What are Short Story Topics for Kids?

What is a short story?

A short story is a piece of prose fiction that can generally be read in one sitting. Short stories often focus on a self-contained incident or a series of connected incidents, and many are designed to evoke a single effect or mood. Short stories are some of the most ancient forms of literature, exemplified by legends, mythic tales, folk tales, fables, and the like across various cultures and communities. However, the modern conception of the short story developed in the early 19th century.

How long are short stories?

The word count of short stories is generally between 1,000 and 4,000 words; however, some stories have 15,000 words and are still considered short stories. Stories with fewer than 1,000 words are sometimes called ‘short stories’ or ‘flash fiction.

What is flash fiction?

Flash fiction is a work of extreme brevity that still develops character and plot. There are several different types of flash fiction, many of which are defined by word count, such as the six-word story; the 28–character story (also called ‘twitterature’); the ‘dribble’ or ‘minisaga’ (50 words); the ‘drabble’ or ‘micro fiction’ (100 words); ‘sudden fiction (750 words); flash fiction (1000 words); and the ‘micro-story.’

Flash fiction has a unique literary quality that can imply a broader story.

What are short story topics for kids?

Starting a story can be terrifying – the site of a blank page is overwhelming, and the infinite possibilities and avenues available can cause us to freeze up. In addition, beginning a tale is complex, and sometimes, we need help.

Short story topics for kids are writing prompts, themes, and ideas that can inspire children when writing their own short stories. Below is a list of short story topics for kids that will spark their imagination so that children can craft gripping tales.

