Blogiversary Giveaway; Jot Journals: Creativity Treasure Chests
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March 2019 Edition

In This Issue:

  • Happy Spring!
  • TeachingAuthors 10th blogiversary giveaway
  • Upcoming events/classes
  • Jot journals: creativity treasure chests

Happy Spring!

     Spring seems a bit late here in the Midwest, but I just got back from a trip to Arizona where the cacti and flowers are already blooming. In Phoenix, we visited the Desert Botanical Garden, where I took the pictures below. The photo on the right was taken inside the Spring Butterfly Exhibit. If you look closely, you may be able to make out a Zebra Longwing butterfly in the shadows at the bottom center of the photo.

TeachingAuthors 10th blogiversary giveaway

    Spring means it's time to celebrate the anniversary of our TeachingAuthors blog. Yesterday, March 29, I kicked off a series of ten posts honoring this, our TENTH, anniversary. We are marking this momentous milestone by giving away a signed copy of The Magic Words: Writing Great Books for Children and Young Adults by children's book editor Cheryl Klein. You can read all about our blogiversary celebration and enter the giveaway here

Upcoming events/classes

    I'll be presenting my popular Turning Life into Fiction workshop at the Fremont Library in Mundelein, IL on Wednesday, April 17, 2019, from
7-8:30 pm
. The workshop is free but registration is required. You can register online here.

     At 1:30 pm Saturday, April 27, I'll be participating in an author panel at the Wheaton, Il Library Author Fest, a fun event for writers and readers of all ages..

     On Saturday, June 1, I'll be at Italian American Literati 2019, an annual celebration of local Italian American Authors. The event will be held from 9:30 am-2:30 pm at Casa Italia in Stone Park, IL. The program features author presentations, a meet and greet with coffee and Italian cookies, book sales, raffles, and more. Best of all, it's FREE and open to the public! For complete info, see the IA Literati website or check out their Event Page on Facebook.

     I'm also honored to have been invited to speak at this year's Karitos Worship and Arts Conference to be held in Streator, IL, July 11-13, 2019. I'll be presenting three workshops for the Literary Arts track. Watch for details in a future newsletter. 

     I won't be teaching any classes at College of DuPage this spring or summer, but stay tuned for news of my fall class.

Jot journal: a creativity treasure chest

     My fellow TeachingAuthor, Mary Ann Rodman, recently posted about how she uses what she calls a "jot journal" to record her story ideas. I love the term "jot journal" so much I'm going to steal it to describe a slightly different type of journal: a notebook (either physical or electronic) for recording not only story ideas but also sensory details, turns of phrase, bits of dialogue, etc. In the past, I've called this an "Impressions Notebook" in my classes for adults and a "Writer's Notebook" in my children's classes, but from now on I plan to us the term "jot journal" instead.

     To be clear, the jot journal I'm referring to is NOT a type of "diary." I think of it as a treasure chest for storing ideas, images, physical sensations, etc.

The War of Art cover

     Jot journals can be helpful for all sorts of creative work, not just writing. An article in the Life+Travel section of the February 17, 2019 Chicago Tribune opens with a description of how Robert Sheridan, a filmmaker and musician, writes daily in a Moleskin notebook "as an aid to memory and creativity." The article includes a photograph of Sheridan's journal with a caption that begins: "Sheridan said keeping a journal helps him pay attention, . . . ."

     I believe paying attention is key for all types of creativity and a jot journal is a terrific tool for developing it as a habit. Simply having an assigned place to record ideas and details can help us become more aware of them.

     Here's a picture of my jot journal, a 3 1/2" x 4" spiral notebook that slips easily into my purse or pocket. But if an idea strikes when I don't have it with me, I sometimes use my phone to record notes and then add them to the jot journal later, just because I like to have all my "jots" in one place. My phone also comes in handy for taking photos of images that are hard to describe in words.

     My jot journal contains lots of notes from things I've noticed on my walks outdoors, such as the "purty-purty-purty" call of a cardinal and the sweet smell of pear blossoms in the spring. I ended up including these two "jots" in my novels, the first in Rosa, Sola and the second in Playing by Heart. These are the kinds of details that help make a story come alive for readers.

     I recommend keeping a jot journal to both beginning and experienced writers. One of the great things about these journals is that they're very "low pressure." You can write as little or as much in your jot journal as you like, which leads to this month's tip. (If you missed my last creativity tip on Conquering Resistance, you can read it in my January newsletter.)  

     This month's creativity tip: Start a jot journal of your own. If you like keeping a paper journal, as I do, buy or designate a small notebook for this purpose. Or, if you prefer to record your jots on your phone, choose an app or phone feature that allows you to easily take notes. Then, start paying attention. Whenever you get an idea or notice something unusual or striking, make a quick jot in your journal. Try to include details from all your senses--not only things you see but those you hear, smell, taste, or touch, too.

     To close, I'll leave you with this short excerpt on the value of notebooks from Gail Sher's One Continuous Mistake: Four Noble Truths for Writers:    

“Rich and insightful though they may be,
fleeting thoughts are transient. Vagabonds of the mind, they appear then disappear. Writers must catch these volatile vapors.
'How do you do that?' (We have dream-catchers,
how 'bout fleeting-thought catchers?)

Writers carry notebooks. Some writers carry notebooks in which they never jot things down but anyway they carry them.
Then one day there is an explosion of understanding.
The old notebook is right there."

I hope you find keeping a jot journal useful even if it never leads to an "explosion of understanding." 

Until next time, happy creating!

Carmela

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Copyright © 2019 Carmela A. Martino. All rights reserved.

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