On Taking Up Morning Pages Again

I hate to say it, but they really are helpful

Photo by Debby Hudson on Unsplash

You remember Morning Pages, right?

They were invented and popularized by Julia Cameron in her seminal creativity book, The Artist’s Way. (Which is totally worth reading and following if you haven’t ever.) I found Julia’s book many years ago in a fallow period after a house fire and domestic upheaval that had led me away from writing. I went through her whole program, week by week (even the no-reading week), and found it reignited my creative self spectacularly.

And I became a devotee of Morning Pages. Also known, at least by me, as MPs. For people who don’t know what they are, MPs are three hand-written pages inked first thing in the morning. They are done ideally before your brain has had a chance to wake up and the inner critic has roused itself. Here’s what Julia has to say about them:

Morning Pages are three pages of longhand, stream of consciousness writing,
done first thing in the morning. *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 magic of MPs is that they get the crap out of your brain. You might find yourself complaining about the weather or even your spouse. (That never happens to me, hahahaha.) You might ponder your to-do list or come up with brilliant thoughts for your WIP novel or you might write a bunch of gibberish. It doesn’t matter. The point is to do it, to clear your brain and get yourself set for the day. And they will set you up, trust me. They will also serve to bring up buried ideas and subconscious desires. As Cameron says, after a few weeks of writing MPs you may suddenly realize that moving to New York is coming up repeatedly. Or that you really, really, really would like to get a dog because you’ve randomly written many days about the cute ones you’ve seen online. Um, hello messages from your subconscious?

I wrote MPs for years. Honestly, years and years and years. I’ve always been an inveterate journaler so MPs made sense to me and came naturally. But, as with many things in life, at some point I wandered away from doing them. I’ll tell you one reason why. I wake early in the morning, usually by 5:30 at the latest (this happens naturally, no alarm), get myself a glass of water and a cup of coffee and head to my writing desk. Then I write fiction for the next hour to two hours.

These early morning hours are when my brain is at its best—and my inner critic at his most silent. (My inner critic is an imp named Patrick, who likes to jump around and cause trouble. I quiet him by telling he can come out during the editing process. If you’ve never done a meet-your-critic exercise, it’s fun and useful.) It’s also when the multi-generational house I live in is at its calmest. I have a really great life, and often these writing moments are the best part of it. They anchor me. Once I’ve written, I’ve done the thing that is most important to me. And somehow all the other stuff gets done more easily.

So with all of that, I told myself I didn’t need MPs, that writing fiction is more important.

And then a writer in the bi-weekly writing group I co-lead announced that she had purchased Julia Cameron’s newest book and her mind was blown apart. Suddenly she was writing like a mad woman again. Witness: she had just returned to our writing group after a months-long hiatus. “It’s really the morning pages that are doing it for me,” she said.

Listening to her, I had a clear thought. You should do Morning Pages again. I ignored it. But it came again, this time louder. You should do MPs. After the third time, I took the hint. I put my journal atop my computer on my desk where I couldn’t miss it. And the next morning I started in again. My previous excuse—that I needed my morning time to write fiction—evaporated when I learned I could do the MPs in 20 minutes and then get on with the novel. (Note to self: many things in life become possible when one just gets on with them.)

It took only a couple days to remember why I did them for so long. Because, damn it, they really do help. MPs are gold for helping me plot novels and gain insight into characters. I write down dreams and ideas, work out problems and vent. And often sometimes what I write makes no sense at all. But that’s the glory of it. Because once you start writing professionally, or even just writing a lot, the thought of your eventual audience is never far from your mind. What will my critique group think? I wonder what my agent will say about this new character? Will my readers like this book? Will my editor want to publish this article?

With MPs, all of that is a moot point because you’re writing just to be writing. You can do anything you want on the page. Characters don’t have to be motivated, scenes don’t have to work, dialogue doesn’t need to sound real. You can write the same word or sentence over and over again if that’s what you feel like. You can write sideways or in circles or upside down. There’s magic in this freedom. It feels good, it’s comforting, and it facilitates flow on the page. After a few days, a friend commented that she couldn’t believe how much material I was producing. I told her it just happened to be one of those times when the faucet was turned on and I wished it was like this always. But, honestly? When I started thinking about it, it is the morning pages.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

So in case you hadn’t guessed, I’m a fan again. Maybe you would like to try them? Here’s how:

—Write first thing in the morning

—Write longhand

—Write three pages on 8.5 by 11 paper

—Just write, don’t worry about what is going down on the page

—At the end of three pages, close the notebook and you’re done! They usually take me around 20 minutes.

Give it a try. And sometimes it takes a few days to let it settle in, so don’t get impatient. I’d love to hear if MPs work for you. Or maybe you do them already? Leave a comment!

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