Keeping an Ideas Notebook

My Ideas Notebook

I was wondering if anyone uses a notebook to jot down ideas. I started keeping one recently, especially since I’ve started reading more history books. I like to jot little details down that I find interesting, or ideas for scenes I might use in future books, character traits or quirks. If I’m reading or listening to the radio and I hear something that gives me a light bulb, I write it down. I don’t know whether I’ll use the ideas or not, but they were too good just to forget.

Some of the little things I have jotted down include:

’92 year old lady has bright red hair. Every day she cuts her own hair to make her eye lashes.’

“‘Sickness and death begin to wonderfully grow among us. It is a most pitiful sight to see… how the men, having no place to go, die in the streets. It would grieve any man’s heart to see them that have served so bravely to die so miserably.’ Admiral Lord Howard 1588’

‘Mary Queen of Scotts’ executioner was to lift her head high to prove she was dead. Because Mary was wearing a wig, the executioner had dropped the head.’

‘The Peterloo Masacre’ (I intend to use this as a basis for a scene in a future book.)

Does anyone else keep an ideas notebook and have you used any of the ideas in your writing? What kind of things do you like to jot down?