Where do people get their story ideas from?

Personally, I take the easy route - sit around and wait for ideas to hit my brain, where they are warped into deranged plot skeletons before being further processed into an inevitably vacuous story.

If I want to write and I don't have a plot in mind, then I just tend to take characters that I have invented previously and throw them into strange situations to see what happens.

Not only does this indicate a degree of lethargy, but it doesn't work either.

How about everyone else?

I get my ideas from real life situations.

I never know what's going to come out when I start writing...unlike most writers I do not formulate the base idea of a story then flesh it out...I just start with a few words or a sentence and let it happen...oh, and it usually helps if I'm drunk...whisky seems to be a good brain lubricant for me...

I like your approach, walkker. I do that sometimes (minus the inebriety), and I always end up with something that I think is hilarious, but bores everyone else to death.

Re-reading my post, it sounds like I actually plan my stories, but I only plan as much as can stay in my head (or rather, I only remember as much as can stay in my head; I'm sure many great ideas have slipped into oblivion).

sleep deprevation, usually helps with ideas, i believe you should punish your body to free your mind. i call it the EAP approach, tho i dont want to marry my 14 year old cousin.

Well it usually depends on what I am writing, but if I am writing something in the Chris Chen universe, I start with something I have observed or seen, news clips or articles for example, and think about what reasons events could have occured.  I then plop Chris into the scenario and let him do his thing.  

When I write something outside of my normal reality, my short Honor's Lesson for example, I find a theme I am interested in expressing, and a story that should and can be told through appropriate characters.  Then I just let it run and if I have solid enough characters, the story just floats itself.

I agree with the above, that sleep depervation really tends to help me come up with ideas.  Unfortunately unless I write down the ideas as they hit me, I tend to forget them in a sleep deprived state.