How the Practice of Morning Pages Will Make You a Better Writer

And keep you writing daily

Most writers keep some form of a journal but I’ve only met a few who employ the practice of morning pages. While journaling can happen at any time of the day, include any thoughts or musings about life, and can be a few random thoughts or several pages of creative flow, morning pages, by definition, are completed first thing in the morning and have a specific purpose and length.

Julia Cameron, the author of The Artist’s Way, recommends three full-page, long-hand writing pages first thing in the morning — okay, you can get a cup of coffee first. There’s a purpose and a method to this that she has proven works to keep creative souls unblocked and combat against a myriad of evils that writers face — including writer’s block.

If you are a writer or an artist of any kind really, and you’ve not yet been a student of Julia Cameron, may I suggest you get yourself down to the bookstore or library and introduce yourself to her writings?

Here’s the premise behind morning pages

Like a water pump, we need to stay primed in order to do our best writing. When emotional baggage, stress, lingering annoyances over life’s stuff begin to build up we get a little backed up. And that can hamper a writer’s creativity.

Morning pages are a stream of consciousness act of writing done first thing in the morning as you clear the cobwebs from your mind. Morning pages are not meant to be pretty or tidy or even creative. They can sometimes be nothing more than a list of dull thoughts that are on your mind at the moment. Sounds boring, but trust me, boring morning pages lead to inspired and vibrant thoughts for the rest of the day.

I often wonder what my children and grandchildren will think when they discover my journals of morning pages. Will they think my days have been spent on the vanity of penning boring and frivolous words in an endless parade of flower-covered journals?

Quite the contrary, these morning pages are therapeutic and a necessary part of keeping me primed for when inspiration does strike. Without morning pages all the sloggy, self-absorbed, boring stuff would end up on the pages meant for public consumption and that would be embarrassing and self-indulgent and a waste of everyone’s time.

Morning pages are like a dancer’s warm-up routine or a singer practicing her scales before she takes the stage, or if you will, batting practice before the game. Every performer or artist has to get the kinks out, rub the cobwebs away, and find her groove. That’s what morning pages can do for the writer.

Morning pages loosen up my creaky voice, stretch my writing muscles, and limber up my creative joints so I can get back into form. The longer away from the page, the more important morning pages become. One’s writing can become stiff and lose its authentic, vulnerable edge if it sits too long.

The practice of morning pages guards against sounding too stiff and formal, or worse, using the public page as a dumping ground for one’s unprocessed emotions and wearisome drama. During morning pages, one can process, sift, sort, vent, and filter. And sometimes a gem or two does surface that I can pass on to my readers. But, just like mining for precious ore and gemstones, one has to go through a lot of sludge to find a few ounces of pure gold.

Start with morning pages but don’t stop there

You don’t have to start with The Artist’s Way. I didn’t. I first read The Right to Write and The Artist’s Way sat on my bookshelf for more than a decade. I had a suspicion of what was in store for me once I committed to that book so I hid from it. Once I rededicated my life to writing I knew this book would be a necessary step to freeing the writer within. I wasn’t wrong. And I wasn’t disappointed.

I know there are a lot of books out there about writing and I’ve read many of them. Julia Cameron’s books are at the top of my list because she gives strategies and writing prompts and challenges that won’t allow you to stay a surface writer. She begs you to dig deep, to clear away the resistance, the inauthentic facade, and the fear.

Writing pages are a staple in her protocol and once I started, I’ve had no reason to stop and no desire to let this important practice slide away from my morning routine. Even when I’m traveling I take a journal and spend a few minutes each morning — just like many would with their exercise routine — to keep up my habit.

Occasionally a day or two might slip by me if things are really helter-skelter in my life, but it doesn’t happen too often. Morning pages have become too important to me as a writer and too critical to me being able to write on a daily basis.

You may have been writing for a few days or several years, but if you’ve yet to explore morning pages, I encourage you to investigate the potential this practice has for freeing the writer within and keeping the creative juices flowing.

Cheers to your morning routine — whatever it might be!

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