Short Story Topics for Kids

• If you win a radio competition, you can host the show for a day.
• When you bite a slice of your birthday cake, you realize it doesn’t taste like a regular cake.
• You discover your life is a reality TV show in a different country.
• You find a mysterious note from your teacher on the street outside the school.
• Your mobile phone begins making calls of its own accord.
• You fall out with your best friend and try to make amends.
• There’s a deserted house at the end of your street shrouded in mystery – you decide to look inside and are shocked to see what you find.
• Your parents get offered new jobs in a different city – you’ll have to uproot, start at a new school and make new friends.
• Imagine you accomplish something you’ve always dreamed of; how does it feel?
• Imagine the best day of your life – what happens?
• You’re faced with a choice between two things that you love.
• You save Christmas for everyone at the last minute.
• You see a pack of dogs approaching when out in the park with friends.
• You’re on a mission in space when your spaceship gets hijacked by a gang of cosmic pirates.
• Two siblings discover a mysterious old journal in their grandmother’s attic.
• You’re shocked when your pumpkin starts to talk to you.
• One by one, people in your town become invisible without realizing it. Eventually, everyone in the city is invisible: except you.
• Think about a moment when things could have turned out differently.
• Choose a character from your favorite traditional tale and imagine them in a different context.
• Write a story dedicated to a family member, exploring the things you like most about them.
• Imagine you’re a comedian who doesn’t get any laughs.
• An alien buys planet Earth in an auction and decides it wants to change things up a bit.
• Imagine a Michelin-star chef working in a fast-food restaurant.
• You get a phone call saying someone will soon knock at the door and that you shouldn’t answer it. The minute you put the phone down, you hear the knock.
• There’s a strange noise coming from the woods. So you go to investigate it and find.
• When faced with your greatest fear, you must summon the courage to overcome it.
• Imagine the funniest day of your life; each moment is more amusing than the last before the day ends with a twist!
• You take a trip to the Amazon Rainforest and meet some of the wildlife; however, they are scared for their future.
• You see a strange-looking map on your bed when you leave school. So you set out to see where it leads.
• Write a funny story about a wealthy man who loses all his money and has to readjust to everyday life.
• You notice a spider on your bedroom wall before you sleep. When you wake up, it’s human-sized.
• Mysterious graffiti keeps appearing around town, but what do the strange symbols mean?
• Write a monologue where you confess to the rest of the world.
• The Big Bad Wolf escapes from prison and plots his revenge against the three little pigs.
• Write a story from the perspective of the ocean as it struggles with pollution.
• A prince is cursed; anyone he looks at will be turned to stone. So he locks himself in a castle to protect others, but a princess from a faraway land sets out on a mission to save him.
• You think you’ve caught something big when fishing; however, it’s not a fish on the end of your line but a treasure chest full of gold.
• You’re on a cruise that gets lost at sea. People on the ship start to get scared; how will everyone cope until rescue arrives?
• Imagine you’re a superhero who’s grown old and now lives in a care home.
• You meet someone with the same name as you.
• Imagine what modern life would be like if it were filled with mythical creatures and characters.
• You find a unicorn who takes you to its beautiful planet; however, it’ll soon be under attack.
• A volcano erupts, and you must evacuate your town as quickly as possible.
• When going to a summer camp, you find that all the other children have special powers.
• You find an envelope full of money in the street.
• You’re frozen in time and wake up in your hometown 500 years later.
• An alien comes to Earth and befriends you, but you must shelter it from people who want to hurt it.
• A young girl loves magic tricks, but will she be able to use her talents for good?
• You and your best friends win a holiday to a sunny beach in Spain.
• After you and your classmates volunteer at a homeless shelter, you see the world differently.
• You and your family go on a camping holiday that goes wrong.
• You and your classmates find out a secret about your school.
• One day, your cat wakes up with magic powers.
• You plan to cook a meal for your family, but it doesn’t go as expected.
• In a new and untested scheme, you become the headteacher of your school for a day.
• Imagine going on a trip worldwide – what places would you visit?
• A young boy who loves football gets to train with his favorite team.
• You stumble across a time machine and go back to when dinosaurs inhabited Earth.
• You bump into your idol in the middle of town.
• When your pet dog stows away on a spaceship, she finds herself on a mission that will determine the fate of our planet.
• When faced with a problem, everyone in your class works together to create something unique.
• You’re transported back to Ancient Egypt and become a pharaoh.
• You win a writing competition; the prize is that your story is studied in schools worldwide.
• You seem to have the worst day; everything is going wrong, one thing after another.
• Your teacher becomes an actor and starts starring in blockbuster films.
• An alien cyberattack renders all technology defunct; imagine what the world would be like.
• Write a story about a religious celebration.
• You’ve been looking forward to seeing a new film at the cinema for months; however, when you get there, a group of people in front of you are talking all the way through.
• You’re playing a final in your favorite sport, and the game comes down to the last minute.
• Imagine what life would be like living in a small mountain community detached from modern city life.
• Your family wins the lottery, and you can do everything you’ve ever wanted.
• You enter the school talent show with your friend and get to the final.
• When trick-or-treating on Halloween, you must devise a trick that’ll scare your neighbors.
• A meteor lands on Earth covered in bacteria; over time, it becomes a strange breed of aliens.
• Imagine you’re a Roman gladiator facing his most brutal battle yet.
• All of your nightmares start coming true.
• Write a story inspired by a day out you’ve had.
• You go out for a meal with family, and the chef gets your order wrong.
• You visit a zoo to find that all the animals are trying to communicate with you.
• A computer hacker makes a mistake, and all computers become hostile toward humans.
• You’re on a taxi journey; along the way, you pick up three passengers with exciting stories.
• Write a monologue about your pet cat looking to catch a mouse.
• Imagine the story of Cinderella. If one of her sisters married Prince Charming, how would Cinderella improve her wretched life?
