Some of the short stories I have written come from my daydreams. Daydreams usually occur when I am either relaxed or bored. A few years ago the President of a company where I was working called me into his office.
This President, being a busy person, was on the phone when I entered the office. He saw me and gestured for me to sit down. I could tell he was trying to get off of the phone so he could talk to me but the person on the other end evidently had some things to either ask or discuss before letting the President go.
The few minutes gave me time to admire the large and luxurious office complete with bookshelves, pictures, tables, a couch and a large window with a view of a well manicured landscape.
The situation got my mind to working. I was a member of the I.T. Department for this company and the President had a new project that he would assign to me. I had a daydream about a guy like myself who works in an I.T. Department getting an assignment from the President of the company.
The assignment was to install a home control security system in the mansion that the President owned. My real assignment was something different but that was the daydream I had while sitting in the office of the President.
Installing a home control security system would not be much fun for a story but I liked the direction the story was headed. So I started writing the first part of the story when I had a chance.
I was not the I.T. Director at this company. I was actually the newest employee on the I.T. team but my story was not about my reality but my imagination. So I made the hero of the story, Logan Sharp, the I.T. Director.
A problem with the story was that installing home security systems is not entertaining. My story needed a surprise, a conflict, and a mystery.
Then it dawned on me. During 1999 there was the Y2K fear on the minds of many people. I remembered reading an article about how some people where burying weapons and food in their basement to prepare for the end of the world. That was the solution to my story.
I decided to have the hero of my story, Logan Sharp, work with some other I.T. guys installing a home security system in a mansion who discover a large underground basement where people have been living since 1999. A little farfetched perhaps but the story was fun to invent and fun to write. I titled that story A Nation Below.
So for story writing ideas use your daydreams. If you are a person already interested in writing fiction stories you are probably a person who already has an active imagination. Many times it is more difficult to put the words on the paper explaining a story then it is to daydream a story. So relax and let your daydreams lead the way.
Lawrence Roth is Web Developer who owns and maintains 
