One Year Short Story Challenge
If you write one short story a week, it’s guaranteed improvement. Short stories can be anywhere from 1,000 to 30,000 words, but for the sake of sanity, the stories I write will be under 10,000 with a cap of around 7,500. Here’s some ideas!
1. Write entirely in second person. Someone is instructing your character to do something they’ll regret.
2. Write a first person story from the point of view of an inanimate object.
3. Write about a character trapped in the body of a kid about to start kindergarten.
4. Write about a high schooler trying to run away from a dangerous situation.
5. Write about a witch trying to find her lost familiar.
6. Write about a detective who uses questionable methods but always gets the right answer.
7. Write about a marching band who decided to block traffic for one whole day. Why?
8. Write about a character from the future. They aren’t trying to save anyone, they just want to live in a better time.
9. Write about a character with depression who’s desperate to help their friend, who suffers from the same thing.
10. Write about a middle school student going on their first date.
11. Write about a student who was trying to work at a coffee shop when a super villain attacks. Superpowers weren’t supposed to be real.
12. Pick a meme song and write a story based on it.
13. Look at your favorite old emo music and select the angstiest lyric you can find. Go wild.
14. Write with one oddly specific color in mind. Lavender. Fuschia. Carolina blue.
15. Write a story from the villain’s point of view, at the final battle.
16. Write about a character who plays music at a street corner and what they witness.
17. Write about a student who falls asleep in class and wakes up in a sterilized room.
18. Write about an elementary school ‘breakup’ between two fifth graders.
19. Write about two people who live in an RV and travel the country. They hate each other.
20. Write about a person who can talk to food. How do they eat?
21. Write about someone who breaks animals out of zoos.
22. Write about someone who can jump into books, and why they stay in normal life.
23. Write about someone who can’t go a week without almost dying, and what happens when they have their first quiet week.
24. Write a high school scenario that you heard about through gossip, or a scenario you overheard in real life or from a job. Dramatize it.
25. Write about a werecat who takes pleasure in being endlessly pampered by humans.
26. Write about a superhero who’s only power is making anything last forever. Their phone never breaks, and their toilet paper never runs out. Neither does their ammunition.
27. Write about two twins, one who’s a superhero and one who’s a super villain.
28. Write about a thief who hangs out with rich people but never steals their stuff.
29. Write about someone who can fly, but is too scared of heights to have ever tried it.
30. Write about a friendship about to break apart after ten years. Why?
31. Write about a sentient city, and how it helps out travelers and lost tourists.
32. Write about children running an actual rat race for fun.
33. Write from a zombie’s point of view of the zombie apocalypse.
34. Write about the skeleton inside you. It’s completely sentient. Watch out.
35. Write about a boy who has actually weaponized Axe, and sells it to people as a replacement pepper spray.
36. Write about a villain who can manipulate ice. They stab people and the weapon melts, leaving no fingerprints. How do you stop them?
37. Write about a student who decides to do anything except study before exams, and ends up bungee jumping and skydiving the day of.
38. Write about an invisible hitchhiker. They travel the country for free, by climbing into people’s cars at gas stations.
39. Write about a child who lives inside an amusement park, but never gets noticed. Another kid sees her. It’s the first time she’s been seen.
40. Write about a weredog touring a city in human form and trying their absolute hardest not to pee on the poles.
41. Write about a student who goes cold turkey on coffee the week before final exams.
42. Write about a pet turkey on Thanksgiving. They’re horrified.
43. Write about your phone, which is sentient. It finally decides to notify you in hopes you stop watching the exact same vine compilation at 2 in the morning every day.
44. Write about a girl who lives in the woods—30 minutes away from a huge city.
45. Write about someone trying to steal a giant monument, such as the giant peach in South Carolina or the world’s largest rubber band ball.
46. Write about cartoon characters suddenly faced with realistic risks from their actions.
47. Write about a warlock whose curse backfired on them—on their job interview at a respectable company.
48. Write about the sentient Chuck E Cheese costume that lives at the store, and whether it truly loves children.
49. Write about a dead forest, and the arsonist who caused it that visits every week.
50. Write about a couple that meets after they get in a street fight over a dropped twenty dollar bill. They’re actually perfect for each other.
51. Write about a genie trapped in a bottle of Axe.
52. Write about the craziest thing that ever happened to you.
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