Fantasy Short Story Ideas

List of 62 Fantasy Short Story Ideas

1. A beautiful unmanned ship sails itself into the harbor.
2. A bored housewife wakes one day to find all her dishes are singing Hey, Jude. (Alternatively, if you want to make this a darker story, have them sing The Sound of Silence.)
3. A counterfeiter’s coins or a forger’s fake works of art have magical properties.
4. A dragon drops in for the opening day celebration of a new local health food store (let’s call it Hale Feeds). P. S: No one knew dragons were real.
5. A fed-up genie, sick of being over-sexualized and paid in wishes, throws a magical tantrum which turns everyone in the world into the opposite gender.
6. A musician can kill or resurrect people with his or her music.
7. A neglected god or goddess attempts to reclaim his or her former glory.
8. A peasant girl, who may be good or evil, believes that a divine figure in a vision told her to lead an army to victory.
9. A person doesn’t know why he or she has stopped aging.
10. A person has been turned into an object by magic.
11. A smuggler, mercenary, or thief takes down or helps take down an oppressive ruler or regime.
12. A warrior defects to the other side in hopes of a speedier resolution.
13. A witch living secretly in suburbia casts a spell to speed up the laundry, but it backfires—just in time for trick-or-treaters to deal with dancing underwear.
14. A woman or a group of women plot an escape or revolt against a forced marriage or a whole system of forced marriage.
15. A worker learns that the tower they are building will serve a much different purpose than what they were all told.
16. A young Fey prince runs away from responsibility to start a career as a street musician.
17. After an archaeologist digs up a treasure, the original owner shows up to take it back.
18. An artist gives people tattoos that determine their fates.
19. An attempt to rescue a friend, family member, or lover will put a larger mission or cause in jeopardy.
20. Anything becomes true if enough people believe in it deeply enough.
21. At this auction, people are bidding a lot more than money.
22. Bored high school wizards decide to throw a party to celebrate tomorrow’s graduation. Nothing could possibly go wrong.
23. Capitol Hill wakes one day to find thousands of fairies protesting for better media representation. Unfortunately, no one can understand what they’re saying.
24. Each person’s spirit is connected to a particular tree in the forest.
25. Eating food turns one’s skin the same color as one’s last ingested item, which makes cheating on diets a challenge of strategy as well as taste.
26. For this race of beings, the sense of smell is more important than vision or hearing.
27. For this society, battle is a religious observance.
28. Giants are REALLY into reality TV, and one day stomp down from their hidden mountain homes to convince Hollywood to create a show about them.
29. He’s been hiding in the catacombs for years.
30. His magical powers don’t work when he’s drunk.
31. Lightning strikes a person and leaves mysterious words or a map burned onto her or his skin.
32. Medieval Italy’s most powerful wizard presents a challenge to his pupils: they must compete to prepare a delicious meal without using any magic at all.
33. Mermaids attempt to install a democratic form of government, but the cephalopods are causing trouble.
34. Miners discover stone spheres with strange markings.
35. Mythological creatures, tired of being portrayed as Caucasian gym rats, confront their creators on a popular combative talk show.
36. One bright morning in May, all domestic pets start talking.
37. People are committing surprising acts in their sleep.
38. People are spontaneously combusting.
39. She made a noble sacrifice, and now, as a ghost, she resents it.
40. So many birds or butterflies migrate across this land that for days, it darkens the skies.
41. Soldiers take souvenirs from their fallen enemies, which proves to be their downfall.
42. Someone can bring a person back to life by taking his or her place in the underworld.
43. The archeologist finds a fossil of a creature assumed to be mythical.
44. The bite of a particular animal may kill you, or it may give you new powers.
45. The crops really do wither unless there’s a sacrifice.
46. The crowd of evil spirits flying into the village looks like a flock of birds.
47. The land has been cursed to permanent darkness, daytime, fog, wind, or lightning strikes.
48. The ones who live in the bottom of the ocean come to the surface.
49. The queen’s twin sister was supposed to have been drowned at birth.
50. There’s a snail orchestra. They decide to put on a concert for the gardener who has (unwittingly) fed them for years.
51. They live on an island in the middle of a lava lake. It has advantages and disadvantages.
52. This is the most pitiful excuse for a castle in all the land.
53. This might cure the current plague—if it can be found.
54. This muse inspires artists, writers, and musicians to great work, but when she leaves them, they become so despondent they sometimes die.
55. This so-called magical sword has turned out to be a piece of junk.
56. This supernatural horse race will decide their people’s fate.
57. Tinnitus is actually the result of pissed-off pixies, who haven’t been properly fed in a couple of centuries (hint: it involves sugar and rum).
58. To open the door, a person must use a key whittled out of one of his or her own bones.
59. Tomorrow morning, all kings, queens, dictators, presidents, and politicians are suddenly replaced by talking dogs.
60. Two allies or two factions of the same army are tricked into attacking one another.
61. Weddings are stressful. They’re especially tricky when one family is magical and the other hates spells, and both mothers want to control the celebration.
62. What would you do if every tree you passed began whispering your name?