• 100 story ideas
  • Checked October 2026

Ideas for a Short Story About Nature

Three premises at a press where the land or the weather leads, each with a witness and an ending.

Ideas for a Short Story About Nature

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  1. A meadow is mown once a year, and for one evening it smells like every summer at once.Seen by: a man home after twenty years. Ends: he stays for the baling.
  2. A waterfall freezes from the outside in and goes on running inside the ice.Seen by: a boy who holds his ear to it. Ends: he is the first to hear it break free.
  3. Two trees on a ridge have leaned toward each other for a hundred years, and this fall they touch.Seen by: a hiker who photographs them yearly. Ends: his last frame is the first with no gap.

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All 100 story ideas

Woods and trees 25

  • A birch bends to the ground under ice and stays bent after the thaw. Seen by: a girl who walks under it to school. Ends: the town takes its wedding pictures there.
  • A burned hillside sends up its first green the week a family returns to look at the foundation. Seen by: the youngest, who counts the shoots. Ends: they pitch a tent beside the count.
  • A fallen tree spends a winter becoming a bridge. Seen by: two children from opposite banks. Ends: by the thaw each knows the other's dog by name.
  • A fire lookout watches a wood that has not burned in her lifetime and seems to be waiting. Seen by: her, every dawn. Ends: the rain comes the night she finally sleeps through.
  • A forest keeps one clearing free of snow all winter, and nobody has found out why. Seen by: a girl on skis. Ends: she decides not to dig.
  • A forest path moves a few steps every year, and only the mail carrier keeps up with it. Seen by: her replacement, on his first day. Ends: he learns to follow the ferns, not the map.
  • A forest that was a field sixty years ago still grows in rows. Seen by: the man who planted it as a boy. Ends: he finds the one tree out of line and remembers why.
  • A grove of old trees is the one place for miles where no phone works. Seen by: a teenager sent there as a punishment. Ends: she goes back on her own.
  • A pine carries a whole storm's snow so that the sapling beneath it stays dry. Seen by: a snowed-in painter at her window. Ends: she paints the small tree, then adds the big one.
  • A stump that everyone forgot puts up a single shoot. Seen by: the man who cut the tree. Ends: he builds a small fence around it and tells no one.
  • A tree planted for a baby is taller than the house when the baby, grown, comes back to sell. Seen by: the buyer, who asks about the swing. Ends: the sale has a condition written into it.
  • A tree that outlived its street stands in the middle of the parking lot that replaced it. Seen by: the attendant in the booth. Ends: drivers start to park in its shade first.
  • A walnut tree drops its whole crop on the one tin roof in town. Seen by: a night nurse trying to sleep. Ends: she learns to sleep through it, and misses it in November.
  • A willow takes root from a fence post nobody meant to plant. Seen by: the farmer who set the post. Ends: he moves the fence, not the tree.
  • A wood drops a different kind of leaf on one doorstep every morning, as if choosing. Seen by: a retired printer who presses them. Ends: the book is full on the first hard frost.
  • A wood goes quiet the day before the first snow, every year, without fail. Seen by: a new teacher at the forest school. Ends: she sends the children home early, and is right.
  • A wood swallows a stone wall a little more each year. Seen by: the mason's granddaughter. Ends: she stops clearing it and sets a marker instead.
  • An oak older than the town leafs out a month late, the year the town votes on a road through it. Seen by: the surveyor who ties the ribbons. Ends: the oak leafs out the morning after the vote.
  • An orchard sleeps through a warm week in January and is not fooled. Seen by: the grower, who almost is. Ends: he hangs the pruning shears back up.
  • The first tree to bloom in a cold valley blooms on the wrong side of a property line. Seen by: two neighbors who have not spoken in years. Ends: the petals fall on both lawns.
  • The oldest tree in the park is hung with lights it did not ask for. Seen by: the worker who strings them. Ends: he leaves the top branches dark, for the tree.
  • One maple on a street of maples refuses to drop its leaves. Seen by: a boy paid to rake. Ends: it lets go all at once, the day he stops waiting.
  • The sap rises in an old sugar maple on the day a family decides whether to tap it one more year. Seen by: the daughter, home from the city. Ends: she carries the first bucket.
  • The shade of one beech is the coolest place in the county, and the county has started to line up. Seen by: the farmer whose field it is. Ends: he sets out a bench.
  • Two trees on a ridge have leaned toward each other for a hundred years, and this fall they touch. Seen by: a hiker who photographs them yearly. Ends: his last frame is the first with no gap.

