Your character then finds out the disturbing reason for the friend’s manic behavior.

10. One of your character’s siblings is getting married, and during wedding preparations, your character learns something she was never meant to know. This discovery changes her relationships with everyone.

11. The happy couple living next door to your character has died in a horrific accident, and when the parents show up for the funeral, you find out why the couple always changed the subject whenever you asked them about their families.

12. Your character starts receiving messages from someone who knows his/her deepest fears and intends to exploit them. At the same time, your character is discovering a latent ability that relates to those fears but might also help him overcome them. Or they might change him into something the messenger never saw coming.

13. Your character meets a soulmate at a community grief counseling group meeting and learns that this soulmate also attends AA meetings (like your mc) — though with a different group and with a friend who doesn’t particularly like your main character.

The surprising reason comes out when your character goes on a first date with this soulmate. The soulmate’s friend swears he/she knows your mc from a different reality — which he/she visits in dreams.

14. Your character breaks free of a painful relationship and embarks on a journey to discover what she’s capable of. After volunteering at a nursing home — reading to vision-impaired residents and writing letters for them — she agrees to personally deliver one of those letters to the resident’s estranged son.

15. After avoiding close relationships because of deep scars from his childhood, your main character learns something about one of his parents that changes everything for him. He then has an opportunity to take a step off his accustomed path.

16. Your character has been married for 19 years before her spouse — after a weekend that reminds her of when they met and why she married him — hands her divorce papers.

17. Your character is making a list of reasons to break up with her boyfriend of two years when the latter comes home early and tells her he’s won the lottery jackpot.

18. Your character is a locally famous writer whose hero story ideas come from his freewheeling lifestyle and insatiable curiosity about others.

One day, out of boredom, he offers a homeless man $100 to propose to the first woman he takes a fancy to, while he watches from a safe distance. The proposal goes terrifyingly wrong.

19. Your character has just lost a child by miscarriage , and when she comes home, her married life has changed. Her husband, who was always the more talkative of the two, spends their time together quietly grieving in his own way.

Your character, on the other hand, becomes more outgoing and starts spending more time (and money) on her appearance.

20. Your young adult character finds himself suddenly orphaned when his parents die in a plane crash. The funeral is the beginning of a dramatic shift in his perspective and in the choices he makes.

He breaks off a relationship with a woman his parents adored, he quits the lucrative job that he hates, and he leaves the country.

21. Your character has just learned that his spouse has been cheating on him, and he confronts her when she gets home that night.

She reveals that what he saw as proof of her infidelity was something completely innocent — but that she’s already decided to make a permanent and dramatic end to their marriage.

22. The only child of your character is diagnosed with a fatal illness, and your character doesn’t know how to deal with the worry and dread that now consumes her.

Her doctor suggests one anti-anxiety med after another, and her husband and his family urge her to try one — for her husband’s and her son’s sakes. She goes into a fugue state with the experimental drug she tries, and she wakes up to the consequences.

23. Your character’s new glasses — created as a free gift from an old friend with unusual connections — reveal more than the physical objects in his field of vision.

After looking at a coworker and seeing the latter’s death just hours before it happens, he goes to replace the glasses with a plain pair from a local chain. Then he catches his full-length reflection in a window.

24. Your character wakes up alone in an unfamiliar place and is told by everyone he encounters that the life he thought he’d lived for the past six years — with a wife and three kids and with the job that barely paid the bills — must have been a dream.

He’s actually stunningly wealthy, treated with respect by everyone he meets, and desired by more than one woman. So, why is there a picture of him with his nonexistent family on his desk?

25. A year ago, your character met someone who offered her the power to transform the interior of her home to anything she wants — in exchange for a DNA sample from her only child, who is a gifted storyteller.

During the year after she accepted the offer, her home becomes everything she wants it to be, but her son stops telling stories, and one day she finds out why.

26. Your character makes drastic changes to his diet and adopts new habits that alienate him from his usual circle of friends but lead him to a new one.

He then wins a large sum of money from a scratch ticket that an estranged friend (a compulsive gambler) slipped under his door.

27. Your character has returned from a successful quest to find his home empty, with no sign of his loved ones other than a note left on the refrigerator.

Not only does he now have no one with whom to share his victory, but what he learns calls that very victory into question.

28. Your character has spent eleven years living with the consequences of a vow she has taken. When she forges a new friendship with a counselor, she learns something about herself that scares her and makes her avoid the counselor, for his own sake.

Keenly aware of her own vulnerability, she brands herself to ward off unwelcome attention.

29. Your character, after 15 years of living in a house chosen mainly to fit her spouse’s preferences, sees an ad for an apartment in town that represents the life she gave up to make her husband happy.

After hearing him complain about his life and their house for one too many times, she goes to look at this apartment and finds it has almost everything she wants. The apartment manager, a well-dressed woman close to her own age, hears your character’s last name and appears shaken by it.

30. Your character splurges on a new rug for her living room floor — the kind of rug she’s coveted for years — and her S.O. criticizes it and later “accidentally” spills his drink on it.

The final straw is his suggestion that she wait ‘til it dries and return it to the store for a refund or exchange it for something more practical.

31. Your character has recently broken free from a cult that had drawn him in when he was vulnerable from a family tragedy. His new support system — a group of other cult survivors — is having varying degrees of difficulty re-entering society and repairing damaged relationships.

Your character meets with them one evening at their accustomed café table and confronts a server whose off-handed comment provokes him. What begins as a calm request for respectful treatment escalates as other members of the group chime in and the server’s manager gets involved.

32. Your character has joined a church and finds herself under the tutelage of a church member who leans toward the traditionalist end of the spectrum and who regards her as the daughter he never had.

When he decides to renounce the church’s leadership and join an extreme traditionalist group, she backs away from him — after explaining to him why she won’t do the same. His behavior toward her changes and she makes a change of her own.

33. Your character is so desperate for money that he does something he never would have done otherwise. He doesn’t get caught, but he doesn’t get away with it, either. Consumed by guilt, he undergoes a penance of his choosing, which spirals out of control.

34. Your character walks into a tourist shop and buys a homemade “tonic” freshly mixed by the owner, after tasting and enjoying an innocuous sample in the same flavor. The tonic changes him in a way he can’t ignore or undo.

35. Your character inherits an old music shop with a secret back room where his uncle kept a few instruments that can make even someone like him — who has never played an instrument — a virtuoso in seconds. He takes the piano to his apartment and learns why his uncle (in a letter he’d written before his death) had warned him not to — and why his uncle kept the door to that secret room locked.

With writing prompts , you get a launching pad of sorts: a question, an idea, a provocative quote, or something that inspires a reaction — specifically a written one. Maybe that reaction is an argument, or maybe it’s an impassioned defense of an idea.

Whatever it is, the purpose here is to take that prompt and use it to generate a written response in one form or another. The aim of writing prompts for short stories is to get you started on a new short story .

The prompt could be as simple as a word or as detailed as a character sketch or an elevator pitch. It could even be a picture or a song. It could be an observation you make while (discreetly) people-watching.

