I’ve had a few people ask where I get my ideas, so here are some of the tools I use. Ordinarily I look for things in everyday life or in the news that seem like they could be the basis for a good story, but that doesn’t always work out.
The Seventh Sanctum – A great site filled with generators that will provide plot prompts, spit out character names, or do things that are just plain weird and silly. I tend to use the name generator the most often.
Captcha – Normally used for proving that one is not a spambot, and to a lesser extent helping with optical character recognition. But it can also be a potent idea generator, spitting out Rorschach-style two-word combos that have been at the heart of many of my more offbeat tales.
The NaNoWriMo Adoption Society – This is where participants in National Novel Writing Month leave ideas, characters, and more that they are unable to flesh out free for the taking to other writers. It tends to be a little heavily weighted toward fads (witness the number of vampire stories post-2005) but still has some dynamite ideas for stories, characters, and more. You have to rely on the Internet Archive for older versions, but the 2007, 2006, and 2005 sites all have stable mirrors with preserved adoptable plots.
Absolute Write – AW is a great site for writers of all stripes, but it also has plenty of great prompts. There’s a subforum dedicated to them, and there are other prompts too: the Western monthly prompt and the monthly blog chain.
DeviantArt Daily Deviations – One of the largest art sites on the ‘net, dA culls some of the most notable artwork, photos, and more into a daily list. Many can be very inspiring! The site is also fully searchable. Warning: especially when logged in, some content may be R-rated and/or NSFW.
Excerpts From Nonexistent Books 
December 18, 2013 at 10:44 pm
I am Kathy faycurry. And I want to know how you got and used my full name on an article I did not write! Nor did I give you permission to use my name! Remove my name from the article and your website! and confirm it has been removed.
December 19, 2013 at 8:00 pm
As it says on the About page, all of the “authors” are fictional and not intended to represent any actual living person. I got the name from the random name generator indicated on this page, and while I’m sorry that you misunderstood the nature of the site, I have no way to contact you to try and work the issue out privately. As such, I will add a middle name to the fake author in question to differentiate her still further from any actual people of the same name, and consider the matter closed.
December 23, 2013 at 12:35 pm
The name generator is using real people’s names. If you want to use fake names ,you should be using first names, not people’s real last names. Regardless,of using a middle name for the article, my real first and last name are part of it, my last name is still being used. I DO NOT give you permission to use my last name on the articles or in your system. Remove me from your system completely and use a fake name or use your own name on the articles. I WANT MY REAL NAME REMOVED! The stories may be fictional but the names are real! That is unethical and wrong!! You are using a name generator which is filtering out REAL people’s name! I did not misunderstand the nature of site. The articles are being written and you claim the authors are fictional BUT they are not! The authors names are real! And since you now know that, Come up with fake names on your own or use first names only or for that matter, use your own name in these articles.
Remove my name and use your own name on the article!!! I want my name removed from the article and removed out of your system. Confirm it has been done. Or I will be reporting you and your site! I will take further
action!!!