Morning Pages and Practicing Morning Creativity

My absolute favorite time of the day is early, early morning before everyone else is up and driving around, getting ready for their commute or their day, doing whatever it is people do. I like to sit here by the open window and listen to crickets, morning birds, plaintive train whistles, and sip coffee. My brain is usually running full tilt by this time. During university days, I would wake up after a previous day of heavy brain work and a title or idea for a paper would be in my head already, whole and entire. The brain is an amazing tool.

As the title suggests, I have read Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way and have since then, not gotten her idea of “morning pages” out of my head. She states the obvious but much needed advice; the basic discipline of any writer is to write, write, write during set times of the day. It doesn’t matter what you write as long as you are practicing your craft. Now some of us aren’t thinking of our writing as a “craft” because we don’t sell it. But in order to write well you must write. It’s the same for any kind of discipline. Practice does indeed make, if not perfect, then refined. She advocates writing 3 pages of anything. It doesn’t matter what you write. Just write. She calls this stage trying to “get to the other side” (12), in other words, getting past all the fluff and trash in our minds and to the core of our talent. We are such layered beings. We have moods, emotions, fearful thoughts, negativity sometimes that we cannot see the true unless we break past that. Some people use meditation. I like to think of writing as my meditation. Rather than an emptying of the mind by thinking, I can only empty my mind by putting it down on paper, computer, etc. Once it’s out of there, I’m fine.

Many people feel they can’t write. They can’t even start because of paralysis about what to write. Well that’s precisely the point. You write anything, anything that comes to you. You sometimes have to even force yourself to write. Cameron deals with this paralysis also in her chapter called “Recovering a Sense of Safety.” The biggest fear writers of diaries and journals have is being read by others. They don’t feel safe writing things down that others may discover.  And there are some people who do feel it’s their absolute right to snoop into their children’s or spouse’s diaries. I’ve known mothers who do this and I am always shocked. This was no accidental, “I couldn’t help but peek” reading of what is supposed to be sacred and private. They actively scoured their children’s rooms to find such “evidence” to use against them!! What a horrible violation of privacy! It’s like people complaining about feeling raped when they are robbed. Well this is no different. Reading another’s private journal is a rape of the mind. Everyone, everyone needs privacy and a feeling that they aren’t being invaded, especially adults of childhood abuse or some such trauma. I learned my lesson early when I accidentally discovered something my husband had written and brought it up. I wish now that I hadn’t and he has never tried to write anything again. He was not an obsessive (like I am) or even nominal writer , but whatever urge he had disappeared after that and it was probably my fault. We need to respect people’s privacy if we would like our own.

I firmly believe this is why we blog. Typing is a naturally quick way of getting thoughts out there quickly. I know some who insist on hand writing journals and there is a much needed value in hand writing and the physical movement across a physical piece of paper. But in college I learned quickly that typing was an excellent way to organize thoughts that I gleaned from researching essays I would write. I would always start with any thought and idea and write it down within the body of the essay, as I collected the research. Chances are, if I didn’t I would forget a good thought or idea that I had. Some research I used, some I didn’t, but it was there for rearranging once I got that down. I never started at the beginning of an essay, which paralyzed and simultaneously irritated student friends. I always started in the middle and worked around it. I tried to explain it to them, so it would take the pressure off. Some took the advice and others couldn’t. But that’s ok. Whatever method of writing works is the “right” method, despite what they teach you at college. But no one will tell you this going in for some reason. Odd.

So keep writing, no matter what. Don’t let snoopers stop you. Don’t let “writer’s block” stop you, unless of course, you really do need to recharge your spiritual batteries. But even then, sometimes if we just start writing, no matter what we begin with or end up with, the creative juices will always kick in. Count on it.