We’ve create 69 short story writing prompts that flesh out an idea more thoroughly, giving you a good headstart for your story.

1. You get a new job, and your new boss approaches you on the first day with an invitation to the “After Hours Club.” He tells you it’s no big deal if you decline, but you get a strong impression that it would be.

2. One day, on the way home from work, your new car takes over and drives you to a remote area, stopping beside other cars in a clearing underneath a new moon. You wake up underneath a full moon and drive yourself home. But much has changed in your absence — and so have you.

3. You bake pies for a local bakery, and when a celebrity comes to town and tastes your locally famous turtle pie, he invites you to go on tour with him — to a movie set somewhere in Europe — to be his personal pie maker. You say yes.

4. You buy a single rose from a street vendor, and it lasts a week, then two weeks, then three, and then a full month. Only then does someone point out to you that previously healthy people in the neighborhood have been falling ill and dying at an abnormal rate.

5. It’s time for your 10-year-old daughter to make her First Confession, but when her turn comes to go into the confessional, she panics and won’t be persuaded to go in.

6. You’re stranded in a small village down a winding road from Burgos (Spain) on a Sunday. A stranger comes by on a motorcycle and goes to fetch a taxi for you. You’re waiting at the bus station when he tells you he knows you’re meant to replace his recently deceased wife.

7. The bartender brings you your first Irish coffee in what looks like a candy dish. Halfway through, you notice the whole cafe seems to be floating, and since you can’t put the rest into a to-go cup (alas), you pay your tab and head out. You think you’re doing fine until your key doesn’t work in the front door of your apartment building. Someone else kindly lets you in, and you recognize him as the bartender from that cafe.

8. You’re exploring an old Spanish town, and you realize someone is following you. You turn and find an old woman who asks if you’ll help her find her hotel. You help her, and she invites you in, telling you she has a son who shares your interest in all things Tolkien. You’re not in a hurry to get back to your hotel room, so you go up with her.

9. Your fingers don’t respond to you the way they used to, and you’ve been having other difficulties. You go see your doctor, and they run some tests to check for neurological diseases but don’t find anything. They think it’s probably stress-related. Your life has been stressful lately, and it doesn’t help that your new roommate has been acting strangely toward you.

10. You wake up with your heart racing, but you don’t remember why. You almost never remember your dreams but often wake up covered in sweat with your heart pounding. You’re tired of having to shower every morning and feeling sick for the rest of the day, so you decide to undergo hypnosis, hoping to find out what’s going on.

11. Your neighbors have been up to some strange shenanigans lately, and their lights are on well into the wee hours of the morning. You’d like to know why, but every neighbor you’ve talked to who have gone over there to ask about it has, later on, told you that nothing suspicious is going on and that those neighbors are “very spiritual, and so, so nice!”

12. The street lamps that light up your cul de sac have gone dark, and you’re outside waiting for your spouse to get home when something large and dark brushes past you, almost knocking you off balance. Then a man appears and asks, “Have you seen my cat?”

13. Someone has broken into your house while you were away and has taken all the religious articles out of it — every statue, every picture, and every holy water bottle. The thief left everything else alone.

14. You move into an apartment that used to be a hoarder’s paradise, and your manager gives you permission to paint the walls a different color and add some new flooring. You get to work removing the kitchen’s linoleum floor and find something you never expected.

15. You joined a wine delivery service, and the delivery person is every bit as charming as the labels on the posh wine he brings to you each week. When you lose your job and cancel the service, the wine keeps coming.

16. You buy a pound of gourmet coffee beans at a local food festival, and as you’re sipping the first cup from the first pot you’ve brewed, you have a vision, which feels as real as though it were actually happening to you. When the vision ends, you’re still in your kitchen, holding your cup. You take another sip.

17. You’re about ready to gather up all the ceramic village pieces that have been cluttering up your living room and toss them in the trash bin, but your spouse, who knows you hate them, insists you should try selling them on eBay, instead. That’s when the fight starts.

18. You buy a new pair of Bluetooth earbuds that are supposed to enhance your listening experience. You plug them in and use them while watching a movie, and suddenly, you’re there on the scene, about to get flattened (or eaten) by a dinosaur.

19. You need a new toilet, and someone shows up at the door (as though sent by heaven) to sell you a toilet that will flush down ANYTHING. Oddly enough, it doesn’t even need to be hooked up to your septic system. “All you have to do is remove and empty the dust tray at the base every evening, reinsert it for the next day’s flushes, and voila!”

20. You buy a new keyboard , and after typing a few sentences of a new story, it starts typing on its own, and you watch in surprise as it types out a new short story. You submit it to a contest you’ve never won and win first prize. You start thinking you’ll never have trouble paying the rent again! Then you accidentally spill wine on the keyboard, and even stranger things start happening.

Related:  55 Funny Writing Prompts To Inspire Your Inner Comedian

21. Your famous stew recipe has won an award. You go to collect it (a cash prize), and meet the next runner-up, who believes she should have won the first prize instead with her three-bean salad. She warns you not to spend the money, because she will prove you won unfairly. You go home and find a bowl of three-bean salad and a note.

22. You suggest at the breakfast table one morning that you might actually have too many books, and your SO seizes upon this and offers to help you thin out your collection. After breaking up with him, you cull a few volumes for donation and run into the author of one of them.

23. Your first issue of Real Simple magazine has finally arrived, but something has come with it — something you can’t see but that makes your life anything but simpler.

24. A girl scout comes to the door selling cookies, and you tell her you already bought some from her at the table outside your grocery store, and you’ve spent enough for the year. Suddenly, all the food in your house (including the canned food) becomes moldy or rotten. And every bit of food that passes your threshold becomes inedible.

25. You buy a new whiteboard to help you keep track of your writing assignments, but you wake up one morning, and new items have somehow been added to your list. And the new titles have a sinister edge to them. You live alone.

26. You buy a new poster that looks exactly like the TARDIS door, and you put it up on your bedroom wall. One night, right at midnight (you’re up working at your computer), the door opens and you walk through it.

27. You buy a CD with music that’s supposed to help you write more creatively and also lose weight more easily. You start playing it during your writing time, and sure enough, the words flow without effort, and you love what you’ve written. You also start losing ten pounds a week, and soon you can’t afford to lose another ten, but you’ve come to depend on that music CD.

28. You’re a carpenter who has joined a construction team to build a new development of 3,000+ square foot houses. All is going well until someone on the team discovers something buried in the lot for the third house. The foreman removes it and tells everyone to get back to work, but you have a bad feeling. And you’re right to have it.

29. Your boss announces they’re having a potluck and you’re all expected to show up and bring something. He also tells you it has to be homemade. You tell him you can’t cook, but he tells you, “Well, learn, then!” Strangely enough, you do, and you create an entree that has everyone’s mouth-watering when you open the lid at the potluck. But your boss is conspicuously absent.

30. You wake up in the middle of the night and rush to the bathroom, where you empty your stomach of everything you ate that day. Something else comes out, and it’s moving.

31. You stop at a coffee shop while making stops to apply for a new job, and the barista tells you the new bed and breakfast is looking for someone to handle their advertising. You apply, are accepted, and agree to start immediately. But the owner, who openly admires your bicycle, offers you a room at the B&B, so you’ll be more accessible.