Rivers, lakes and the sea 25

  • A creek that runs only in April runs through a brand-new backyard. Seen by: the family who bought in August. Ends: they build a bridge instead of a drain.
  • A flooded pasture becomes a lake for one month, long enough to be named. Seen by: two sisters with a raft. Ends: the name outlasts the water on every map they draw.
  • A harbor ices over, and for a week the boats are a village. Seen by: a skipper's son. Ends: the thaw comes, and the neighbors are other boats again.
  • A lake freezes in a single night, with the wind's pattern still on it. Seen by: the first skater out. Ends: she reads the ripples like a letter and skates the long way.
  • A lake keeps one cold spot that swimmers call the door. Seen by: a girl on the swim team. Ends: she learns it is a spring, and likes it less, then more.
  • A marsh takes back the road built across it, an inch each fall. Seen by: the foreman of the road crew. Ends: his last report recommends a boat.
  • A pond shrinks to a puddle and shows the town what it has been keeping. Seen by: a boy who lost a bicycle there. Ends: the rain returns, and so does everything but the bicycle.
  • A river and a canal run side by side for a mile, one wild and one straight. Seen by: a lock keeper with a foot on each bank. Ends: a storm introduces them.
  • A river carries one red leaf the whole length of a county. Seen by: seven people on seven bridges. Ends: the last one fishes it out and keeps it.
  • A river goes on talking under the ice. Seen by: a deaf girl who feels it through her boots. Ends: she shows her class where to stand.
  • A river leaves its bed one spring and takes the long way round the mill that dammed it. Seen by: the miller's apprentice. Ends: the wheel is carried to the new bank, board by board.
  • A river runs so low that the old ford shows, and people cross on foot for the first time in sixty years. Seen by: a woman who crossed it as a girl. Ends: she meets someone coming the other way.
  • A spring under a farmhouse never freezes, and the house has always been a little warmer for it. Seen by: the new owners, puzzled. Ends: they find the stone lid in the cellar.
  • A stream is put in a pipe under a new street and can still be heard at one grate. Seen by: the letter carrier. Ends: children start leaving paper boats at the grate.
  • A tide pool holds a small ocean until the sea comes back for it. Seen by: a boy who names everything in it. Ends: the tide takes the names, and he starts over.
  • A waterfall freezes from the outside in and goes on running inside the ice. Seen by: a boy who holds his ear to it. Ends: he is the first to hear it break free.
  • A wave that has crossed a whole ocean breaks on a beach where one person is watching. Seen by: a man who came there to decide something. Ends: he decides.
  • A well that went dry in a grandfather's time has water again. Seen by: the girl sent to cap it. Ends: she lowers a bucket first.
  • Fog comes up the river every morning at seven and reaches the school by eight. Seen by: the crossing guard. Ends: the morning it stays away, nobody knows when to leave.
  • Rain fills a quarry that men spent fifty years emptying. Seen by: the last quarryman. Ends: he teaches his grandson to swim in it.
  • The sea leaves a line of foam at the highest tide of the year, right at one cottage's door. Seen by: the woman who lives there. Ends: she paints the line on the step and dates it.
  • The sea returns a beach it borrowed in the autumn storms. Seen by: the lifeguard who measures it each March. Ends: this year it brings a sandbar extra.
  • Snow falls on the sea and is gone, flake by flake. Seen by: a child on a ferry who tries to count. Ends: she counts the ones on her sleeve instead.
  • Snowmelt from a mountain nobody can see arrives in a desert town's dry wash. Seen by: a girl who has never seen it run. Ends: she follows it upstream as far as the fence.
  • The tide brings the same glass bottle back to the same beach for a year. Seen by: a retired harbor pilot. Ends: he finally puts a note in it.

