A notebook... who knew?

I belong to a forums for writers offered by Mur Lafferty (I Should Be Writing, link over on the right). On one of the threads on that site people discussed the need to always carry a notebook with you, in case you have ideas, thoughts, snippets of dialogue, etc.

I've never been one to write down ideas that pop into my head. I usually just let them mull around in my brain until I have a full story idea and then start writing. Now if the thoughts are tied to my campaign/world setting, that's a different story.

But I've never carried around a notebook, per se. Until the other day, when I was sitting in a seminar and the hosts gave us a cool marketing toy that just happened to be a metal covered notebook. Since the seminar was soooooooooooo entertaining, I began thinking about novel ideas... and short story ideas. And then I started writing them down in my new notebook :)

I fleshed out what could end up being the fourth Land of Caern novel. :) And then I mapped out a short story -- the first non-fantasy short story I'll write since I took a creative writing class in 1993. I'm really excited about it, although it won't be a happy one... just an emotional one.