the Morning Pages
There is a writing tool called ‘the Morning pages’. It was created by Julia Cameron and made popular in her book ‘The Artist Way”.
It is a practice doing 3 pages of longform writing the first thing in the morning. Daily. That works out to 500 -1000 words. I’ve done ‘ the morning pages’ on and off for over 20 years.
I cannot tell you how they work. Or what exactly they do for me. Or how to do them well. Imagine doing a practice for 20 years, and not really understanding what you’re doing.
I can tell you they don’t always work the same way. It’s like when you have a conversation with someone, sometimes it’s great, and sometimes it’s otherwise.
With the morning pages you can’t really say what they do over all, but you might be able to say what it did for you day today. It’s like going to the gym and not knowing what you’re going to do there, and what you’re going to get out of it.
But you know it’s good for you.
If you’re a creative, Morning pages can be like a gym. A good habit that builds your creative muscle without creating any artifacts.
Oh yeah, that’s the thing, you’re not supposed to show anyone your morning pages. You don’t even need to read them.
Sometimes, I’ll tell you about my morning pages. Like someone telling you what happened at the gym. And when that happens, I’ll link to this post, for anyone who’s not familiar with the practice.
If you want to do morning pages here are the rules.
First-ish thing in the morning is best.
Write 3 pages uninturrupted of what’s ever in your mind.
Then go about your day as normal.
Share your own experience with morning pages, or ask questions.