• You’re caught on camera at a football game and find yourself suddenly famous.
• Your friend has a strange idea about what to do at the weekend.
• When going on a family holiday, you get on the wrong plane and end up in a foreign country.
• When a scientist finds a way to merge human and animal DNA, a new and potentially dangerous species is born.
• You find a new hobby that you love.
• On her 13th birthday, a young princess is cursed and loses her voice. She must defeat the wicked witch if she is to speak again.
• Imagine you’re a dragon guarding the treasure. A legion of soldiers arrives at your castle to try and retrieve the gold; what will you do?
• You bump into a friend you haven’t seen in years, and they seem entirely different.
• You hear a scream at night. You run to your window and notice your neighbors are looking out from it. Then, one by one, they begin to disappear.
• Half of the world’s population is sent to live on another planet to deal with overpopulation.
• You have four siblings who each have control over an element: earth, wind, fire, and water. You think you’ve been born without any powers until, one day, you spectacularly realize yours.
• Three siblings argue over who’s next in line for the throne, but who will come out on top?
• A farmer finds a peculiar-looking egg on his farm; he’s shocked to find out what’s been living inside it when it finally hatches.
• There’s a ghost in your house, but it’s not as bad as everyone thinks.
• Your spaceship breaks down on the moon; you’ll have to find a way to survive there until another arrives to save you.
• You discover that your best friend is a robot, and everything makes sense.
• You enter a teleportation machine that goes wrong; you suddenly find yourself in a new dimension.
• A man loves comic books so much that he starts to imagine that he’s in one.
• You find a chess board in your back garden; a piece has moved each time you check back on it.
• Write a story that incorporates each of the seasons.
• You find something that gives you more joy than you knew was possible, only to have it taken away in the most unbelievable circumstances.
• The magic shop owner curses you when you refuse to buy anything from her. When you leave the shop, everyone seems to be staring at you.
• Someone steals your identity online and starts committing crimes in your name.
• When you lose your teammates, you’re on an expedition to the South Pole. But first, you’ll need to find a way to get home safely.
• You start climbing a tree that never ends. The further up you get, the stranger the creatures that inhabit it becomes.
• You follow your cat as it runs down a sewer to find a world where cats rule over humans.
• Your pet eats a peculiar-looking vegetable and turns into a pet zombie.
• What would you choose if stranded on a desert island with only three items? And how will they help you survive?
• You come across a single red flower in a world where color is drained from everything. Where has it come from, and what does it mean?
• It’s your birthday, and you get the present you’ve wanted for months.
• Think about a lesson you’ve learned and write about it.
• Pick an object in your room and write an exciting backstory about it.
• Choose a family photo and use it to inspire a short story.
• When shopping in a supermarket, you spot something strange in the vegetable aisle.
• Imagine a fantasy world inhabited by knights, castles, and dragons.
• The postman drops off a parcel at your house; it’s from the family who lived in the house before you.
• Imagine a city in a fictional country where people only eat red food.
• Imagine what life would be like if you were an animal of your choice.
• You find a strange-looking ring with a skull engraved on it. That night, you dream that a pirate has tracked you down to retrieve his lost possession.
• Imagine what you’ll be doing in five years, and write a narrative of how you got there.
• When the farmer sleeps, the farm animals get up to mischief at night.
• You move to a different country and have to learn a new language.
• Write a story from the perspective of a dog who’s just been taken in by new owners.
• Imagine you’re a supermarket vegetable who fears being picked by a shopper.
• Write a funny story where you imagine the most embarrassing day of your life.
• You notice a message in the clouds but think nothing of it. Then, the next day, you look at the sky to see that the message is again more precise than last time.
• When you look in the mirror, a different person looks back at you.
• You’ve lived your whole life with magical powers until, one day, they mysteriously disappear.
• The bugs in your garden are in a war; imagine you’re a bird watching the conflict unfold from a nearby tree.
• The police think they’ve caught the jewel thief, but when another thief goes missing the following day, they realize they’ve got the wrong person.
• Your mum is a scientist who makes a crazy new inventions daily.
• A shapeshifting thief decides he’s had enough of being at the bottom of society, so he comes up with a plot to impersonate the king and steal his throne.
• Your shadow suddenly gets a life of its own; it can move independently, speak, and commit crimes.
• You’ve never been superstitious, but this Friday 13th, everything seems to be going wrong.
• You dress up as a ghost on Halloween and turn into a ghost. It turns out that everyone has turned into their costume.
• You hear a voice before you sleep every night; what is it trying to tell you?
• Each day, an item of clothing from your wardrobe goes missing.
• You get home to find that your home has been broken into, and your family is missing.
• You receive a letter written in code; will you be able to crack the code before it’s too late?
• When on the beach, something strange washes up on the shore.
• Imagine you’re an alien living in outer space; what is your life like daily?
• You’re caught in the middle of a storm.
• You realize you’ve left something essential at home when you get to school.
• Your pet seems to be getting hungrier and hungrier every day.
• You open your theme park with the craziest rides you can imagine.
• When camping, you hear the howl of wolves just as you’re about to sleep.
• You miss the school bus and have to walk; the journey is very eventful.
• Your teacher sets you a peculiar project at school.
• Imagine you’re a snail tasked with learning to move at the same speed as a human.
• You realize that you’re a mermaid, and your fellow mermaids beckon you to come and save their underwater kingdom.
• When cleaning out your house, you find a vital that can open doors to new dimensions.
• A science experiment in school goes wrong, and you turn your best friend into a fly.
• Rewrite a fairy tale from the perspective of one of the villains.
• Write a funny story about a boy who constantly has terrible luck.
• A clown who fears balloons gets his biggest yet at a vast children’s birthday party.
• Imagine a sporting event that never ends.
• You’re on a bus journey, imagining where all the different passengers are going.
• Write a monologue from the perspective of a spider who can’t understand why people are scared of him.