"There's nothing common about a commonplace book"

...as a writer for The Times so appropriately put it.

It's something I've been doing for a while now. I note down anything and everything into a notebook. Passages for a book/ poem that I particularly like. Things which made me laugh, interesting facts, parts of interesting conversations I've had or just a good bit of a dialogue from a conversation, random sentences that pop into my head, character/setting ideas

Really anything at all. It's great to flick back through it for inspiration (or just any time you feel like it for that matter).

Anyway, it's something I really enjoyed doing and I'm sure a tonne of other people on here do it too, so I thought I'd share for those who don't, and for those who do you can always post something on this thread which you noted down.

You never know, you might inspire someone else

P.S. Let me know if you try this and enjoy it, or if it's successful and helpful. I'd like to hear about it

I kind of do this.
I don't have one specific notebook for it though. If something comes to mind I just write it down on the nearest available paper.
I enjoy it though. I would forget these ideas otherwise and sometimes they are extremely little tidbits

I definitely agree with you. A while ago, I thought about it but thought how cumbersome it would be to carry a book/paper/something everywhere with me. I'm kind of weird like that. However, just recently I got this cute little notebook and have been carrying it in my purse with me. My mind is like a sieve, I swear, and since I've had that notebook handy, I won't forget the little ideas that pop in my head for my novel, phrases that happen to swim through my mind that I'd otherwise have let go to drown in the sands of time, and well, yeah, I can keep track of 'things to do' a lot better as well.

I second your recommendation to use a commonplace book, especially if you find you're somewhat scatterbrained! ^_^ -thumbs up-

...personally? I've tried this 'writing whatever down' thing before, and it never did jack for me. I suppose it works for some while just being an annoyance to others.

I have tried it, but I never seem to have the notebook with me when I come up with an idea. And even when I do have it with me, I don't usually bother writing anything down unless I think it's REALLY worthwhile, and in that case, I usually don't forget it anyway. I think it's a really good idea, but for me personally, it's not very practical.

I never really did it. I mostly just let the things sink to the back of my mind and some of them float back up if I'm really, really brain dead. It helps.