Here's a little present for you: a great way to stimulate ideas for your writing. Thanks to the excellent site creativecreativity.com, I discovered a site that offers a variety of notions for plots, characters, and situations. It's the seventhsanctum site, and while it's geared to people into fantasy role playing, the idea generators are useful to all kinds of writers (you'll find the different generators listed on the left).
Of course you won't be handed a complete plot, and many of the ideas are kind of strange but, as a way to stimulate your own thinking, these are excellent. I'll give you some samples. The "Envisoner" came up with these:
* The story of the 3 Musketeers set at a summer camp.
* A fusion of the legend of Perseus and the legend of the Golem that concerns a group of stuffed animals.
* The story of the little Dutch boy envisioned as a horror tale.
OK, I'm not sure about the stuffed animals, but the 3 Musketeers at a summer camp could be a good starting point for a teen comedy.
Here are three from the quick story generator (as you'll see, this adds a theme):
* The theme of this story: noir action. The main character: poor mercenary. The major event of the story: service.
* The theme of this story: psychological character study. The main character: kind assisant. The major event of the story: premonition.
* The theme of this story: romantic slice-of-life. The main characters: poised farmer and withdrawn astronomer. The major event of the story: premonition.
Here are three from the character generator:
* The hard working and ethical man who is avoiding an arranged marriage and who solves crimes.
* The laid-back common man who is the last of a lost species and who is bound by an unpleasant duty.
* The man with no name who is bound by an unpleasant duty.
And, finally, three from the action films generator (in the style of film trailers):
* In a city of hopelessness and war, four nanotechnologists and a computer programmer fight crime.
* In a universe of lost souls and sorcery, three wizards and a nanotechnologist combat crime.
* In a galaxy of corruption, in an age of dark magic, three librarians and a biologist oppose a mob of monsters intent on on summoning an evil god.
It's fun playing with these--but I must warn you, also compulsive!