How to Use the Short Story Premise Generator
When you want to write but don't know where to start, this tool throws you a seed of a story by randomly combining three elements: a character, a setting, and an event. Click the button and it draws one option from each of three lists - each with 12 or more possibilities - and shows them together as a single premise card.
You can string the three elements together as-is, or reshape them however you like. If you land on "an amnesiac sorcerer" in "a floating sky island" where "an old promise must be kept," you might ask yourself why the memory was lost, and who that promise was made to, and build the story outward from there.
It's useful for writing practice, short story drafts, brainstorming a screenplay idea, or warming up before a creative writing class. If the combination doesn't spark anything, just click the button again for a new one - with this many possible combinations, you'll rarely land on the same starting point twice.
Frequently Asked Questions
One character, one setting, and one event are each randomly picked from separate lists and shown together as a single premise card.
It's technically possible, but each list has 12 or more options, so the combinations rarely repeat. If you don't like the result, just click the button again.