32. You have way too much time on your hands since your latest project has earned you enough to more than double your previous year’s salary, and you’re taking a sabbatical. You see an ad for an opportunity to spend a month at a castle in Wales, with full room and board and a bicycle for exploring the countryside. You call the agent and book a flight.

33. One night, as you’re coming back from the bathroom, you see a bright light and follow it to see that your front window is wide open and bugs are swarming in and out. You rush to close it but then you see the view from it — which is not your usual view of the front yard. You see something you want to investigate.

34. Sometimes, people stare when you pull out an index card and start scribbling furiously onto it, but you don’t care. Then someone accuses you of writing something about him and, pulling out a gun, demands you hand the card over to him.

35. You’re starting a new job, and one of your co-workers tells you it’s up to the new guy to keep the coffee pot full for his first week. While you’re brewing the latest refill, muttering to yourself about how little you’re getting done that day, one of your co-workers starts choking and accuses you of trying to poison her.

36. Your home-brewed ale is the talk of the neighborhood, but your next-door neighbor frequently buys up your newest batch. You start imposing limits. He then starts telling other neighbors that your secret is adding pee from your pet guinea pigs, “But it’s cool, because urine is sterile. And that guinea pig pee really adds something!”

37. You inherit a lighthouse from your deceased uncle — along with the small living quarters attached to it. You move right in, looking forward to the solitude. But whenever you’re up at the top scanning the surface of the ocean, you see things that can’t possibly be there. And one of them sees you — and comes to visit.

38. You stop at the local nursery and pick up a new houseplant — a tiny, adorable succulent. The cashier looks nervous as she rings you up. “That plant isn’t normal. If you want to pick another one, I would totally understand.” She’s nodding with wide eyes as she says this, clearly hoping you’ll agree.

39. You live in a studio apartment. Your boss comes to bring you soup when you call in sick and sees the quilt on your bed, which you won at a raffle. “That’s the quilt my mom made!” she says. “She told me someone stole it.”

40. You take your kids trick-or-treating, and you go to your boss’s neighborhood (your boss suggested it). Most houses gave out full-sized candy bars, but one gave out treasure maps, and your kids want to find their treasures before you leave the neighborhood.

41. Someone offers you a chance to win a million dollars just by visiting his website and typing in your address. “I don’t need your checking account info. It’s not safe to give that to just anyone. I’ll just mail the check to you,”he writes.

42. You wonder what it would be like to be a famous actor, and someone, out of the blue, invites you to perform in his movie as an extra — “and, who knows, maybe something more… prominent.”

43. You get a call from the principal’s office that your daughter has been involved in a bullying incident. Someone was bullying her, and she punched him. There were witnesses, and the principal reminds you of their zero-tolerance policy for physical violence…

44. You get a call from the principal’s office that your son has been acting out toward his classmates (who, according to what he’s told you, have been behaving aggressively toward him) and had brought a weapon to school to protect himself. They’ve confiscated the weapon (a paring knife) and have called the police.

45. Your kid has an IEP, and the Special Ed staff at the school always sound so caring and professional at the meetings you attend with them. But your son tells you they behave very differently toward him. The principal assures you that she knows the staff would never do what your son has accused them of doing. She suggests your son may be lying.

46. Your young daughter notices that one of your trees is “sick,” and she goes to visit the tree, talks to it, leans against it, and tells it to please get better. It responds by growing stronger and larger, spreading its branches out and downward to create a sort of cave for your daughter to rest in when she wants to be alone. It becomes her haven.

47. You wake up one morning and start loading your excess possessions into boxes and bags and hauling it off to Goodwill to donate it. That’s when you find the tiny cameras hidden in the bathroom, and bugs hidden in every room.

48. Your favorite coffee mug has broken, and you’re in mourning. The mug you just bought as your “second” just doesn’t feel the same in your hand, but it surprises you by magically refilling your drink with every sip — and keeping it hot for you.

49. The moth on your ceiling doesn’t bother you — much. But every time you look, it’s there. And you wonder why it never leaves. When you finally get a step ladder to get a closer look at it, you can hardly believe what you’re seeing.

50. Your neighbors on the home office side of your house have never been friendly, but one day, the wife comes over with a pie and tells you she made it herself and that she’s tired of being cooped up in the house with no one but her husband to talk to. You look over and see the outline of her husband in an upstairs window.

51. Tired of getting hair in your face, you take an electric hair-trimmer and run it all over your head with the one-inch attachment. You look at the results with satisfaction.

52. Your spouse, who has never done or said a romantic thing since your honeymoon, suddenly comes home with an expensive bouquet and a travel brochure for a place you’ve always wanted to visit. Later on, someone delivers the car you’ve always wanted, and your husband unconvincingly feigns surprise. You ask him if he won the lottery, but he shakes his head and says, “This is way better. You’ll see.”

53. You’re out in your backyard and stumble over something, which turns out to be a small brick half-buried in the grass. You see initials etched into the brick, along with a crudely-shaped heart. You wonder what — or whom — might be buried beneath. Soon, you find other markers like it, and you wonder how you failed to notice them before.

54. Your neighbor invites you over to her house, and you see that every wall has a cross painted on it with crude, hurried strokes. You ask why, and she nervously clears her throat and says, “This place needs them.”

55. You watch an infomercial and order a new face cream, hoping it will restore a youthful look to your face. It does more than that.

56. Your teenage son gets a job and, on his first day, he encounters a rude customer. Unaccustomed to responding with calmness and diplomacy, he lashes out at the customer and gets himself fired. Instead of calling home for a ride, though, he takes a walk through town and runs into the same customer holding up a cardboard sign.

57. You put your headphones on when you start on your writing project, and, at some point, an unfamiliar voice interrupts your playlist to tell you he likes what you’ve written so far. And he thinks you’d get along great.

58. Your spouse starts trying different paint samples on walls all over the house, and you don’t like any of the colors; they’re either too bright or too dark. One day, you paint patches of a pale green-gray that you like next to his acid-bright or dark color patches, and he tells you it’s boring, and that he’s painting the house his way.

59. Someone keeps writing fortune-cookie phrases on your new whiteboard at work, and it’s irritating you. You ask around, and no one knows who keeps writing the messages. Then, one of the predictions comes true.

60. You look out the window while you’re working and you see one neighbor attacking his spouse, knocking her down and then kicking her. You call 9-1-1, but later on, the wife comes over and says, “I know it was you who called. And you’ve made everything worse!”

61. Every time you look outside and see the wind in the trees, you take a deep breath and feel calmer. When the air is still, you feel as though the whole world is holding its breath and that something bad is about to happen. So, when it’s calm outside, you picture wind in the trees and take a deep breath.

62. You see movement in the corner of your eye and whenever you look, you see a huge, black dog in the neighbor’s yard, running back and forth. This time, though, he runs into your yard and starts barking at your front door.

