Reading time: About one minute
This is my weekly installment of “writing about writing,” in which I scan the world to find websites, books and articles to help other writers. Today I discuss a blog post about morning pages…
Do you worship at the temple of Julia Cameron? I know many writers who do. They swear by her morning pages and they tell me her approach — of writing three pages by hand each morning, with no concern for either content or form — has helped to unblock them. (This technique is sometimes known as free writing and I’ve done a video on it, here.)
Even though morning pages have never been my thing, I love hearing stories about writers who’ve stormed their way through blocks. If morning pages work for them, do them, I say.
I started thinking about this topic recently after reading a blog post under the title, “Building a Writing Practice.” Author Libby Walkup had found herself stuck in a current project and had turned to Cameron’s ideas for help.
Here is what Walkup said:
“The idea is to take away the pressure to produce a piece of writing, and it’s achieved through engaging in a free-form daily writing practice that isn’t meant to be published or shown to anyone.
Doing so releases the practitioner from fears of doing it “wrong” and makes the writing that is meant for publication come with more ease. Intuitively you’ll begin to play and explore while writing your content.”
Me? I prefer to use mindmapping. I find mindmapping to be fun, creative and engaging. Like morning pages, it’s also low-pressure, because I know that no one else is ever going to see my mindmaps. (To learn more about mindmapping, check out this link to all my posts and videos on the subject.)
I also strongly endorse Cameron’s notion that doing something every day (morning pages for her, mindmaps for me) helps remove the terror of the creative process.
