Introducing The Commonplace Book

"And what," you may be asking yourself upon seeing the title of this post, "is a commonplace book?" Good question, dear reader. Some definitions dub it a reference book for logical arguments or philosophical assertions. Others prefer a more generalized designation, terming it a repository of all sorts of interesting bits of knowledge. Several years ago, I learned that H.P. Lovecraft jotted down largely unrealized story ideas in one, and you can read it over at Wired. For a while now, I've filled with fiction ideas a little gray Moleskine with an elastic band that keeps it from flapping open at inconvenient times.

Unfortunately, to me "inconvenient" seems the right word for just such a book. Lacking any semblance of an index or organization, its early entries end up ignored by me more often than not. So I'm migrating all future fictional woolgathering to my own little corner of the Internet. The Commonplace Book is a Tumblr blog, meaning it contains minimal formatting fuss and hopefully an ever-increasing amount of grist for the narrative mill. Photos, news articles, philosophical tidbits, economic adages, musings on genre conventions -- all of it's game. Feel free to stop by. Who knows? Maybe it'll help prompt some story ideas of your own.

(Picture: CC 2007 by vlasta2)