63. Your eight-year-old son gets up and immediately goes for his Kindle Fire to play Minecraft. You’ve found some educational apps you want him to try, so you’ve installed them on his Kindle. He comes to you a few minutes later and says, “This app is telling me to do things I’m not supposed to do.”

64. You try a new recipe for a potluck, hoping it will wow your boss and coworkers, but it turns out terrible, and you end up rushing to a restaurant for something to bring before arriving (late) to find out everyone has already eaten the entree you were most looking forward to trying. When the cops show up later to ask why everyone is violently ill except you, you tell them everything you know.

65. You take your teenage son to his orientation for a new job, and when you come back to pick him up an hour later, you find out no one has seen him — though you saw him walk in the door before you drove off.

66. You’re living in a world where everyone is born with a birthmark that matches that of their soulmate. But you are born without one.

67. You and your best friend are in a terrible car accident, and you both die. Your friend, however, has a very different account of what he saw on the other side.

68. You’re born with the ability to mentally manipulate DNA. You started with plants and moved on to your pets, who now have unique abilities. For the past few years, you’ve been hacking your own DNA.

69. You were raised in the deep South where manners and feigned politeness were a thin veneer covering your family’s questionable history and lingering dysfunction.

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List of Tragic Hero Traits To Flesh Out Your Character

107 Character Mannerisms For Writers

Did you find these short story ideas and prompts useful?

I hope your mind is buzzing with an idea you can’t wait to start playing with. Keep this article handy, so you can return to it when you’re looking for a new short story idea. You don’t have to follow any of them verbatim; take one and change the details however you like to make the idea your own.

Just don’t forget the “one shattering moment” for your character — and the importance of making an emotional impact on your reader. You make this impact as much with dialogue as with description and the structure of your story. Make it all count.

And when it comes time to edit, cut everything that dampens the impact of your story. Your readers will love you for it!

If you found value from this list of short story prompts, please share it and encourage others to pass it on to support and inspire as many fellow writers out there as possible. Why not even invite them to share their new short stories with you after they’ve written them?

And may your creative energy and goodwill infuse everything else you do today.

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44 Short Story Ideas

Here are lots of short story ideas that you can use as writing prompts. Any of these ideas can be used either humorously or dramatically... or you can try both. Have fun!

Story ideas - 3 elements

Choose a set of three elements and write a story that contains all three of them! Extreme challenge: combine three of the elements with one of the other short story ideas on this page.

• A stolen ring, fear of spiders, and a sinister stranger.
• A taxi, an old enemy, and Valentine's Day.
• Identical twins, a party invitation, and a locked closet.
• A broken wristwatch, peppermints, and a hug that goes too far.
• Aerobics, a secret diary, and something unpleasant under the bed.
• An ex-boyfriend, a pair of binoculars, and a good-luck charm.
• An annoying boss, a bikini, and a fake illness.
• The first day of school, a love note, and a recipe with a significant mistake.
• A horoscope, makeup, and a missing tooth.
• A campfire, a scream, and a small lie that gets bigger and bigger.

More short story ideas

Challenge: 4 stories in 4 weeks using these short story ideas. Are you up to it? Extreme challenge: Why not write a book of short stories? Choose seven or eight short story ideas to get started.

11. A babysitter is snooping around her employer's house and finds a disturbing photograph...

12. At a Chinese restaurant, your character opens his fortune cookie and reads the following message: "Your life is in danger. Say nothing to anyone. You must leave the city immediately and never return. Repeat: say nothing."...

13. Your character's boss invites her and her husband to dinner. Your character wants to make a good impression, but her husband has a tendency to drink too much and say exactly what's on his mind...

14. It's your character's first day at a new school. He or she wants to get a fresh start, develop a new identity. But in his or her homeroom, your character encounters a kid he or she knows from summer camp...

15. Your character has to tell his parents that he's getting a divorce. He knows his parents will take his wife's side, and he is right...

16. At the airport, a stranger offers your character money to carry a mysterious package onto the plane. The stranger assures your character that it's nothing illegal and points out that it has already been through the security check. Your character has serious doubts, but needs the money, and therefore agrees...

17. Your character suspects her husband is having an affair and decides to spy on him. What she discovers is not what she was expecting...

18. A man elbows your character in a crowd. After he is gone, she discovers her cell phone is too. She calls her own number, and the man answers. She explains that the cell phone has personal information on it and asks the man to send it back to her. He hangs up. Instead of going to the police, your character decides to take matters into her own hands...

19. After your character loses his job, he is home during the day. That's how he discovers that his teenage son has a small marijuana plantation behind the garage. Your character confronts his son, who, instead of acting repentant, explains to your character exactly how much money he is making from the marijuana and tries to persuade your character to join in the business...

20. At a garage sale, your character buys an antique urn which she thinks will look nice decorating her bookcase. But when she gets home, she realizes there are someone's ashes in it...

Learn to make your story a page-turner with our online course Irresistible Fiction.

Even more short story ideas

21. Your character starts receiving flowers and anonymous gifts. She doesn't know who is sending them. Her husband is suspicious, and the gifts begin to get stranger....

22. 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 feels she can't send the missionary out into the storm, so she lets him come down into her basement with her. This is going to be a long storm....

23. Your character is caught shoplifting. The shop owner says that she won't call the police in exchange for a personal favor....

24. Your character is visiting his parents over a holiday. He is returning some books to the library for his mother and is startled to notice that the librarian looks exactly like him, only about thirty years older. He immediately begins to suspect that his mother had an affair at one time and the librarian is his real father...

25. Your character picks up a hitchhiker on her way home from work. The hitchhiker tries to persuade your character to leave everything and drive her across the country...

26. Your character has to sell the house where she grew up. A potential buyer comes to look at it and begins to talk about all of the changes she would make to the place. This upsets your character, who decides she wants to find a buyer who will leave everything the way it has always been....

27. A bat gets in the house. Your character's husband becomes hysterical, frightened that it might be rabid. In his panic, he ends up shutting the bat in a room with your character while he calls an exterminator from a safe place in the house. His behavior makes your character see her husband in a new way....

28. Your character changes jobs in order to have more time with his family. But his family doesn't seem interested in having him around...

29. Your character develops the idea that she can hear the voices of the dead on a certain radio channel. She decides to take advantage of this channel to find answers to some questions that are bothering her about her dead parents....

30. Your character's dream is to be a professional dancer. At a party, she mentions this dream to a stranger, who says that he has contacts in the dance world and gets her an audition for a prestigious dance troupe. One problem: your character doesn't know how to dance. Your character decides to accept the audition anyway and look for a solution....

And still more short story ideas

31. Your character thinks her boss is looking for an excuse to fire her. She decides to fight back....

32. Your character goes out for dinner on a date and becomes attracted to the waiter or waitress....

32. Your character notices that a stranger is following her. She pretends not to notice. The stranger follows her home and watches her go inside. Then when he leaves, your character turns the tables and starts to follow him....

34. A child moves into a new house and finds out that the other kids in town think it's haunted. She begins to invent ghost stories to tell at school in order to get attention. But the more stories she tells, the more frightened she becomes of the house...

