Good article. I have ideas for stories so often that I keep a file that just has a sentence or two, describing the idea. Over ninety percent of these never get past that stage, but some get turned into novels.

For example, having just reviewed my files, I can tell you that my gothic mystery The Birds Began to Sing began simply as "Female wannabe author joins mysterious writing competition in English country house, to pen ending for unfinished manuscript by famous dead author. Weird stuff happens". The idea could have sat there forever, never getting developed beyond that point, but once I came up with a twist ending that I was hugely enthusiastic about, I worked backwards from that point and planned the thing properly. The novel has been released, so it's a rare one of my ideas that made it through the entire process.