As a kid, I kept a marble bound notebook with aphorisms, phrases, rhymes and orders of words I liked. Some ended up in stories and essays I’d write. Otherwise, looking back, I now understand that I was also just practicing my writing.
As an adult, I learned this had a term: a spark file, or a collection of terms and story starts to incorporate you otherwise. There is a difference between phrases I want to capture and the practice of writing ideas succinctly. Both have their role, and I now do something similar for both: collect ideas, story starts and specific phrasing. Increasingly though, I don’t hoard but rather let loose.
Annie Dillard says you gotta write and let it go