35. Your elderly character escapes from the retirement home where his or her children have placed him or her....

36. Your character gets cosmetic surgery in an attempt to make her boyfriend love her more. But then she worries he only loves her for her looks....

37. Your character is a writer. But his new neighbors are so noisy that he can neither work nor sleep. He decides to take action....

38. Your character's mother-in-law comes to visit for a week, and your character suspects she is trying to poison him. He shares his suspicion with his wife, who says he's always hated her mother but this accusation is going too far. Meanwhile, your character has stomach cramps, and his mother-in-law is downstairs making breakfast again....

39. It's a freezing cold night. Your character finds a homeless family on his doorstep and invites them into his home to sleep. But in the morning, the family doesn't leave....

40. Your character has recently married a man with two teenage children. The children resent her, and she tries to avoid them altogether. Then her new husband (their father) disappears suddenly, leaving only a short good-bye note....

Story ideas: personal creative writing challenges

41. Make a list of five things you're afraid of happening to you. Then write a story in which one of them happens to your character..

42. Think of a big problem that one of your friends had to face. Then write a story in which your character battles with that problem..

43. What is one of your bad habits? Invent a character who has the bad habit, but a much worse case of it than you have. Write a story where this habit gets your character into trouble.

44. What is one of your greatest strengths? Invent a character who doesn't have this strength. Create a situation in which having this strength is very important for your character. What does your character do? Write the story.

Keep the short story ideas flowing

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Write about a character who is allergic to heat., start or end your story with a heatwave announcement., write about a summer vacation gone wrong., write a story in the form of a series of thank you cards., write a story about an unsung hero., write a story about a cynic who has been told to start a "gratitude journal," and does so — begrudgingly., write a creative nonfiction piece about something you're grateful for., write a story about a character trying to find a way to express their gratitude to someone., write a story using the most clichéd twist of all; it was all a dream., write a story that includes the line, "i didn't see that one coming.", write a story about someone who realises the story of their life has been pre-determined — until they decide to divert from the expected path., write a story in which a character learns something unexpected about someone they thought they knew well., write a story with a big twist., set your story in a world where conversation about one particular topic is banned — but there are ways to get around the rule., in a small town, a powerful family have a dark secret that nobody wants to discuss. one day, an outsider arrives, who's not happy to simply drop it., write a story that includes the line, "is nobody going to say it"., place your characters in a tough situation, where nobody wants to acknowledge the reality of what's happening., write a story about two people who aren't admitting their true feelings for one another, despite it being obvious to outsiders., win $250 in our short story competition 🏆.

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120 short story ideas for writers.

I hear you.

Whether you’re a seasoned writer or a newbie, coming up with fresh and exciting story ideas can be a real challenge. I’m here to help with this article packed full of short story writing prompts, offering a plethora of short story ideas across a veritable smorgasbord of genres.

From the mystical realms of fantasy to the futuristic landscapes of science fiction, the heartfelt world of romance, the gripping tension of crime stories, the nuanced narratives of women’s fiction, and imaginative tales for children, you’ll find inspiration for your next writing project.

We’ll explore tips on how to decide what to write about, ensuring you choose a story idea that resonates with you and your readers.

Are you ready to get your short story on?

Then let’s do this thing.

Fantasy Short Story Writing Prompts

• A dragon hoards not gold but forgotten memories.
• An enchanted forest appears only once every hundred years.
• A young wizard’s apprentice discovers a spell that can change the past.
• There’s a kingdom where every citizen has a unique magical ability, except for one individual.
• A cursed object brings fortune to its owner at a great personal cost.
• A group of adventurers are on a quest to find a mythical creature believed to be extinct.
• A sorcerer loses their magic and must rely on their wits to save their realm.
• An ancient prophecy predicts the rise of a hero, but the chosen one is reluctant.
• A fairy tale villain is misunderstood and seeks redemption.
• A magical competition prize is a wish granted by the gods.
• A hidden society of elves live in the modern world, influencing human events.
• A castle moves locations every night, confusing those who seek it.
• A warrior is bound by an oath to protect a powerful artifact.
• A mysterious island appears and disappears with the tides.
• A magical library’s books come to life and interact with readers.
• A hero must journey to the underworld to rescue a loved one.
• A witch casts spells using songs instead of incantations.
• A magical creature grants wishes but requires a personal sacrifice.
• A kingdom’s seasons change at the whim of the monarch.
• A cursed prince can only communicate through writing.

Sci-fi Short Story Prompts

• A colony on Mars discovers a mysterious signal from deep space.
• A time traveler becomes stuck in a dystopian future.
• A spaceship crew encounters an alien species that communicates through emotions.
• It’s a post-apocalyptic earth where humanity survives in floating cities above a toxic atmosphere.
• A scientist creates a portal to parallel universes, each more dangerous than the last.
• In a city where everyone has augmented reality implants, a conspiracy threatens their reality.
• An android develops human emotions and ethical dilemmas follow.
• A rogue planet enters our solar system, bringing unknown life forms with it.
• A genetic experiment grants humans extraordinary abilities at a high cost.
• You can buy memories, sell them, and steal them.
• A society bans all forms of art and creativity, but a group of rebels fights to preserve it.
• A scientist discovers a way to communicate with plants and learns they have their own society.
• Climate change has drastically altered the planet, and humanity must adapt.
• A detective who solves crimes by entering the memories of the deceased.
• The government monitors and regulates dreams.
• A spaceship is on a mission to find a new habitable planet, and they encounter an ancient alien civilization.
• Humans can upload their consciousness into robotic bodies.
• A group of survivors in a post-apocalyptic world discover an underground city.
• A journalist uncovers a government conspiracy involving genetic manipulation.

Romance Narrative Prompts

• Two rival chefs compete in a cooking contest and discover a mutual attraction.
• Write a love story between a time traveler and a historian.
• A romance blossoms in a small town during a significant festival.
• An artist falls for their muse who is hiding a secret.
• A chance meeting on a train changes two strangers’ lives forever.
• A romance unfolds through a series of letters found in an old attic.
• It’s a second chance romance between high school sweethearts who meet again at a reunion.
• A relationship starts with a mistaken identity.
• The protagonist must choose between a past love and a new flame.
• A long-distance relationship is challenged by unexpected circumstances.
• A romance happens between a human and a supernatural being.
• A couple must overcome their families’ long-standing feud to be together.
• A summer romance must survive the return to real life.
• A love story is set in a historical period with societal challenges.
• A romance begins with a lie but grows into something real.
• A story of unrequited love finally gets a happy ending.
• A couple meet during a natural disaster and bond through the experience.
• A romance develops during a road trip across the country.
• A relationship starts as a fake engagement but turns genuine.

