30 Great Short Story Ideas for Middle School and Beyond

Short Story Ideas for Middle School: 30 Good Ideas— Many students find short story writing to be both fun and therapeutic. Encourage your middle schoolers to write a fun, short story or tale, perhaps one with an exciting plot twist. To help them along, take a look at our wonderful list of Short Story Ideas and enjoy!

Short Story Topics for Middle School Writers

Yes! It’s Time to Write a Good Story

There are many different ways of writing a short story, but they all have one thing in common: they all require creativity and inspiration.

The first step is deciding on the topic of the story, and our list of short story writing prompts below can help.

Then, the process of writing a good story is actually pretty simple. All a writer has to do is:

Pick a topic or genre for their story (different genres to write about could include sci-fi, romance, flash fiction, fantasy world, mystery, or a personal narrative tale)
Start with an introduction about the main character and their surroundings
Add a shift in perspective or something unexpected or exciting that happens in the middle of the story

By writing the stories themselves, students begin to understand the need for an inciting incident, a climax, and a conclusion. They also learn more about the importance of character development.

The key here is to focus on practice and refinement of their writing process as they will help to keep things fun, light, and enjoyable.

Now… get to it and inspire your writers (or help them overcome writer’s block) with our list of wonderful short story ideas. Oh yeah!

30 Short Story Ideas for Middle School

It’s the first day of school and your character finds a note on their locker door with a surprising message.
Your character has been invited to a friend’s house for a sleepover. Something feels eerie and mysterious about the home.
Your character has the opportunity to go on the adventure of a lifetime. They have to choose between Italy, Hawaii, or Thailand for their upcoming vacation.
Your character is walking down the street when a dog approaches them. They quickly realize that the dog has been abandoned and take in the animal as their own.
Your character heads out for a typical Friday night out with friends to see a movie, but nothing about the night goes according to plan.
Your character is spending the evening hanging out at home when suddenly a fond memory of a past time returns to them.
Your character writes a love story or a love poem about their secret crush, only to lose it in the hallway at school.
Your character is watching the stars on a summer night. The character is pointing out constellations to a friend when they begin a conversation that will lead them on the adventure of a lifetime.
Your character is walking along the beach when they discover a hidden pathway.
Your character is checking the mailbox after school. There’s a mysterious letter addressed to them and the only thing inside is instructions.
Your character comes home one day only to find that their room is a completely different color and all of the furniture is new. They have no idea what happened, but it could only mean one thing.
Your character has an opportunity to take a ride on a spaceship to another planet in the galaxy. (Perhaps include some aliens or new worlds in your short.)
Your character goes on a field trip to the local museum when suddenly one exhibit comes to life.
Your character has to face their greatest fear in life or face the consequences.
Your character has the opportunity to be a photographer for the day. Now they just have to choose the location that they are going to shoot and explain the types of photos they will take along the way.
Your character can choose between their dream car or their dream house. Which choice will they make?
Your character is playing on the playground when suddenly they spot a sparkling object. They pick it up, only to realize that it’s magic.
Your character wakes up to discover that they have become another character in their favorite book.
Your character is feeling less than confident and needs to overcome a fear in order to accomplish a goal.
Your character scores a game-winning goal and it changes the rest of their lives.
Your character is roasting marshmallows by the campfire when suddenly a family secret is revealed.
Your character finds their best friend crying.
Your character has a strange dream that leaves them feeling restless and anxious.
Your character makes a wish when blowing out their birthday candles and it actually comes true.
Your character gathers up the courage to ask their crush to dance, only to be surprised by the answer.
Your main character creates an invention that changes the way that the world works.
Your character wakes up with the ability to talk to the family pet.
Your character has the opportunity to be the teacher for the day and make the rules themselves.
Your character finds someone’s wallet on the street. They look inside and have to decide whether to return it or not.
Your character discovers how to travel through time. They decide to go to…

Now that you have these good ideas for short story prompts, there’s no time to waste. Have you writers grab their own journal, and a pen, pencil, or perhaps their laptop and get to generating their next piece of creative writing through the wonders of the short story.

A Few Final Thoughts

In order to better understand the literature kids will study in high school and throughout college, middle school students need to have a strong understanding of the elements of a story as well as character development. The best short stories have compelling characters – here is a list of potential main or supporting charcaters to incorporate into your stories:

A mermaid
Rocket scientists
A detective
A lost toy
An old man
A little girl with freckles
A talking taxi cab

Why not go for it and make your next writing class all about having your students become the writers themselves. After all, it’s a practice that makes them better writers. So don’t let them be strangers to the art of crafting a story.

I hope you enjoy and use this list of short story writing ideas and creative writing prompts to inspire your classroom! You’ll be amazed with the great stories that your young writers come up with when encouraged to do so.

Oh, and there are loads of blog posts here with great prompts for middle and high school students. Take a look now.

Until next time, write on…

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Sincerely,
Jill
journalbuddies.com
creator and curator