As someone who does a considerable amount of reading and writing, I have kept a commonplace book for years. The only problem was that I didn’t know that what I was doing had a name. I’ve regularly carried various notebooks and made all kinds of notes in them. Sometimes I wrote down original thoughts that I hoped I could turn into something longer or more polished one day. Sometimes I wrote out what was essentially a “to do” list (or more accurately, a “to write” list). I’ve written down half-formed ideas, sketches, musical lines, reminders, even collected autographs.
Some of these notebooks have even stayed with me through the years but more often it is just a page or two that have been saved. Occasionally I will re-copy a note into a new book so I can preserve it. In any case, these thoughts are a collection of things I write and things I like that others have written. Sometimes they have been organized by general topic or theme, but most often have just been a somewhat random collection. That has changed slightly relatively recently and I have been trying to keep the thoughts more closely organized for future reference. It is certainly much easier than looking through a notebook to find where a thought has been recorded.
I first encountered the term “commonplace book” (at least as far as I can recall) while reading Building a Second Brain by Tiago Forte. While the book advocates for an electronic format of note keeping, there is quite an extensive section on the commonplace book and its relevance and use throughout history. As a trained historian, I am a little disappointed in myself that I don’t remember ever encountering the term previously. Mostly I remember people keeping what were called “notebooks” that included ideas, sketches, and other materials. One of the most famous of these notebooks was kept by Leonardo da Vinci, as well as by other notable figures such as Thomas Jefferson, John Locke, and Virginia Woolf.
The commonplace book is so much more than a diary or a journal of personal reflections. It instead becomes a tool for learning and a way to synthesize ideas into a larger world framework. According to Robert Darnton in A Case for Books, the commonplace book was a repository of thoughts where “reading and writing were therefore inseparable activities”. One would take their own original thoughts, compare and join with the original thoughts of others, and the create a whole new pattern for looking at the world around them.
In 1706, John Locke had published A New Method of Making Common-Place Books in which he lays out a system for setting up one’s own commonplace book. There is an explanation of the purpose, an example of a method for establishing an index of the ideas, and a way to group the ideas. In it, Locke states that “We extract only those Things which are Choice and Excellent, either for the Matter itself, or else the Elegancy of the Expression, and not what comes next.” He also recommends reading a book at least once before attempting to extract the most useful information (most useful to you) for further use.
A commonplace book can be a useful tool for writers, whether your emphasis is fiction or nonfiction. The organization of your thoughts, coupled with inspiration or information from others, can help create a wide range of final products. One just needs to develop a system of organization that works for you and begin to write your notes. Over time it becomes easier and an almost seamless component to your creative process.