Morning Pages

I've been working through THE ARTIST'S WAY system by Julia Cameron for at least 6 months now. I didn't start with THE ARTIST'S WAY itself, but with one of her other books. It is an amazing system for unblocking creativity.

I've journaled for decades, mostly on computer, but I fought the idea of 3 hand written pages first thing in the morning for years. About 6 months ago I decided to just give it a try. I'm still not sure that a computer written journal wouldn't work for me. My journaling style didn't change when I picked up a pen, or when I used a keyboard. But what did change was length. Inevitably you will run out of things to say. It is hard to tell if you have written "enough" when you are using a computer. Is it three pages? More? Less?

I found that if I made myself keep going, I kept going to that third page and generally past it.

Morning Pages aren't the same as writing a blog. You aren't writing for anyone but yourself. In some places Julia Cameron describes it as a brain dump. For three pages you write about every silly thing that is on your mind. You write about the things that worry you and the things that excite you. You write about what you are going to make for supper tomorrow if that is what is on your mind. And at some point, you find yourself writing about the quilt you want to make, or the beading you want to do, or the blog you want to start. And you find yourself making that quilt, doing that beading or starting that blog.

In the last couple of days I've seen THE ARTIST'S WAY mentioned on two blogs that I read regularly. One was a beading blog. I don't do beading, but the author of that blog does, and she unblocked the kind of beading she does using THE ARTIST'S WAY. The other blog is by an author of one of those "how to make money writing blogs" systems. Mostly I don't read that kind of thing but every once in a while he talks about organization or some other subject I enjoy so I look in occasionally. And this week, I found his THE ARTIST'S WAY post which was so much like the beader's post that I was a bit amazed.

Because what they had found is what I have found. During the last 6 months I've also bought a sewing machine, and began trying to learn Art Quilting. I've pulled projects out of the closet and drawers and finished them up. There are three pillows on my bed that sat unfinished for 15 to 20 years. And I finished a quilt this morning. Binding done, and only a little hand sewing to do, that was started in 1994.

I thought about wanting to do some writing and realized I could do it in a blog in Morning Pages less than two weeks ago.

There are other parts to her system, but I am beginning to think that everyone should try Morning Pages.