Madison Avenue advertising executive Alex Osborn developed the original approach and published it in his 1953 book, "Applied Imagination."

Since then, researchers have made many improvements to his original technique.

Individual brainstorming is a useful method in creative writing and has been shown to be superior in generating better ideas than traditional group brainstorming.

Individuals are free to explore ideas in their own time without any fear of criticism, and without being dominated by other group members.