Writing Wednesdays: Morning Pages

Writing Morning Pages isn’t exactly “writing.” Yet it’s a practice I’ve returned to throughout the past 15 years when I feel stuck, lost, or lack motivation. It’s a tried-and-true way I get my momentum back – and if you’ve stumbled across this little post while procrastinating at your desk, it just might be what you need to re-focus on your writing.

Writer Julia Cameron describes Morning Pages as meditation for Westerners; it’s “three pages of longhand writing, strictly stream-of-consciousness.” Now this is important: you have to follow the rules.

1. You must write longhand, with a pen and paper (maybe a colored pencil, if you’re feeling fancy). There’s something about the tactile nature of these materials, the scratch of pen against page, and the slower writing pace – I’m not a neuroscientist, but changing the way you write definitely changes how your brain works with this process.

2. The size of the page doesn’t matter, but the mystical number of three does. Write three pages. It’s going to take as long as it takes you to fill them up. I do single sided.

3. You have permission to silence your inner editor. For these three pages, there will be no censorship, judgement, or worry about grammatical conventions from you, dear writer. You’re simply going to articulate anything that wants to come out.

4. The writing must be constant until your three pages are filled. The pen must always be making contact with the page. This means, if your mind is blank, you will write, “My mind is blank. This is stupid. What am I doing?” I promise you, after a few lines of that, other words will come.

Cameron recommends that this not-quite journaling practice be done daily, upon first waking. For her, it’s a spiritual discipline. For me, who already has a practice of making coffee upon first waking, I’ve found Morning Pages still work even if I’m not as devout. As an extroverted writer, I often use Morning Pages to process externally during my mid-afternoon slump. They always reveal a way into more writing: sometimes by helping me identify my priorities, sometimes by giving myself space to generate nonsense until the right words emerge, sometimes by helping me brainstorm wild ideas until one feels plausible and resonant to take forward.

So, dear writer, I offer this strategy the next time you’re feeling listless and looking for distraction. May Morning Pages help you write your way out, at whatever time of day.