Get It Out of Your Brain and Onto the Page
I have to remember to buy yogurt at the grocery store.
Why hasn’t that agent gotten back to me yet? Does my whole book idea suck? Do I need to rewrite the first chapter - again?!
I need to figure out what courses to offer for spring. Maybe I could do one on the Inside Outline…
What do these have in common? They are all sentences from my recent Morning Pages. Morning Pages, for those unfamiliar with Julia Cameron’s work (first introduced in The Artist’s Way), are three pages written longhand first thing in the morning. They can be about anything; in fact, it’s better if they are just done as freewriting, without a plan. This is an opportunity to let it rip, to complain, to meander, to try out ideas. You can be your worst self, as a person and as a writer, and not worry that anyone will ever read it.
I hadn’t done them in a while, because lots of other life-things got in the way, and my mornings are generally already pretty full with meditation, working out, and writing before I even get to any work I have for the day. Part of me still groans not one more thing! When I do them, however, I realize why they are so important:
They allow me to vent all the stuff taking up space in my head. Plans for the day, other things I need to do, nagging thoughts, complaints, any feelings of overwhelm I’m experiencing. I just pour them onto the page. This gets them out of my head, and if they’re not important, they just stay on the page, freeing my mind up for other more important things. If it’s something I need to remember, I jot it down on my actual calendar or to-do list, and then I also don’t have to think about it until it’s time to deal with it.
They allow the Inner Critic a place to rant. If I’m feeling anxious or negative, and the Inner Critic’s voice is drowning out all attempts to recalibrate my mind in a more positive direction, I can say, “fine, here you go,” and let it all out on the page. Usually, there’s a lot less than I think once I start writing. At some point it hits me: this is stupid. Or, this isn’t true. Once I get the voice out of my head, it seems much smaller and less scary. It’s like the lion roaring in my brain becomes the kitten more interested in chasing a piece of string than eating me. Pretty soon, more positive thoughts creep in: You can do this. Here’s how. (I’m big on strategy). This process of offering rebuttals and reframing is crucial in changing my mood and energy.
They act as an incubator of new ideas. Story ideas; business ideas; things I’d like to do, read, or see; places I’d like to travel (eventually…). When things pop up, I follow them in writing, as opposed to when they’re in my head and they float away along with all my other thoughts. I can explore them without risk, go deeper, cast them aside, change my mind… let one idea lead to another, and another. It’s an act of creative play on the page. Sometimes a seed planted in Morning Pages takes root somewhere else, and sometimes it doesn’t. It’s okay. There’s no pressure to perform or create here. Sometimes it takes a while for ideas to develop, and the same one will emerge again and again, in different forms, until I’m ready to take action on it.
I believe we would all be better off doing Morning Pages, or having some sort of space to vent, rant, and incubate on a regular basis. It’s a fabulous de-stressor. Just knowing I have a place for all this stuff to go is reassuring.
Some people are put off by the idea of writing three pages longhand (or anything longhand, for that matter). They fear they’ll run out of things to say, or that it will take too long. What I often find when I think I’m winding down and have nothing more to add, is that my next sentence becomes: What I really wanted to write about is… and then the really juicy stuff comes out. The stuff I don’t even want to admit to myself, or dare to think about. Sometimes I just need to write a load of crap before I’m ready to write what I truly want and need to say. I don’t usually have a problem filling up my pages.
Doing it longhand is important too. Firstly, most of us spend a ridiculous number of hours a day staring at a screen. De-screening time is crucial. Secondly, neuroscience research tells us that the kinesthetic contact of hand holding pen to paper makes a difference in your thoughts and emotions. Handwriting activates different parts of the brain, including the areas for language, thinking, and memory. It allows us to slow down, and make connections and conceptual leaps that we might not while typing. In short, it stimulates the brain far more than simple typing on a keyboard.
I tend to set my timer for 25 minutes (one Pomodoro, for those who follow that method). Sometimes I write a little more than three pages, sometimes a little less, but knowing the clock is ticking helps keep me on-task.
Do you already do Morning Pages? Or are you ready to try it? Let me know in the comments.