Sky and weather 25

  • A blizzard erases every road and then sets down one perfect day. Seen by: a plow driver with no road to find. Ends: he steers by the fence tops.
  • A cloud parks over one house for a week. Seen by: the family under it. Ends: they stop taking it personally and plant ferns.
  • A drought ends with one drop on a tin roof. Seen by: a grandmother, who hears it first. Ends: she wakes the house for the second drop.
  • A hailstorm picks one field out of forty. Seen by: the farmer next door. Ends: he sends over his seed drill without being asked.
  • A January thaw undoes a snow fort in an afternoon and leaves its outline in the grass until spring. Seen by: the three who built it. Ends: they plant crocuses along the outline.
  • A rainbow ends, plainly, in the school parking lot. Seen by: a class out on a fire drill. Ends: they walk toward it; it moves, and so do they.
  • A shooting star falls on the one night a town has its lights off. Seen by: everyone, for once. Ends: the council votes for a dark night every August.
  • A summer sky holds one cloud all day, and a town with nothing else to do watches it. Seen by: two old men with a bet on its shape. Ends: it rains from that one cloud, on them.
  • A thunderstorm circles a valley for three days without crossing the ridge. Seen by: a farmer with hay down. Ends: it crosses the hour the last bale is in.
  • A warm rain melts a winter of snow in one night and shows what the yard kept. Seen by: a girl looking for a lost mitten. Ends: she finds it, and two she never missed.
  • A week of wind strips the trees early and gives a street back its view of the hills. Seen by: a man who moved in during summer. Ends: he finally understands the rent.
  • A wind arrives carrying dust from another country. Seen by: a girl who writes her name in it on the car. Ends: she finds the country in an atlas.
  • The afternoon stops at three in a town with no shade and waits for evening. Seen by: a boy and the dog under his porch. Ends: the first cool air comes down the alley at six.
  • The first dark evening after the clocks change catches a street by surprise. Seen by: a girl walking home at the usual time. Ends: porch lights come on one by one, ahead of her.
  • The first fog of the season hides a town from itself. Seen by: a newcomer who knows no landmarks anyway. Ends: she leads three locals home.
  • The first frost visits every garden on the street but one. Seen by: the gardener it spares. Ends: she covers nothing the next night, and it comes.
  • Hoarfrost turns a junkyard into a palace for one morning. Seen by: the owner's daughter, with a camera. Ends: the picture becomes the yard's sign.
  • Lightning takes the top off the tallest thing in town, which is the mayor's flagpole. Seen by: the whole town, quietly pleased. Ends: the new pole is a foot shorter than the school's.
  • The longest night of the year seems to last a little longer than it should. Seen by: a baker who starts at three. Ends: the bread is done before the dawn is.
  • The moon rises so large over a harvest that the pickers stop. Seen by: the foreman with a deadline. Ends: he stops too.
  • The northern lights come once to a town too far south for them. Seen by: a night watchman nobody believes. Ends: one child's drawing matches his account.
  • Snow falls so quietly that a whole town oversleeps. Seen by: the one early riser. Ends: she keeps the hour to herself.
  • The wind draws a different drift across one doorway every night. Seen by: the boy who shovels it. Ends: he starts sketching each one before he digs.
  • The wind takes the same hat off the same man at the same corner every October. Seen by: the woman who returns it. Ends: this year she keeps it until he asks her name.
  • The year's first warm evening empties every house on a street at once. Seen by: a boy who thought he had no neighbors. Ends: he learns six names before dark.

