I’ve long thought that “the idea” was usually the easy part, the hard part came in the execution of the story/article/script. A frequent complaint by s.f. writers (maybe others, but I followed science fiction writers back when) was having someone come up to them at conventions with the proposition, “I have this great idea for a story! I give you the idea, you write the story, we split the profits 50/50. Deal?” No writer ever agreed to the deal.