If there is one routine that has changed me as a person, it is the Morning pages.
It has given me clarity of thought like never before and made me see the big picture in life.
I Write faster now, with clarity and often solve many confusing conundrums while doing this daily ritual.
What are Morning Pages?
Julia Cameron calls the morning pages as ‘the bedrock tool for a creative recovery.’
Morning pages are three pages written in longhand immediately after you wake up. That is three handwritten pages.
It can take around half an hour to complete.
It is a stream of consciousness way of writing where you just transcribe the thoughts that are hovering in your mind early in the morning.
It is to be done without putting much focus on the grammar or the topic you are writing about.
It is in a way making your brain vomit on the pages.
And *most important* don’t reread them.
Why morning pages and not afternoon pages or evening pages?
Early in the morning, your monkey brain is half asleep and hence you can easily make it voice the venom it is preparing to spew out on you, once it becomes fully awake.
Your anxieties, your fears, your dreams, your ideas, everything gets captured in these three pages that you write.
There are people who do this ritual in the afternoon or evenings and find the same benefits.
I, personally, prefer to write them first thing in the morning.
Can I type the morning pages?
Some people do the morning pages on their laptop or computer.
It is then 750 words of stream of consciousness way of writing.
It keeps tracks of the number of words and alerts you when you reach the word limit.
Morningpages.net allows users to write their morning pages online and save them. You don't even need to register at the site if all you want is to just write.
Again, I prefer to write longhand. There is something very satisfying about writing in longhand.
My experience with morning pages
I started writing morning pages in the first week of December.
It is a routine I have religiously followed since then and I plan to stick with it.
The morning pages have made me more confident about my creativity.
I don't get writer's block anymore.
They also gave me different ideas that I could implement in my life.
Other Personal takeaways?
- I got ideas to blog about.
- I have written difficult scenes in my WIP that were troubling me since long after I dissected them over in this morning ritual.
- I have tried out techniques of writing by attempting them in my morning pages.
- I plotted an entire book idea one morning.
- I have become more conscious about the little things that matter in life.
- I completed one short story, which had been going nowhere, within one week of beginning the morning pages.
- I have vented my anger and sadness in these pages.
- I am more perceptive and grateful to the gifts that I have in my life.
- Synchronicity has become commonplace.
How to write the morning pages?
As Julia Cameron herself says,
" *There is no wrong way to do Morning Pages*– they are not high art.
They are not even “writing.”
They are about anything and everything that crosses your mind– and they are for your eyes only.
Morning Pages provoke, clarify, comfort, cajole, prioritize and synchronize the day at hand.
Do not over-think Morning Pages: just put three pages of anything on the page...and then do three more pages tomorrow.”
The only important thing to remember is, do not re-read your morning pages. At least not for the first eight weeks.
Write them and keep the journal away.
If you find it difficult to begin you can even write things like,’ I don’t know what to write here’ repeatedly and fill the three pages.
Trust me, you will get enough material to write about even if you are not a writer by profession.
Morning pages are for everyone. It is like meditation on paper.
Are you ready to unleash the magic of morning pages in your life?
Have you tried this technique? Do tell me what you think about it in the comments section.
This post first appeared on Preethi Venugopala- A Writer's Oasis, please read the originial post: here