Crime Story Ideas to Write About

• A detective must solve a crime in a town where everyone has a motive.
• A heist gone wrong and there are consequences.
• A series of mysterious disappearances happen in a small coastal village.
• A journalist uncovers a conspiracy while investigating a high-profile murder.
• An unsolved case draws a retired detective back into the game.
• A cat-and-mouse game happens between a cunning thief and a determined investigator.
• A crime syndicate’s power struggle is seen through the eyes of an undercover cop.
• A lawyer discovers their client is guilty and must decide whether to reveal the truth.
• A cold case is reopened when fresh evidence comes to light.
• A crime that is planned and executed perfectly but leaves one small clue.
• A detective has to work with their estranged sibling to solve a crime.
• A vigilante takes justice into their own hands in a corrupt city.
• A series of crimes mimic famous literary murders.
• A detective realizes the criminal they’re hunting is someone from their past.
• A forensic scientist discovers evidence has been tampered with.
• A criminal experiences remorse and tries to undo their wrongs.
• A detective uses unorthodox methods to solve crimes.

Women’s Fiction Story Topics

• Tell a woman’s journey of self-discovery after a major life change.
• A female entrepreneur breaks into a male-dominated industry.
• A mother and daughter must navigate their complicated relationship.
• A group of women reconnect at a high school reunion and confront their pasts.
• A woman has a quest to uncover her family’s hidden history.
• The bonds of friendship are tested by secrets and betrayals.
• A widow finds love and purpose after loss.
• A woman fights for justice in a corrupt legal system.
• Delve into the impact of a life-changing diagnosis on a woman’s outlook and relationships.
• A woman travels the world after a personal tragedy and finds healing.
• Women support each other through life’s challenges.
• A female athlete overcomes obstacles to achieve her dreams.
• A woman starts a new life in a different country and faces cultural challenges.
• Write a story of forgiveness and reconciliation between estranged sisters.
• A woman becomes an advocate for a cause she believes in.
• A female artist struggles with self-doubt but finds her voice.
• A woman leaves an abusive relationship and rebuilds her life.
• Tell a tale of friendship between women from different generations.
• A woman rediscovers her passion for a hobby she abandoned.

Children’s Ideas for a Story

• A group of kids discovers a magical portal in their backyard.
• An adventurer finds hidden treasure in a haunted house.
• A young hero must save their school from an evil wizard.
• Talking animals team up to solve a mystery in the forest.
• A child invents a time machine and travels to different historical periods.
• A magical pet grants wishes but with unintended consequences.
• A friendship starts between a human child and a misunderstood monster.
• An adventure is in a world where toys come to life when no one is looking.
• A young detective solves mysteries around their neighborhood.
• A group of kids form a secret club to protect their town.
• A child can talk to ghosts and help them solve their problems.
• A magical treehouse transports kids to different worlds.
• A young inventor creates gadgets to help their friends.
• Tell a story about a child who can communicate with animals.
• A group of friends discover a hidden city beneath their town.
• A child finds a map leading to a pirate’s treasure.
• A young hero must save their kingdom from an evil sorcerer.
• A child learns they are the heir to a magical kingdom.
• A young artist brings their drawings to life.

How to Decide What to Write a Story About

Choosing the right story idea can be daunting, but these tips can help:

• Follow Your Passion: Write about what excites you. Your enthusiasm will translate to the page and engage your readers.
• Know Your Audience: Consider who you’re writing for. Tailoring your story to your audience’s interests can guide your choice of ideas.
• Explore “What If” Scenarios: Ask yourself “What if?” to generate unique and intriguing story concepts.
• Draw From Personal Experience: Use your life experiences as inspiration for authentic and relatable stories.
• Read Widely: Exposure to different genres and styles can spark new ideas and perspectives.
• Mix Genres: Combine elements from different genres to create something fresh and unexpected.
• Start With a Character: Develop an interesting character and build a story around their journey.
• Consider the Setting: Sometimes, a unique setting can inspire the entire plot.
• Think About Themes: Reflect on the themes you want to explore, such as love, loss, justice, or adventure.
• Use Prompts: Writing prompts, like the ones in this article, can jumpstart your creativity.
• Free Writing: Spend some time free writing to see what ideas naturally emerge.
• Brainstorm: Create a mind map or list of ideas and see which ones stand out to you.
• Seek Feedback: Discuss your ideas with friends or fellow writers to gain new insights.
• Reflect on Dreams: Sometimes dreams can provide the basis for interesting stories.
• Observe the World: Look around you for inspiration in everyday life, nature, and current events.
• Challenge Yourself: Push the boundaries of your comfort zone by trying new genres or styles.
• Revisit Old Ideas: Look at your past notes or unfinished stories for ideas that you can revive or reimagine.
• Consider Moral Dilemmas: Stories that tackle complex ethical questions can be interesting and thought-provoking.
• Use Music or Art: Let your favorite music or artwork inspire a mood, setting, or scene for your story.
• Imagine Alternate Realities: Create stories based on alternate histories or future possibilities.

With these prompts and tips, you are well-equipped to embark on your next writing adventure.

And finally, always remember that story comes first. Focus on:

• Creating engaging characters
• Penning interesting plots
• Structuring solid settings

A tool like Fictionary helps you turn your draft into an interesting story readers love. So, with the right writing prompts and a strong narrative foundation, your writing can truly shine.

• Writing Tips

The Art of Writing Short Stories

• February 3, 2024

The short story is a unique literary form that allows authors to be concise yet impactful. Mastering the craft requires understanding key elements like plot structure, character development, themes, and more. This guide will break down the essentials of good short story writing.

Getting Started Writing Short Stories

Before putting pen to paper, consider what makes short stories different than longer forms of fiction. Short stories are meant to be read in one sitting; therefore, staying focused is crucial. Limit yourself to a specific theme or message you want to convey rather than attempting an epic tale with subplots and dozens of characters.

Short stories also move quickly without excessive backstory or elongated descriptions. Every sentence should serve a purpose in advancing the narrative or revealing something important about a character. Resist tangents or pages of inner monologue that meanders.

With those principles in mind, the first step is generating ideas. Study your life for meaningful experiences that left an emotional impact. Turn nostalgic memories or a lesson learned into a plotline. Observe people around situations rife with conflict or drama. Extract the inspiration and transform it into fiction.

Speculative fiction writers create “what if” scenarios built on imagination rather than experience. The premise itself will drive the story forward, but remember to infuse symbols, imagery and other creative elements to add depth.

Start by asking yourself questions:

• What if a person had an unusual psychological condition that affected their behavior?
• How would society react to a dystopian world where robots outnumber people?
• What happens when a natural disaster tears a family apart?

Let your original ideas percolate before rushing to draft a full storyline.

Elements of a Short Story

Though short in length, short stories should engage readers immediately and leave a lasting impression. Several key elements contribute to a gripping narrative.

Plot Structure

Since short stories are brief, every scene matters. Most effective short stories follow a classic plot structure: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution.

The exposition provides quick context about the main characters and their circumstances. Details about the setting may be sparse so readers can instantly orient themselves.

Rising action builds narrative momentum toward the climax, which marks the height of conflict, either between characters or within a character’s psyche. This crisis moment will make or break your protagonists.

Falling action shows the aftermath and impact of the climax. The resolution wraps up loose ends but leaves readers wondering about what happens next. An open-ended finale implies life goes on for your characters beyond the last page.

When mapping out your plot, choose a few events that propel the arc without overcomplicating things. Every scene should logically lead into the next for seamless flow.

