I did morning pages for a few months. For part of a year, I did Summer's five things. Now, every day, I just write. I don't journal or do the stream of consciousness thing. I don't have a five things constraint. I sit at my computer and type today's date and then I put something on the page that perhaps I can see someone else reading one day. I write in paragraphs. One paragraph at a time. I write a paragraph and then there is white space and then another paragraph. So it is a journal but not a personal journal so much as more of a semi-public journal (though no one sees it). I remember things from my childhood. I think about the day. I write about the coffee my husband just brought me. I write about my dead mother. I write about a phone call. This is the best writing practice I've ever had, this spilling out of little stories. Sometimes what I write is purely fiction. Some of it is true. Sometimes, it's just about the sky and how it feels like it is falling. I allow anything to come, but also I rework some of the entries as I write them. A bit of editing on each paragraph until i like the flow of it. Here is a tiny paragraph from this morning. It is meaningless to anyone but me:
"One thing about my mother. If she was wearing, say, a sweater, and I said I liked it, she’d pull it off right there and insist I take it."
I've been writing like this since the first of the year and right now i have nearly 40,000 words. Hope this helpful to someone or at least interesting
I too have felt whiny and embarrassed by my journal entries. I would try to force myself say something positive about the day — sort of like Ross Gay’s Book of Delights, and some days I could do it some days not. Maybe the venting is good or maybe I should just go outside and go see some art and get out of my myopic grudge-filled brain. I started a Google doc years and years ago funny enough it’s called six things. I thought if I could just remember six things about the day then it wouldn’t just get washed away because time seems to be speeding up at a terrifying rate. You’ve reminded me of that document it’s a manageable check-in with my writer self. It’s somewhere in that great Google Drive in the sky. I’ll go look for it. Thank you.
I had a similar experience with Morning Pages. I found I was pouring anxiety-laden gunk onto the page and it wasn't helping. Many years later, when I was coming to terms with some big changes, one of my Zen teachers said that sometimes looking inward is great, but it risks pulling you down the spiral staircase if you get caught in the difficulty. In those times, he said, looking outside yourself is best. He was absolutely right. What you wrote reminded me a lot of that advice.
Any time I hear "Mary Oliver" or "Marie Howe" I get profoundly nostalgic, coming from Provincetown...I am a bit home sick right now, just having upheaved my life, my animals lives...I am embarrassed to say, as a writer, I have never ever kept a journal in my life until I moved here to Aix in late November, "feeling like a balloon caught in an unfamiliar tree" was my first entry. I had been so disoriented, and I knew I would not be writing anything creatively for some time, that I was desperate to write something, anything, that I was holding too much and had to unload--so it has been that for me, for the last months--coupled with flashes of my surroundings; the Cezanne sky, the deep mournful bells, perfume and tobacco, the children...I am not sure what kind of journaling it is, but it has saved me in a way.
Several years ago my daughter gave me a small book for writing "one line a day." It is a five-year book with enough space for only a few sentences each day, and it has been the one writing practice that I manage to keep. There's very little room for contemplation or venting, so it mostly serves as an observation of what happened in my life each day. I'm in the fourth year, and it's interesting to note "what happened on this day" in previous years; sometimes it engenders critical self-judgment about a lack of progression--as though remaining the same person with the same habits and tendencies is somehow a bad thing. But maintaining the practice of documenting my mere existence is often my chief accomplishment each day, and it never feels void of care for the real person that I am.
Having done the Artist’s Way, I like the idea of morning pages in theory, but I just get more excited to journal when I have a prompt. Something about constraints forcing action (versus writing anything I want on a blank page).
I was wondering how constrained is perceived in journalling or more precisely in morning pages. I find journaling more prescriptive and I find morning pages totally free. But wondered what was meant by the question. Thank you the link on poetry. Yes, my question was for Tara but anyone’s welcome to share their views on it!
I think there’s the idea that imposing limitations (constraints) can actually be freeing rather than prescriptive. When you can write anything that’s on your mind, it can feel or overwhelming. When you have a specific prompt, it helps you narrow and focus your attention and at least get something written on the page. I think morning pages are great when I’m feeling really heavy things and just want to unleash my mind into the page and stop ruminating, but journaling prompts give me more focused direction in life.
