A Few Stray Jottings

And their little superpowers

Today, I come to your inbox with a few stray jottings!

If you sense my excitement, you’re right, I am excited and not least about the chance to use the word “jottings”. It sounds a little silly when you say it out loud. Try it.

And in a picture book world, where we value silliness, why use a serious word when a puerile one will do? Heh-heh.

I came across the phrase in the late poet, professor, and National Book Award winner William Stafford’s book You Must Revise Your Life about his writing process. Several times, he referred to what he wrote in his daily practice — not as drafts, or poems-in-progress — but as “stray jottings”.

Which made me grin.

Jots, from the Greek word “iota”, literally means an insignificant amount. Paired with “stray”, and the jottings seem unruly, like the little stray jottings are doing their own thing under the radar of scrutiny!

That’s my riff, not Stafford’s. All the same, the phrase stray jottings has often come to my rescue in my creative practice when I’m facing scrutiny— usually of my own making — which then leads to resistance. Aka, when I’m stuck.

Scrutiny. It’s so sneaky! It slips into my process disguised as artistic standards. I want to do a good job, I want to do my best, etc. But somewhere along the way, the Inner Critic has taken over, and my creative self is backing away from the desk, daunted. And side-eyeing Claude. Or one of that ilk.

Not good.

Stray jottings to the rescue! Telling myself that I’m just going to jot down a few things works like a charm.

Btw, feel free to think up another somewhat silly phrase for the smallest iota of your particular creative endeavor if “stray jottings” isn’t apropos. Jazz musicians have “noodling” and “messing around”. I mean, resistance doesn’t stand a chance against those. Whatever you come up with, try to keep it no big deal.

But…sometimes… it is just us. We don’t show up for something that isn’t a big deal, like maybe we’re too big of a deal for the likes of a few stray jottings? We’re more into maxing, which is trending.

And what can a jot, an iota, an insignificant amount do, anyway?

For one thing, stray jottings slip past resistance to get you making good on those creative projects you intended. Who has resistance to a few stray jottings? That’s silly, and not in a good way. For another, there’s always time for a few stray jottings. No excuses, no big deal.

Lastly, making a few stray jottings can be like priming the pump —a little bit to really get you into the flow. A hack, if you will. And a picture book world sanctioned hack, versus the artificial one name Claude or whatever.

William Stafford said his stray jottings, bubbled up as “little discoveries” from “the mysterious river of [his] inner life” blending with the river of his regular life. And, upon looking back at his process, what Stafford thought were stray or random jottings contained “hints of a current” of the mysterious river, and contained themes traveling toward, and informing what he was writing, even though he wasn’t aware of it at the time. Not so stray after all.

When we’re in flow and creating, that’s the current we’re on! The current of the mysterious river powering our creations! So here’s to stray jottings! Jot, jot, jot for a picture book world!