Funny how I find myself running with a notepad and a pen. This summer, when I was hard against it...trying to meet an August deadline and occasionally finding myself stumped, I'd take off for a ten-miler and get the juices flowing again. After the first half-hour or so, when I get dialed in and the reptile brain takes over, the ideas flow with little or no effort. Great stuff. Call me a junkie.
I also have all sorts of wonderful ideas in my head to write down as I run, especially when all the highs and joys of running hit. It is a bit, however, like all those plans you have while drunk that sound wonderful at the time but a little less passionate later. Sometimes they just don't translate to reality.
I spend a large portion of each run lost in character development and plot ideas. Long runs on trails work best for me. Running and drifting off to sleep/dreaming seem to do the most to stimulate creative and useful ideas to incorporate into whatever novel or story I happen to be writing at the moment.
Ed