Morning Pages

We all have an internal editor, which is very important in most situations—at work, discussing things with our significant others, most public activities. However, when we sit down to a blank page, the last thing we need is the critical voice of our personal filters stunting the flow of our raw creative force.

I have to admit, I have not read The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron, but her idea of writing “Morning Pages” was passed on to me by a friend during the first year of my creative writing degree. Morning Pages are a simple discipline—write three pages a day (ideally first thing after waking), stream of consciousness, without stopping. These pages are not meant to be read by anyone…even yourself. And they aren’t meant to be brilliant, so don’t expect them to be.

At first, I had a difficult time not reading my entries, and not expecting them to be brilliant. I often leafed back through my journals, looking for little nuggets of genius to work from or turn in to class—and with absolutely no success. In fact, because you are to write three pages without stopping, many of my entries ended up repeating one or two words: so so so so what so what so what so what what what what. And nearly all of my journaling started with an account of my dating troubles and feeling terribly sorry for myself.

Those are things that you should find in a regular Morning Pages. The real process of writing without thinking and without stopping gives us an opportunity to voice all the terrible, horrible, wonderful daily distractions that bring us out of the creative mindset, and move us to a place of un-judged creativity. The act of writing Morning Pages safely moves us from the logical, critical mind to the deep, abundant subconscious.

Morning Pages are for visual artists as well as writers, so those of a less verbal nature should definitely try this out. More info is available at this website: http://www.theartistsway.com/pdfs/basictools.pdf