For short fiction, limit your main characters since there’s little room for full biographies. Reveal personalities indirectly through dialogue and body language instead of explaining every little detail up front. Unfold quirks when it serves the story rather than cramming backstories at the start.

Your protagonist should experience an evolution of sorts, even if the story timeline only spans hours or days. Begin by showcasing their ordinary world, then throw obstacles in their path. Push them out of their comfort zone into uncharted territory. This shifts their perspective by the climax so previous assumptions get challenged.

The antagonist plays the opposite role by preventing the protagonist from achieving their goal. Rather than a Snidely Whiplash caricature, craft “bad guys” with redeeming qualities that make them multi-dimensional. Give valid motivations for their actions rather than making them evil for no reason.

Supporting characters influence the direction of the plot and main characters’ emotional states. Use them strategically to obstruct or assist the protagonist at key moments.

Fleshing out a clearly defined, vivid setting immediately grounds readers in the story world. Describe the weather, landscape, architecture and other visual details. Cue all five senses to transport audiences into each scene as an immersed participant.

Settings often parallel a main character’s internal landscape. For example, a gloomy, fog-filled alleyway mirrors the gloom enveloping a character’s state of mind after receiving bad news. Story locations evolve alongside the emotional arc of the characters.

Depending on your genre, the setting may require substantial world-building to construct believable societies, customs, governments, etc, that differ from reality. Even literary fiction requires reasonable establishment of contexts & boundaries within imaginary tale worlds.

Resonant short stories convey themes exploring timeless topics like love, death, childhood, aging, trauma, and redemption. Great fiction attempts to make sense of universal human experiences. Consider what wisdom you want readers to derive or emotions you aim to conjure based on your own worldview.

Themes often manifest through symbolism and metaphorical imagery woven seamlessly into storylines. A decaying mansion represents fading memories of childhood. Weather patterns echo fluctuations in a relationship. Studies your world for reflective motifs.

Above all, avoid overt messaging or preachy overtones by letting your characters’ choices speak for themselves. Allow readers to interpret themes based on an unresolved climax rather than spelling things out didactically. Stay subtle.

Description & Imagery

Unlike novels, short stories require economical descriptions using every word purposefully. Balance concise, crisp sentences with brief flourishes of sensory details when needed. Passages of scenic description or meal preparation drag the pace unless they reveal motives and advance the action.

When describing characters, identify one or two standout physical traits reflective of personalities. For example, a rigid posture exposes an uptight boss. Fidgety hands signal anxiety. Unusual fashion choices suggest Bohemian tendencies.

Figures of speech, like metaphors and symbols, densify descriptions too. A broken watch represents the concept of time running out. Democratic ideals shine sunlight through the gloomy dictatorship. Want less complexity? Opt for similes using “like” or “as.”

Show, don’t tell by allowing actions and dialog to demonstrate a character’s temperament or emotional subtext. Scenes packed with subtext and dramatic irony heighten suspense far better than explanatory passages.

Alternating longer paragraphs with quick, punchy dialogue prevents dense text walls syndrome. Break things up. Insert chapter or section divisions to punctuate major plot movements even if the total word count is under 5,000 words.

Vary sentence lengths, too, for good rhythm and flow. Back-to-back short, choppy sentences build tension, whereas meandering, run-on sentences mimic racing thoughts.

Cliffhangers make excellent chapter stops to tempt readers onto the next page. Sprinkle in plot twists that shock like surprising revelations, stakes raised unexpectedly higher, and deaths of key players. Conflict drives stories forward, so ensure plenty of obstacles for your characters.

Wrapping up a short story skillfully is an art in itself. Tie up enough loose ends to satisfy readers while allowing some mystery about the futures of characters to linger. Avoid overly contrived happy endings unless they align with your theme. For darker tales, embrace ambiguous finales, which can simply end on an ellipsis…

Revise and Edit

After completing an entire draft, step away and then revisit it with fresh eyes before making revisions. Scrutinize whether scenes logically build in intensity to the climactic peak. Check that dialogue and descriptions consistently match the main character’s perspective.

Pay attention to repetition. Do the same adjectives pop up constantly? Are settings redundant? Vary descriptors.

Kill your darlings aka cut unnecessary passages you love simply for decorative purposes like extensive backstories or tangent plotlines throwing focus off track. If a gorgeous paragraph, clever quip or scene does not advance character or story, slash it regardless.

Read aloud to catch awkward phrasing. Tighten sentences for simplification. Eliminate filler words like “just,” “very,” or “really,” diluting power.

Refine until you pinpoint precise words evoking maximum reactions using subtle yet strong language. Then reward yourself as a successfully crafted short story awaits its soon-to-be dedicated fans.

Writing Short Stories – Advanced Tips

Once confident with the fundamentals, short story writers can further enhance their work with advanced literary techniques:

• Unreliable or shifting narrative perspective. How might the tale differ if told through the villain’s eyes? An outside observer?
• Non-linear timeline. Experiment with backward storytelling or flashbacks disrupting chronological order.
• Cliffhangers mid-chapter to exponentially boost suspense.
• Foreshadowing and subtle red herrings hint at a shocking finale.
• Contrasting parallel storylines that eventually connect. Think ensemble casts à la Robert Altman.
• Prose styled as prose poems or mini song lyrics for heightened emotional effect.

Seeking Inspiration for Writing Short Stories

Immerse yourself in beloved short fiction to intuitively absorb more winning formulas. Anthologies provide mini MFAs covering multiple eras and artistic approaches. Devour classics by masters like Anton Chekov , Flannery O’Connor , Edgar Allan Poe , Jorge Louis Borges , Kate Chopin , and Willa Cather .

Study contemporaries pushing boundaries like Ted Chiang, Jennifer Egan, Lauren Groff, Carmen Maria Machado, Kelly Link, Karen Russell, Junot Diaz and Amelia Gray.

Identify admirable techniques, then consciously implement them into your personal aesthetic as you develop an individual voice. Continually testing new methods keeps creativity flowing. Soon your own future fans await!

Lindsey Chastain

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25 August Writing Prompts

by Sue Weems | 0 comments

We've nearly reached the mid-point of summer here in the United States. Whether you or family members are headed back to school or enjoying a few more weeks of summer weather before the onset of fall, here are some writing prompts to keep you busy this month.

If you've taken the summer off from writing and you're starting back up again, take a look at our daily writing prompts below or some inspiration to keep you writing all month long.

Reflective Prompts: Looking Back on Summer

1. What was your favorite activity this summer and why? Describe it in detail.

2. When you think of summer, what favorite summer foods come to mind?

3. What summer adventures would you still like to have (if you had the time and resources to do it)?

4. What is your favorite song this summer? Write out your favorite line and describe what makes it especially memorable this year.

5. If you had to take a class over the summer, what would you choose and why?

Creative Character Creation Prompts

6. Take an existing character and give them a new adventure.

7. Create a character who is afraid of something at the beach or other vacation destination, but has to go stay there for a week.