I'm so glad you wrote this because I've been rethinking my journaling practice for the same reason. I found that I was ruminating on the same things over and over again and that it was bleeding into my life, stopping me from writing about more interesting things. I miss the morning practice of journaling so I don't want to give it up completely, but I know I have a history of anxiety and depression, given free range, I just made myself miserable first thing in the morning. I have no answers yet, but I am glad that I am not the only one who found the particular practice of morning pages unhelpful.
Grateful to read this this morning. I've struggled with morning pages, though I've spoken with plenty of people/students over the years who have loved The Artist's Way and swear by the morning pages process for their own writing. I appreciate the distinction you made about writing as art and writing as therapy; sometimes I've felt a blur between the two types of writing. I have a daily journaling practice, one that's more about greeting the day with writing in the same way I do with meditation (being with the page) along with a weekly public-facing writing process. I steer away from venting on the page, as I feel it clogs the psyche a little too easily. In those cases, I write on loose leaf paper, discard, then take any lingering feeling on a walk.
I've found a lot resonance with your Five Things prompt, Natalie Goldberg's timed writing practice from Writing Down the Bones, and from the of attending the writing practice from my mentor Gail Sher and her book One Continuous Mistake -- the practice of simply showing up to write no matter what is written -- a connection I made with what you shared about "keeping the appointment". (Sher writes: "If the emphasis is on attendance, one has marvelously succeeded as soon as one is seated at one’s desk.") I love the action-oriented, forward momentum and organization of your inventory practice. Thank you for sharing!
It may sound daft but I use Bluesky in the morning as a way of writing small notes, mainly to myself and friends, to get into the swing of things.
What I have noticed (as someone who types on a computer all day) that a really good keyboard helps a great deal. I've been hoping the old Apple Extended Keyboard II (last seen in the 1980s) would come back but it never did, but I've yet to find a 'great' keyboard (the closest is the Lofree Edge, which I use in our downtown office but I've just gone back to using a Apple wireless keyboard in my home office as the other keyboards I've tried just weren't cutting it). Since I've switched, I've starting writing better because I'm no longer getting frustrated with all the small errors that kick in when you're not using a tool correctly. All that remains is hoping this jump starts my other types of writing outside of the day job more.
“Even if you’re dead” really made me laugh but Thank you so much for this. It has inspired me to re-try the 5 things which I did a couple of times a while back and really enjoyed but life and distractions and got in the way. I go through phases of morning pages and it’s usually more prolific when there’s something big going on that I need to process. I’ve found that by writing or moaning/whining about the same thing, I usually get sick of it and start to come up with a solution and then take action on resolving whatever it is that’s going on. I think that’s the idea of my morning pages, to clear out my head and ideally make space to be creative (or at least to come up with a creative solution to a current issue)
I always think of my daily writing as exercise like sit-ups that make me stronger at my "work" writing, but I love the 5 things essay idea as a way to get off the treadmill of subject matter, as well as a to do list. I'm going to try that!
What a great topic, and timely for me: I am on day 43 of doing morning pages. So far I haven't spiraled too much, but I can definitely see how that could happen. You have inspired me to take a pause and evaluate the approach.
I feel I need to start with writing, but can't just come to the desk, sit down a write. Walking seems to be a good starting point. But everything seems to depend on how I feel at the moment. When u don't feel like it but you still do it-that's something I should persist.
I’m breaking out the journal now to try out five things! I stumbled into found poetry years ago and found so much ease in the constraint of a page of source material…and then this found its way into my journaling practice over the past year. I free write whatever spools out from the day as usual, but then underline the words that feel hot - the lines with energy. On the next page, those words become a found poem, a distillation of raw ingredients into something more potent. This has led to deeper understanding of myself and opened doors of inquiry. Plus, when I sift back, each entry’s poem is just a few lines. The patterns throughout everyday days emerge and the really pivotal experiences stand out.
