According to my recently self-appointed novel writing bible HERE, every novel starts with an idea. Yes, yes, we all know that.
Now keep reading. (99% is quoted from the book)

This is from chapter one: The Idea from Heaven... Or elsewhere...
 * To be foundation material, an idea must have two components:
1- Compelling characters
2- Conflict potential

1) Your "... characters are layered and complicated, often confused, and they are in conflict with each other."
I seriously milked the "conflict with each other" during NaNowrimo last year. It helped me reach the word count goal. But does it mean all those conflicts were meaningful to the plot? probably not. However this conflict business will get you fired up enough to keep going because you know you can't create conflict without solving it.

2) "A powerful story idea plants that conflict kernel deep. A powerful storyteller cultivates that kernel through obstacles, frustrations, near misses, and reversals as layered and complicated and complex as the characters themselves."
Do you guys see a very simple and yet strong outlining here? I do. It has just enough to keep you following your story ARC(s) and at the same time leave room for the unexpected to happen.

And to top it all, I need to ask myself a lot of questions and let my characters "get into trouble". I've been raised by strict parents so I'm always afraid to get into too much trouble. Maybe it's time for me to let it happen with my characters?
This new project is taking me out of my comfort zone and I love every scary second of it.

Have you done anything similar to the above when starting a writing project? or different?

On a side note I found this post on Nathan Bransford's blog, that you can check out. It's asking a question that might interest you.

PS: There is a lot more in the first chapter, but I only featured the tips that inspired me.