- Word Association. Used to love this when I was a kid as you could get some funny outcomes but it is worth playing this game on paper to see what links you can create here. If you need a helping hand to get started, pick a word at random from the dictionary and off you go! Set yourself a time of two to three minutes and jot down whatever comes into your head. You can select the links you like the most later.
- Random Word Generators. Use one of these and pick five words to work with. On some generators, you can set the first and last letter, how many letters you want in the words and so on. Then try putting what you come up with into a story. It works really well for flash fiction but there is no reason why you can't put these words into a longer tale.
- Opposites. Write down an object and then write down separately what could be said to be opposite to it. For example - hot water tap. Its opposite is the cold water one. Now what role could these play in a story?
- The Hat Game. Write down a variety of nouns, verbs, adjectives etc on separate slips of paper. Draw out a few at random and again put into a story. This is the traditional version of the random word generator but there is no reason why you can't still play this in this way. What I think you need to aim for here is a nice mixture of the ordinary and the extraordinary for things to put on the slips of paper. That is where you can "control" things unlike a random generator BUT limit yourself to how many slips of paper you pick out and write what you come up with into a story, no matter how bizarre your selections are. Have fun with this.
Hope you find these help generate story ideas. I'm particularly fond of the first two!