I did morning pages for a few months. For part of a year, I did Summer's five things. Now, every day, I just write. I don't journal or do the stream of consciousness thing. I don't have a five things constraint. I sit at my computer and type today's date and then I put something on the page that perhaps I can see someone else reading one day. I write in paragraphs. One paragraph at a time. I write a paragraph and then there is white space and then another paragraph. So it is a journal but not a personal journal so much as more of a semi-public journal (though no one sees it). I remember things from my childhood. I think about the day. I write about the coffee my husband just brought me. I write about my dead mother. I write about a phone call. This is the best writing practice I've ever had, this spilling out of little stories. Sometimes what I write is purely fiction. Some of it is true. Sometimes, it's just about the sky and how it feels like it is falling. I allow anything to come, but also I rework some of the entries as I write them. A bit of editing on each paragraph until i like the flow of it. Here is a tiny paragraph from this morning. It is meaningless to anyone but me:
"One thing about my mother. If she was wearing, say, a sweater, and I said I liked it, she’d pull it off right there and insist I take it."
I've been writing like this since the first of the year and right now i have nearly 40,000 words. Hope this helpful to someone or at least interesting
I too have felt whiny and embarrassed by my journal entries. I would try to force myself say something positive about the day — sort of like Ross Gay’s Book of Delights, and some days I could do it some days not. Maybe the venting is good or maybe I should just go outside and go see some art and get out of my myopic grudge-filled brain. I started a Google doc years and years ago funny enough it’s called six things. I thought if I could just remember six things about the day then it wouldn’t just get washed away because time seems to be speeding up at a terrifying rate. You’ve reminded me of that document it’s a manageable check-in with my writer self. It’s somewhere in that great Google Drive in the sky. I’ll go look for it. Thank you.
That’s great Susanna and obviously I feel much the same way. Thank you for reading 💜
👍❤️
I had a similar experience with Morning Pages. I found I was pouring anxiety-laden gunk onto the page and it wasn't helping. Many years later, when I was coming to terms with some big changes, one of my Zen teachers said that sometimes looking inward is great, but it risks pulling you down the spiral staircase if you get caught in the difficulty. In those times, he said, looking outside yourself is best. He was absolutely right. What you wrote reminded me a lot of that advice.
Any time I hear "Mary Oliver" or "Marie Howe" I get profoundly nostalgic, coming from Provincetown...I am a bit home sick right now, just having upheaved my life, my animals lives...I am embarrassed to say, as a writer, I have never ever kept a journal in my life until I moved here to Aix in late November, "feeling like a balloon caught in an unfamiliar tree" was my first entry. I had been so disoriented, and I knew I would not be writing anything creatively for some time, that I was desperate to write something, anything, that I was holding too much and had to unload--so it has been that for me, for the last months--coupled with flashes of my surroundings; the Cezanne sky, the deep mournful bells, perfume and tobacco, the children...I am not sure what kind of journaling it is, but it has saved me in a way.
This is lovely, and I love that image of the balloon in a tree.
Several years ago my daughter gave me a small book for writing "one line a day." It is a five-year book with enough space for only a few sentences each day, and it has been the one writing practice that I manage to keep. There's very little room for contemplation or venting, so it mostly serves as an observation of what happened in my life each day. I'm in the fourth year, and it's interesting to note "what happened on this day" in previous years; sometimes it engenders critical self-judgment about a lack of progression--as though remaining the same person with the same habits and tendencies is somehow a bad thing. But maintaining the practice of documenting my mere existence is often my chief accomplishment each day, and it never feels void of care for the real person that I am.
Your accomplishment of documenting your existence is great, Elisabeth.
Having done the Artist’s Way, I like the idea of morning pages in theory, but I just get more excited to journal when I have a prompt. Something about constraints forcing action (versus writing anything I want on a blank page).
How do you mean constraints?
I realize this question wasn't directed by me, but in case it's helpful https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constrained_writing
I was wondering how constrained is perceived in journalling or more precisely in morning pages. I find journaling more prescriptive and I find morning pages totally free. But wondered what was meant by the question. Thank you the link on poetry. Yes, my question was for Tara but anyone’s welcome to share their views on it!
I think there’s the idea that imposing limitations (constraints) can actually be freeing rather than prescriptive. When you can write anything that’s on your mind, it can feel or overwhelming. When you have a specific prompt, it helps you narrow and focus your attention and at least get something written on the page. I think morning pages are great when I’m feeling really heavy things and just want to unleash my mind into the page and stop ruminating, but journaling prompts give me more focused direction in life.
