Story Ideas About Mistakes and More...

Below are some story ideas about mistakes. At the bottom of the page, you'll find links to writing prompts on a variety of topics.

1) Your character accidentally takes her husband's/wife's phone to work instead of his/her own. A text message comes through on the phone which appears to be a message from a lover. Is your character's husband/wife having an affair? Your character decides to find out. Pretending to be his/her husband/wife, your character sends a message back, proposing a meeting...

2) Your character is excited to be invited to a costume party where Chris will be too. For years, your character has loved Chris from afar, but she hopes that this party will provide an opportunity for them to get closer. When she arrives at the party, her eyes instantly go to a tall man dressed as a medieval knight whom she recognizes as Chris. The fact that they're both wearing masks makes her feel less shy, and she approaches him and starts a conversation. They spend the whole evening talking and dancing, and finally make a date for the following weekend. As she's leaving the party, she's shocked to find Chris sitting on the front porch, dressed as Elvis Presley. Who is the man she spent the evening with?

3) Your character lends his car to a friend, who then crashes it and dies. The police find that the brakes have been cut. Did someone attempt to murder your character and end up killing the wrong person? While the police suspect your character of murdering his friend, your character fears that someone else is trying to murder HIM. But who, and why?

4) One evening, your character's doorbell rings. A woman is standing at the door who looks very familiar, although at first your character can't recall who she is. Then your character realizes that she met this woman in the maternity ward seven years ago when they were both giving birth. The woman says that she's discovered a mistake was made in the hospital, and she was given the wrong baby. She saw a picture of your character's son on Facebook and noticed that he looks exactly like her own husband. She thinks her baby was switched with your character's and wants to have genetic tests done to find out for sure. She talks as if they could just fix the mistake by switching the children back. But your character's son is seven years old now, and your character loves him...

Story ideas about windows

1) Your character looks out his/her window and sees a light blinking on and off in one of the neighboring houses. The following night, your character sees the same thing. It looks like some kind of code...

2) Your character wakes up and is frightened to see a face peering in his/her window. "Let me in," the person gasps. "They're going to get me!"

3) Your character goes to look out his/her window, and his/her usual view has been mysteriously replaced by an unfamiliar landscape...

4) Every night, your character looks out his/her window and sees his/her neighbor standing in his/her own window. Your character finds this neighbor extremely attractive. Is the neighbor standing there on purpose, knowing that your character is watching? Or would s/he feel embarrassed if your character tried to speak or signal to him/her?

5) A pigeon lands on your character's windowsill, and your character sees that it has a note attached to its leg...

Story ideas about surprising revelations

1) While in the process of planning an elaborate wedding, your character suddenly realizes that he isn't in love with his fiancée -- he is in love with his future mother-in-law.

2) Your character suddenly develops the ability to hear other people's thoughts.

3) Your character is the only survivor of a house fire which killed his/her entire family. At first, your character, who suffered a head injury, remembers nothing that happened on the night of the fire. But, gradually, fragmented memories begin to return to your character, memories that suggest that your character set the fire intentionally, although your character doesn't understand why s/he would have done such a thing...

4) Your character learns that s/he was kidnapped as a baby by the couple s/he had always believed were his/her parents.

5) A fortuneteller informs your character that s/he has an important destiny. S/he gives your character several tasks to fulfill.

Summertime story ideas

1) The Summer Romance. On a summer holiday, your character flirts with an attractive stranger. Your character is already in a relationship and doesn't take this flirtation seriously, but the stranger does -- very, very seriously. After your character returns home, this person tracks your character down. And then they refuse to leave your character alone...

2) The Summer Job. Your character is grateful to get a summer job at a local shop -- they really need the money! But when merchandise starts disappearing from the shop, your character worries that the boss will think they are the thief...

3) The Summer Camp. Your character goes to summer camp (either as a camper or a counselor -- you decide). The first evening, your character is amused to hear a story that the camp is haunted. But then events pass that make them wonder if it's just a story after all....

4) The Summer Vacation. Your character is on vacation at... (you can choose some place where you'd like to be on vacation!). The hotel is lovely, but the walls are paper thin! The first night, your character overhears a conversation that makes them think the guest in the next room may be in trouble...

Story ideas about professions

1) A fortuneteller reads a customer's cards. The card suggest that the customer is a dangerous person who is a mortal threat to the fortuneteller. The fortuneteller lies to the customer and then tries to come up with a plan to save their own life...

2) J. has been lying to their parents about many aspects of their life. When the parents announce they're coming to visit, J. hires your character, an unemployed actor, to play the role of J.'s spouse and convince their parents that all the lies are true. But the job becomes complicated in ways your character hadn't bargained for...

3) Your character has accepted a job as a ghostwriter for W., who wants to write a spy thriller. But the more your character discusses the novel's plot with W., the more your character suspects that W. might be an actual spy working for a foreign government...

4) When a marriage counselor falls in love with one of their client's, they are tempted to sabotage the client's marriage instead of trying to save it...

5) Your character's a physicist who may have discovered a way to alter the space-time continuum and edit events that happened in the past. Your character's colleagues warn your character that messing with the past could have disastrous effects on the present. But your character is reluctant to give up the project -- especially because there's a particular mistake in their own past that they desperately want to fix...

More story ideas

1) Your character has a parrot that can repeat words that it hears. Lately, it has picked up some disturbing language. It sounds as if it's threatening your character! Who has been teaching it these phrases?

2) Your character is having dinner with her best friend Kate and Kate's boyfriend James. At one point, when Kate is out of the room, James tries forcefully to kiss your character, who pushes him away just before Kate returns. Later that evening, Kate announces that she and James are engaged to be married. Your character doesn't know what to do. She feels as if she should warn Kate, but she's afraid Kate will never forgive her for destroying her happiness. At the end of the evening, James proposes that the three of them should spend the weekend together at his family's beach house. "What a great idea!" Kate says...

3) The bus drops off your young character and his friends at summer camp. They walk up the drive to the cabins and find them deserted. The main lodge is empty too. No one seems to be here at all...

4) Walking past the windows of a café, your character is startled to see his/her former boyfriend/girlfriend Chris. But that's impossible! Chris died several years ago -- at least, that's what your character had believed...

5) During a pandemic, your character decides to shelter in place with a new friend. But, after just one day of isolation together, your character begins to see a side of this friend that s/he'd never expected...

6) After your character breaks up with his/her romantic partner, your character's beloved pet goes missing. Your character suspects the ex of having kidnapped the pet, but the ex claims to know nothing about the pet's whereabouts. Your character will do whatever it takes to get the pet back...

7) In a dystopian future, reading and writing are outlawed. Your character forms a secret literary society...

8) Your young character is taken into a new foster home. The foster parents explain to your character that s/he reminds them of their own son/daughter who died years ago. They put your character in the dead child's bedroom and encourage your character to wear the dead child's clothes. Sometimes they even call your character by the dead child's name. Your character has a creepy feeling that they want him/her to BE the child who died...

9) When a relationship counselor falls in love with one of her clients, she begins hoping that the client's marriage will fail. During their therapy sessions, she's tempted to sabotage the marriage...

Story ideas- next steps

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