“Maybe its like this, Max–you know how, when you are working on a long and ordered piece, all sorts of bright and lovely ideas and images intrude. They have no place in what you are writing, and so if you are young, you write them in a notebook for future use. And you never use them because they are sparkling and alive like colored pebbles on a wave-washed shore. Its impossible not to fill your pockets with them. But when you get home, they are dry and colorless. Id like to pin down a few while they are still wet.“

John Steinbeck, Grapes of Wrath

Pinning down the shiny pebbles.  THAT is something to aspire to.