my morning pages praise & process
I've been doing Morning Pages for 212 days straight. Felt like a number worth celebrating by praising these things and sharing my process for those who might be interested.
Morning pages were created by Julia Cameron and shared in her bestselling book originally published in 1992, The Artist’s Way.
From Julia’s website—
“Morning Pages are three pages of longhand, stream-of-consciousness morning writing about absolutely anything.”
That’s it. Simple and easy. She’ll help you go much deeper with her book and other material but at the core are Morning Pages.
I consider them compost for my thinking, writing, and speaking—the wax on-wax off, sand-the-floor, paint-the-fence work (see below). They prep the ground for good things. They’re stretching before practice. I’ve grown to look forward to them the night before.
Why 3 pages?
Julia explained this during a 2020 podcast with Brian Koppelman (The Moment, last episode in 2023).
“I had a daughter who hated that I had transported her from busy New York to New Mexico where there was nothing but cows. And I would get up before her and I would go sit at an oak table that stared out at Taos mountain … and I would write.
Nobody told me to write three pages but three pages seemed to be the amount I could get done before my daughter woke up.”
On mornings when I’m eager to step into the day, I’m glad her daughter didn’t sleep in longer.
My process—
I fought the longhand thing because I prefer typing and have poor handwriting. I also like being able to do keyword searches if I need to find something later. But after some research, I bought in.
For me, using a cheap college-ruled spiral notebook, it takes me about 30 minutes to get 800-900 words onto three pages. If I hit on a sentence, phrase, or thought I think is valuable or worth exploring, I circle a few of the words. When I finish, I go back and type those thoughts into my Notes app in a folder called MPs (Morning Pages). This let’s me do keyword searches if recall something later I might be able to use for something else.
[Update: I now do the same number of words but on two pages. Here’s why with a few added twists of thought.]
Who should try them?
If you’re a creative person, they’re worth a go. If not, I’m guessing they’d still be helpful but I can see how difficult it might be to justify the time. If you write, you’d be nuts not to try them.
I believe Morning Pages are one of those small things that can make a big difference in the long run and occasionally even in the short term—a 212 thing. I was lucky to find them.
Reality check—
While writing this, I found a journal entry from January 1, 2019: "I can't even do this morning pages thing." Not the best self-talk for a motivational speaker. And apparently, I might be in the third run at these rather than the second.
Hope to see you in the morning.
Mentioned: The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Email me anytime with your thoughts, questions, or suggestions. With suggestions, please don’t be shy or worry about my feelings. Quick, blunt, and maybe helpful is always welcome.