Fields, hills and gardens 25

  • A bare hill is wooded on one side only, the side the wind does not reach. Seen by: a shepherd who shelters there. Ends: he plants the windy side, one tree a year.
  • A cornfield grows tall enough by August to hide a house from the road. Seen by: a shy family who like it that way. Ends: harvest comes, and with it the neighbors.
  • A dry hillside blooms once, after a wet winter, and a town drives out to see it. Seen by: the rancher whose gate they block. Ends: she opens the gate and sells lemonade.
  • A field left fallow for one year comes up in flowers nobody planted. Seen by: the farmer's accountant. Ends: the farmer leaves one strip unplowed for good.
  • A field left in stubble all winter turns gold in every low sun. Seen by: a bus driver on the morning route. Ends: she slows down there, and nobody complains.
  • A garden grows one enormous squash and nothing else. Seen by: a gardener who planted twelve kinds. Ends: she enters it at the fair under the garden's name.
  • A garden under snow keeps one row green beneath a pane of old glass. Seen by: a boy sent out for parsley. Ends: he learns who set the glass there.
  • A garden wakes in the order its last gardener planted it, a year after she moved away. Seen by: the renter who meant to pave it. Ends: he buys a trowel.
  • A hayfield comes ready the one week every hand in the county is at the fair. Seen by: the girl left behind to mind it. Ends: she drives the tractor herself, slowly.
  • A hedge that divides two farms fruits on both sides. Seen by: the two farmers' children. Ends: the jam has two labels and one recipe.
  • A hill casts its shadow over one farm an hour before the others, every evening. Seen by: a boy who uses it as a clock. Ends: he is never late for supper, and his brother always is.
  • A hill is the finest sledding for miles for exactly as long as the snow lasts. Seen by: the farmer who owns it and says nothing. Ends: he leaves the gate open every January.
  • A hillside vineyard ripens from the bottom row up, a day at a time. Seen by: a picker paid by the row. Ends: from the top row she can see the whole climb.
  • A lawn gives up, and a meadow takes its place while the owner is away for a season. Seen by: the neighbor asked to mow. Ends: the owner comes home and cancels the mower.
  • A meadow is mown once a year, and for one evening it smells like every summer at once. Seen by: a man home after twenty years. Ends: he stays for the baling.
  • A path worn across a field by one family's feet is plowed under and comes back by June. Seen by: the new owner, who did the plowing. Ends: he puts in a stile.
  • A pumpkin vine leaves its patch and crosses three yards. Seen by: three households. Ends: the pumpkins are divided by where each one sat.
  • A terrace wall on a hillside falls, stone by stone, back into the hill it came from. Seen by: the last farmer to mend it. Ends: he mends one stretch, the one by the road.
  • A valley holds the cold like a bowl, and the farm at the bottom is always first to freeze. Seen by: the family who could not afford the hill. Ends: they are also the first to skate.
  • A wheat field moves like water when the wind crosses it. Seen by: a homesick girl from the coast. Ends: she calls it the inland sea, and stays.
  • Frost comes to a valley floor while the hilltop is still in summer. Seen by: two cousins, one farm each. Ends: they trade tomatoes for a week.
  • The last field in a growing town is harvested with houses on all four sides. Seen by: forty back windows. Ends: the farmer waves from the combine, and some wave back.
  • The same stone works its way up through a plowed field every winter. Seen by: the farmer who hauls it off each spring. Ends: he builds the wall where the stone wants it.
  • Snow lies on a field and keeps the record of everyone who crossed it. Seen by: a girl who reads the tracks on her way to school. Ends: one set walks beside hers, each way.
  • The thaw turns a farm lane to mud deep enough to keep a family home for a week. Seen by: a boy with a spelling test he dreads. Ends: the lane dries on test day.

How it works

In each of these 100 ideas for a short story about nature, the land or the weather is the main character: a river, a frost, a tree that outlived its street. Under each is who sees it happen and how it ends.

Read the full guide

Story ideas that relate to nature, by place

Four places hold 25 premises each. Woods and trees: an oak leafs out a month late in the year of a vote. Rivers, lakes and the sea: the tide returns one bottle to one beach for a year. Sky and weather: a cloud parks over one house. Fields, hills and gardens: a pumpkin vine crosses three yards.

The four seasons

Each premise is also set in a season. Spring has thaw, flood and first leaves. Summer has drought, shade and low rivers. Autumn brings fog, frost and wind. Winter is ice, snow and the longest night. No animal leads any of them.

  • Give the river or the frost something it wants, and never let it speak.
  • Write the witness's ordinary day first. The weather is what interrupts it.

Questions and answers

What are some ideas for a short story about nature?

Let the place act first. On this list a lake freezes in a single night with the wind's pattern still on it, and a field left fallow for one year comes up in flowers nobody planted.

How do you write a short story about nature?

Through a witness. The line under each premise names one: a surveyor, a lifeguard, a crossing guard, a boy paid to rake. The tree or the tide does something, the person notices, and the ending is what they do about it.

Are these stories about storms and disasters?

Not as dangers. A first frost, a morning fog, one cloud and a January thaw are typical, and where a storm passes nobody is hurt. Floods, blizzards and earthquakes as the danger are on the natural disaster story ideas page.

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