(This was posted by Wendi, but I can't figure out how to ascribe it to her.)
-----------------
Mom asked me to share a bit about a creativity tool called the Morning Pages, which come from Julia Cameron's book "The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity". I have taken a few other things away from the book, but the idea of the morning pages is what has stuck with me the most, and I've found the most helpful. They are supposed to help unblock any kind of creative person (writer, artist, musician, you name it), but I find them to be especially useful in writing since they involve just that.
The morning pages involve assigning yourself a certain number of pages you must write first thing every morning (Cameron recommends three academic notebook sized pages), no matter what, and you can write anything and everything that's on your mind, but the pages must be filled. The idea is that you will clear your head of whatever cobwebs, worries, issues, dreams, etc., that might distract you from your daily tasks, and inhibit creative productivity. It can be a lot like any other cleansing ritual you might do in the morning to prepare yourself for the day.
I try to practice morning pages, with various phases of success (generally depending on my work schedule), but sort of with my own rules. I don't usually impose an arbitrary number of pages I must reach; in fact, I treat them more as journal entries relating the previous day's events and whatever is on my mind. Nevertheless, I still find them to be therapeutic, perhaps simply because I've changed from an evening person to more of a morning person in recent years (crazy, I know, for any of you who might know me from several years ago or more), and I find it easier to focus in the morning. It makes sense, though; even when I was an evening person, in college I would have to write in my journal to clear my head before I could focus on homework in the evening.
Another spin I put on this concept was adding "evening pages" at times. Especially if you have certain goals for your day, or are simply curious to see how your mood changes from the beginning to end of the day, it can be fun and interesting to do both morning and evening pages in the same day. One of my favorite Steinbeck quotes goes: "So much there is to see, but our morning eyes describe a different world than do our afternoon eyes, and surely our wearied evening eyes can report only on a weary evening world."
I know it's not always realistic to write every morning (as I mentioned, I generally only manage to do it regularly when I'm between temp jobs and have lots of time in my day), and so morning pages may not be possible for everyone. Maybe one idea would be to pick a regular time everyday you could write, after work but before "personal" time, or some other time slot. Some people might not even have time to write everyday, but have occasional time throughout the week to write or work on other creative projects. In that case, maybe writing something cathartic like morning pages before attempting other projects would clear your head.
Does anyone else have writing rituals or other ways to clear your head before working on creative projects? Would anyone be interested in trying to write morning pages and sharing whether it does you any good? Just thought I'd share something that's been interesting and useful for me.
-----------------
Mom asked me to share a bit about a creativity tool called the Morning Pages, which come from Julia Cameron's book "The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity". I have taken a few other things away from the book, but the idea of the morning pages is what has stuck with me the most, and I've found the most helpful. They are supposed to help unblock any kind of creative person (writer, artist, musician, you name it), but I find them to be especially useful in writing since they involve just that.
The morning pages involve assigning yourself a certain number of pages you must write first thing every morning (Cameron recommends three academic notebook sized pages), no matter what, and you can write anything and everything that's on your mind, but the pages must be filled. The idea is that you will clear your head of whatever cobwebs, worries, issues, dreams, etc., that might distract you from your daily tasks, and inhibit creative productivity. It can be a lot like any other cleansing ritual you might do in the morning to prepare yourself for the day.
I try to practice morning pages, with various phases of success (generally depending on my work schedule), but sort of with my own rules. I don't usually impose an arbitrary number of pages I must reach; in fact, I treat them more as journal entries relating the previous day's events and whatever is on my mind. Nevertheless, I still find them to be therapeutic, perhaps simply because I've changed from an evening person to more of a morning person in recent years (crazy, I know, for any of you who might know me from several years ago or more), and I find it easier to focus in the morning. It makes sense, though; even when I was an evening person, in college I would have to write in my journal to clear my head before I could focus on homework in the evening.
Another spin I put on this concept was adding "evening pages" at times. Especially if you have certain goals for your day, or are simply curious to see how your mood changes from the beginning to end of the day, it can be fun and interesting to do both morning and evening pages in the same day. One of my favorite Steinbeck quotes goes: "So much there is to see, but our morning eyes describe a different world than do our afternoon eyes, and surely our wearied evening eyes can report only on a weary evening world."
I know it's not always realistic to write every morning (as I mentioned, I generally only manage to do it regularly when I'm between temp jobs and have lots of time in my day), and so morning pages may not be possible for everyone. Maybe one idea would be to pick a regular time everyday you could write, after work but before "personal" time, or some other time slot. Some people might not even have time to write everyday, but have occasional time throughout the week to write or work on other creative projects. In that case, maybe writing something cathartic like morning pages before attempting other projects would clear your head.
Does anyone else have writing rituals or other ways to clear your head before working on creative projects? Would anyone be interested in trying to write morning pages and sharing whether it does you any good? Just thought I'd share something that's been interesting and useful for me.
Comments
Post a Comment