What Is A Commonplace Book?

Lately, I’ve been seeing many posts about commonplace books. Once I discovered what commonplace books were, I was surprised I hadn’t kept one before. Then I realized that I have kept commonplace books, only I called them quote journals. Maybe you have too.

The simplest way to understand a commonplace book is to think of it as a receptacle of knowledge. A commonplace book is a handy-dandy place to keep your favorite quotes and passages from books, memes, movies, TV shows, and research. Perhaps a friend said something wise that you want to remember. You would write that into your commonplace book. A commonplace book is a place to record anything you find important.

Commonplace books have been kept for centuries. Some noteworthy people who kept commonplace books are Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Mark Twain, and Virginia Woolf, among many others.

Using A Commonplace Book To Help With Writing Projects

As I’ve been reading about commonplace books, I thought the process of keeping such a journal might help me with my new book about writing. I’ve been working on this project for several months now, and I kept hitting a wall since there are a few moving parts that need to move in tandem in order for this book to work. On the one hand, the book is about how I learned to embrace the writing life. There are also aspects of spirituality, including mindfulness, as well as elements of slow living. While I had a general idea of what I was trying to accomplish, figuring out how the pieces fit together has been an interesting process, to say the least.

Commonplace books are not necessarily intended to help with certain projects. They are intended to be a place to explore ideas and keep information. Leonardo da Vinci’s commonplace book is a thing of wonder. But I decided that I could use the commonplace book as a way to help me gather my ideas for my book in one place. I had quotes, ideas, and information that I wanted to use scattered without rhyme or reason, so I decided to dedicate a commonplace book specifically as a receptacle for information for this particular book I’m writing.

My Process Of Keeping a Commonplace Book

This is the book I’m using for my commonplace book. It’s a 5.7 x 8-inch dotted journal from Paperage that I purchased from Amazon. It came in a package of three. I bought it for bullet journaling, and I created two bullet journals that I used for research for The Duchess of Idaho. I’ll share the process of bullet journaling as a way to research historical fiction in a future post. At first, I wasn’t sure about the dots instead of lines, but I’ve come to like the dots since the dots give me more flexibility with how I use the page.

This is the title page of my book. When I originally decided to create a commonplace book, I thought I would make it a little crafty since there are many examples of crafty commonplace books. However, as I thought about it, I realized that I have my art journal and my junk journal for artistic expression, and if my intention for this commonplace book is to help me gather my thoughts for the book I’m writing, then getting crafty wasn’t necessary.

My one concession to creating a crafty commonplace book was using washi tape to create a left-side margin where I write the name of the person who said the quote or gave the information. You can see that the person’s name is to the left and their quote is to the right.

I haven’t organized the book in any way. I’ve been going through the notes I have scattered around my workspace and I’ve been adding them to the commonplace book as I find them. It seems like I find something new I want to add every day.

I have quotes from writers, spiritual teachers, rabbis, Brene Brown, artists, creatives, Julia Cameron, Tasha Tudor; really, a wide variety of sources. Now I have everything I want to consider for this odd little book I’m writing together in one journal. When I’m writing, I have my handy-dandy little green commonplace book at my side, and when I’m looking for a quote from Anne Lamott, for example, I know where to find it.

While the book itself isn’t organized in any certain way, having the names to the left of the page makes it easier for me to find that Anne Lamott quote. I have to skim the left-hand side of the pages to find the quote I’m looking for, but I think it’s easier than if I had written the names after the quotes inside the text.

If I’m writing a number of passages from the same book, then I’ll write the author and the name of the book in the left-side margin, and then after that, I’ll add the page numbers where I found the quotes.

You don’t need to use a commonplace book specifically for a project as I am. You can keep a commonplace book with inspirational quotes that will help get you going when your motivation tank is running low. You can use it to doodle and work through ideas. You can keep a commonplace book as a place to keep interesting pieces of knowledge that you want to remember.

Why Keep A Commonplace Book?

I watched an interesting video about commonplace books on YouTube by Robin Waldun where he discusses how commonplace books can boost our creativity. Waldun argues that since there aren’t many brand-new ideas, creativity happens when we look at what others have done before us. By studying what others have done, we can take what we learn from them and then make it our own. Creating a commonplace book gives us space where we can take information from others, study it, synthesize it, and learn from it. Afterward, we might have the knowledge to create something that is uniquely our own.

That’s so true in writing, isn’t it? There really aren’t any new stories to be told. But we learn from our influences and create a style all our own. Then we tell the stories the way only we can.

I’m so happy that I discovered the joys of keeping a commonplace book. Having all my research for my odd little book in one place makes writing that book much easier.