Got you! Great points! Yes, you’re right some people struggle with freedom and want to be given direct indication as to what to write about.
I'm so glad you wrote this because I've been rethinking my journaling practice for the same reason. I found that I was ruminating on the same things over and over again and that it was bleeding into my life, stopping me from writing about more interesting things. I miss the morning practice of journaling so I don't want to give it up completely, but I know I have a history of anxiety and depression, given free range, I just made myself miserable first thing in the morning. I have no answers yet, but I am glad that I am not the only one who found the particular practice of morning pages unhelpful.
Grateful to read this this morning. I've struggled with morning pages, though I've spoken with plenty of people/students over the years who have loved The Artist's Way and swear by the morning pages process for their own writing. I appreciate the distinction you made about writing as art and writing as therapy; sometimes I've felt a blur between the two types of writing. I have a daily journaling practice, one that's more about greeting the day with writing in the same way I do with meditation (being with the page) along with a weekly public-facing writing process. I steer away from venting on the page, as I feel it clogs the psyche a little too easily. In those cases, I write on loose leaf paper, discard, then take any lingering feeling on a walk.
I've found a lot resonance with your Five Things prompt, Natalie Goldberg's timed writing practice from Writing Down the Bones, and from the of attending the writing practice from my mentor Gail Sher and her book One Continuous Mistake -- the practice of simply showing up to write no matter what is written -- a connection I made with what you shared about "keeping the appointment". (Sher writes: "If the emphasis is on attendance, one has marvelously succeeded as soon as one is seated at one’s desk.") I love the action-oriented, forward momentum and organization of your inventory practice. Thank you for sharing!
Thanks for sharing your own process Kelly 💜.
It may sound daft but I use Bluesky in the morning as a way of writing small notes, mainly to myself and friends, to get into the swing of things.
What I have noticed (as someone who types on a computer all day) that a really good keyboard helps a great deal. I've been hoping the old Apple Extended Keyboard II (last seen in the 1980s) would come back but it never did, but I've yet to find a 'great' keyboard (the closest is the Lofree Edge, which I use in our downtown office but I've just gone back to using a Apple wireless keyboard in my home office as the other keyboards I've tried just weren't cutting it). Since I've switched, I've starting writing better because I'm no longer getting frustrated with all the small errors that kick in when you're not using a tool correctly. All that remains is hoping this jump starts my other types of writing outside of the day job more.
“Even if you’re dead” really made me laugh but Thank you so much for this. It has inspired me to re-try the 5 things which I did a couple of times a while back and really enjoyed but life and distractions and got in the way. I go through phases of morning pages and it’s usually more prolific when there’s something big going on that I need to process. I’ve found that by writing or moaning/whining about the same thing, I usually get sick of it and start to come up with a solution and then take action on resolving whatever it is that’s going on. I think that’s the idea of my morning pages, to clear out my head and ideally make space to be creative (or at least to come up with a creative solution to a current issue)
I always think of my daily writing as exercise like sit-ups that make me stronger at my "work" writing, but I love the 5 things essay idea as a way to get off the treadmill of subject matter, as well as a to do list. I'm going to try that!
What a great topic, and timely for me: I am on day 43 of doing morning pages. So far I haven't spiraled too much, but I can definitely see how that could happen. You have inspired me to take a pause and evaluate the approach.
I feel I need to start with writing, but can't just come to the desk, sit down a write. Walking seems to be a good starting point. But everything seems to depend on how I feel at the moment. When u don't feel like it but you still do it-that's something I should persist.
Please offer essay camp again!
Check your inbox tomorrow 😉
Notebooks work for me, not diaries. More interesting to read and refer to. This is an excellent post. I’ve shared it around.
Thank you!
I’m breaking out the journal now to try out five things! I stumbled into found poetry years ago and found so much ease in the constraint of a page of source material…and then this found its way into my journaling practice over the past year. I free write whatever spools out from the day as usual, but then underline the words that feel hot - the lines with energy. On the next page, those words become a found poem, a distillation of raw ingredients into something more potent. This has led to deeper understanding of myself and opened doors of inquiry. Plus, when I sift back, each entry’s poem is just a few lines. The patterns throughout everyday days emerge and the really pivotal experiences stand out.