I know of at least one author (Roald Dahl?) who swears that he lost several novel-quality ideas to this pattern. The sort of thing where you're lying awake at

I know of at least one author (Roald Dahl?) who swears that he lost several novel-quality ideas to this pattern. The sort of thing where you're lying awake at night and go "that would be a great idea for a book, I should write it down in the morning!" He also recounts saving one published story he came up with in the car: he pulled over and scribbled it in the dust on the rear windshield. Among authors alone, I would imagine we've lost a great many brilliant books because brainstorming is tricky and variable. Some days you get nothing, some days you get a dozen ideas and only one makes it out to the rest of the world. I can't think of a good answer. Meditation and memory training might help, but are not silver bullets. Typing tends to be flow breaking (though I'm sure smartphones have improved matters) and vocalization is slow and awkward. It's hard to imagine anything short of EEG-translation removing the I/O limits on the mind.