The phrase "developed a desire" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it when expressing that someone has cultivated or grown a wish or longing for something over time.
Example: "After years of working in the field, she developed a desire to start her own business."
Alternatives: "cultivated a longing" or "gained an interest."
"The truth is I've developed a desire to migrate to the grand banks of Newfoundland".
Over a series of months he ultimately developed a desire to carry out a terrorist attack on British soldiers".
His father owned a garage and Ian developed a desire to use the tools he found to make things.
Russia, in more ways than it may want to admit, has developed a desire for the suburban comforts of America.
She had long given up the Christianity of John, and as her knowledge of these dissident ancient communities grew she developed a desire for diversity of practice and doctrine and for the undogmatic benefits of religious community.
But even as he was competing as tennis's young rebel, with long hair and a devil-may-care attitude that rankled traditionalists, he said he developed a desire to help children.
"I did develop a desire to look after her, because she's trusting you with her stuff.
The literary side of their education was better suited to training a lawyer — or, for that matter, a professor of education — than to developing a desire for reading.
An aesthetic sensibility can bestow the tantalising taste of moral and intellectual freedoms, it also develops a desire to own and possess.
Mo-Ped: When you become a singing star, it is wrong to want to your breast-feeding to be private.... [Comparison of Jimmy Stewart and Frank Gifford.] Socrates: Let us now go to the supermarket and see if we develop a desire to see a doctored photo of Tom Cruise biting Oprah's car seat!
Some do not realize that this is not always possible and hence develop a desire for further cosmetic and reconstructive surgery (CRS) which often causes psychological problems.