8. Think of a favorite character and tell their story from a different point of view, or give them a new sidekick.

9. Create a character who is starting their first day at your dream job, but it isn't going very well.

10. Take your favorite character and write a scene from one of their favorite school memories.

Prompts for Poetry and Short Stories

11. Describe a late summer storm using sensory language arranged into lines.

12. Write a story about a character who is trying to escape summer.

13. Write a poem about your favorite summer sweet treat.

14. Create a scene that takes place at your favorite summer destination.

15. Write a poem about swimming (or water in general).

Journaling Ideas

If you like to keep a journal, try one of these daily prompts that you can use over and over if needed.

16. What is one thing that I can do today to take a small step toward my goals?

17. What am I proud of today?

18. What is one topic or skill I'd like to know more about and why?

19. What have I noticed in the world today?

20. What's one promise I've made to myself that I'd like to keep? What help or steps do I need to take to complete it?

Try Something New

21. Open the first page of a book. It can be a favorite book, or something new you haven't read before. Write out the first sentence and then set it aside and continue a scene from there.

22. Choose a favorite fairy tale and change the genre. For example, make Cinderella a murder mystery or Little Red Riding Hood a romance.

23. Choose a food from the pantry or fridge and write a scene where that food item is critical to the plot and character transformation.

24. List writing: make a list of things. Might be your favorite book genres, your favorite childhood books, your least favorite foods, your most memorable albums or concerts.

25. Think of a dream you've had and change a character or setting to create a new scene.

Write with us!

As you head into August, I hope you'll make some time to write and explore your creative side. If you aren't already part of a writing community that encourages you, consider joining us here at The Write Practice . We're all writers who practice weekly together to get better. You can too!

Want more prompts? Try our huge list of summer writing prompts or our top 150 short story ideas for more!

What do you think of when you think of August? Share in the comments .

Choose one of the prompts above. Set a timer for fifteen minutes . When time is up, share your practice in the Pro Practice Workshop .

Not a member? Join us !

Sue Weems is a writer, teacher, and traveler with an advanced degree in (mostly fictional) revenge. When she’s not rationalizing her love for parentheses (and dramatic asides), she follows a sailor around the globe with their four children, two dogs, and an impossibly tall stack of books to read. You can read more of her writing tips on her website .

Work with Sue Weems?

Award-winning instructor and writer of 20+ years, book coach, and editor. Sue Weems specializes in working with Children's, Memoir, Middle Grade, Mystery, Nonfiction, Romance, and Thriller books. Sound like a good fit for you?

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6 Picture Books to Inspire Student Writing

Teachers can encourage students to persist through challenges and share their stories by modeling the power of writing using picture books.

Writing can feel intimidating to students because it involves experimenting, taking risks, and receiving feedback from teachers and peers. To mitigate this apprehension, I’ve found it helpful to share stories of characters who write, allowing students to connect with these writers and learn from them. 

Below are picture books that teach the power and purpose of writing, along with ideas for helping elementary and middle school students connect with them.

Using Picture Books to Inspire Students to Write

A Squiggly Story by Andrew Larsen, illustrated by Mike Lowery. When a younger brother wants to write his own story but doesn’t know where to begin, he turns to his big sister, who “loves to write BIG words and little words.” With her advice, the emergent writer learns the tools for crafting a wonderful story, even though he doesn’t know all of his letters or how to craft sentences. 

Lowery’s illustrations complement the story, giving students insight into how beginning authors can share their own stories while building their skills. Use this book to encourage students to write about what they know, using emergent writing skills such as drawing symbols or sketches, using initial sounds to represent words or ideas, using punctuation marks to reflect emotion, and/or using scribbles or mock handwriting. (Grades K–2)

Write! Write! Write! , by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, illustrated by Ryan O’Rourke. This anthology comprises 22 poems that are all about writing. Poems that describe the purpose of the various stages of the writing process include “How to Begin,” “Revision Is,” and “Final Edit.” 

“Our Alphabet,” “Ideas (Like Peaches),” “Timeline,” “Writing About Reading,” “Writing Is for Everyone,” and “The Pen” describe strategies authors use when crafting poetry. Use the verses in this anthology individually, as a collection of poems, or as reading or writing models demonstrating intentional uses of language. (Grades 1–4)

The Word Collector , written and illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds. This is a story about words. While other children collect coins, stamps, or bugs, Jerome is a word collector. He curates his collection into careful categories based on how they sound, what they mean, and how they make him feel.

When Jerome loses his balance and his words spill out into the world, they become a jumbled pile with no rhyme or reason. That is, until Jerome realizes that the way authors string words together makes meaning and gives them their power and purpose. 

This book can help you teach vocabulary, synonyms and antonyms, word families, figurative language, and more. To further experiment and play with language, look with students around your classroom, building, and community for categories of words. You might facilitate a word hunt including some of Jerome’s categories: Words That Catch My Attention, Words That Jump Out at Me, Short and Sweet Words, Multisyllabic Words, Words You Do Not Know, Words That Sound Beautiful When You Say Them, and/or other creative categories you and your students devise. (Grades 2–8)

Milo Imagines the World , by Matt de la Peña; illustrated by Christian Robinson. This text shares the musings and drawings of young Milo as he takes his monthly train ride, observing the people who pass through his subway car. He imagines and draws their worlds in his notebook, making innocent yet pervasive judgments.

When he encounters a boy about his age, he imagines him living a prince-like existence filled with “a butler, two maids, and gourmet chef offering crust-free sandwich squares.” Milo is surprised to see that the boy and his father exit the subway to the same prison where Milo and his sister will be visiting their mother.

Milo Imagines the World asks readers to reflect on the question, “Can we really know someone just by looking at them?” and gives students and teachers an opportunity to think about how writing can help us reflect on our feelings, observe the world around us, and share our ideas about our world. (Grades 3–6)

16 Words: William Carlos Williams and “The Red Wheelbarrow” , by Lisa Rodgers, illustrated by Chuck Groenink. This simple, powerful biography describes the life and times of poet William Carlos Williams—specifically, the evolution of his famous poem “ The Red Wheelbarrow .” The book offers readers a glimpse into his nuanced process and how observation can be a powerful writing tool.  

By juxtaposing Williams’s life as a physician with the challenges he faced as an author, you can help students make connections to their own writing experiences and learn simple strategies for gathering writing inspiration from the beauty of everyday surroundings. Ask students to travel to different places in your school or their neighborhood to collect sensory details about what they observe. (Grades 4–8)

How to Write a Poem , by Kwame Alexander and Deanna Nikaido, illustrated by Melissa Stewart. Award-winning authors bring readers on a journey dripping with sensory details, figurative language, clever font choices, line breaks, and white space in this how-to book about crafting poems. It offers a unique model of how students can write procedural poems. 

While the genre is typically seen in primary classrooms, asking students to craft how-to poems about more sophisticated topics can be a new and exciting way for them to dip their toes into poetry. Suggested topics might include how to be a good citizen, a caring friend, or a successful author. (Grades 4–8)

Sharing books that connect to the writing process, demonstrate the benefits of writing, and highlight how authors craft stories can show students that writing is worth the risk-taking and challenges they may face in your classroom. Additionally, using these books as springboards that scaffold student writing can be an efficient and effective way to build a community of writers in your classroom.