Morning Pages - does anyone do them?

What a brilliant idea - but THREE pages?
I have a friend who says she doesn’t exactly keep a diary but write a couple of sentences at the end of every day and has done so all her adult life.
I think we should commit more to paper.
Every so often Facebook “reminds” me in the “Today’s Memories” section about various high and low points in my life which I had just about forgotten, especially how I felt at the time.
Food for thought.

My hypochondriac friend keeps a health diary! She ‘reports’ anything from a scratchy throat to a sneeze and hiccups in it, to discuss in her weekly phone call to one of her Surgery nurses!

Three pages doesn’t seem so bad when you say a notebook. The front of mine is smaller than the front cover of Murdle and I can manage that, but I seem to fill it the same way as Doodledog-somethings about yesterday’s visitors, or the gym or seeing a full size harp being manœuvered out of a small terraced house as we were passing, or what’s on for today. I couldn’t do three pages of a school exercise book.

Oh goodness, no

My brain doesn't get into gear until I've had at least two cups of tea.

And two Caramel Wafer in my case, Calli! 😂

I do think a lot before I get up, planning the day.
But it all goes pear-shaped when I get out of bed.

Callistemon21

Oh goodness, no

My brain doesn't get into gear until I've had at least two cups of tea.

Me neither, Calli, but that’s part of the idea. If your brain isn’t in gear you aren’t so much thinking as . . . something else (I need to back to basics, don’t I?) and are writing subconsciously, which in theory allows creativity to come to the surface.

I wouldn’t worry about three pages - you can set your own rules or use a small notebook.

I try to write in the morning, but not straight away, and in the evening which I often fail at due to being tired.

My problem isn't getting creative but having too many ideas which never come to anything?

Does this have a name and do other people have it?

Depends a bit on the size of the pages 😉.
It's just to be a written sort of consciousness. Sometimes I wake up and feel a bit down and bleak - perhaps just writing that down would prompt my brain to remember that days are never as bad as we first think and would prompt my brain to think of happier things. I'll give it a try - with small pages and big handwriting 😂

I think it’s generally known as ‘Normal’ . I was at a talk where it was referred to as a soup page, where you keep all the half-formed thoughts in one place and go back to them when you have time. Sometimes the flavours meld as they do in soup and one idea improves another.

Oh Georgesgran your post about your friend made me laugh. What a lucky surgery to " enjoy " her regular calls!

Taichinan I know exactly how you feel. It’s a relatively new (a few months) feeling for me, just feeling a bit ‘pointless’ or ‘directionless’.
It’s not nice, but if I get up the minute I realise that’s how I’m feeling and get going (anything including something simple like a shower), it goes away. I may not be kicking my height😊, but the unpleasant feeling goes.

When I was doing my PhD I kept a online diary of what I was finding out, doing it thinking. Just a brain dump. Rereading it after a while it was really interesting to see how the whole project shaped up and altered over time. It was a great way to jot down ideas as they struck me. Completely unstructured.
I always meant to start one for everyday life but never got round to it.
I'm a keen consumer of caramel wafers though, always two, if that counts for anything.

An online diary. My phone outwits me!

Also ' doing or thinking'. Note to self - check before posting.

Taichinan

Depends a bit on the size of the pages 😉.
It's just to be a written sort of consciousness. Sometimes I wake up and feel a bit down and bleak - perhaps just writing that down would prompt my brain to remember that days are never as bad as we first think and would prompt my brain to think of happier things. I'll give it a try - with small pages and big handwriting 😂

Sorry, I missed your post Taichinan. I think it might help - it can't do any harm, anyway. You can write what (and as much as) you like - the suggestion of 3 pages and not a journal is just a suggestion. I think that so long as you write and don't stop - cross out if you like, but then keep going, thoughts will come along.

Freewriting is slightly different, but would work just as well. Try writing a sentence at the top of the page the night before and continuing it as soon as you wake, without stopping. It could be something from a book you're reading, or that you've seen on TV, or that you wish you'd said to someone, or overheard in Tesco. Or you can just make something up.

Here are some off the top of my head that might work until you get into the swing of making up your own:

Walking along the road, she saw. . .
The noise got louder and louder until. . .
How could it have got up there?
She really couldn't remember how she found out. . .
Oh, not again.

When I wake up I have to get up and get going.. I can’t imagine sitting in bed in the morning writing anything, let alone three pages! I don’t keep a diary either, except to record birthdays etc.

No I have never tried Morning Pages, I need my coffee first, but I do write a diary every day, including health issues.

Germanshepherdsmum

When I wake up I have to get up and get going.. I can’t imagine sitting in bed in the morning writing anything, let alone three pages! I don’t keep a diary either, except to record birthdays etc.

Julia Cameron suggests that busy people set their alarm half an hour earlier, and go to bed half an hour earlier if they need to.

Obviously it's not for everyone, but those who do it seem to get a lot out of it.

I've never heard of Morning Pages but I assume this is "free association writing" whereby you write whatever comes in to your head. It's not supposed to be a diary or day planner or even a story. It should be whatever comes into your head. I do think three pages is a bit much though.

I did this as part of The Artists Way in 1997 after my marriage broke up. I found it useful. Had to set the alarm half an hour earlier.

flappergirl

I've never heard of Morning Pages but I assume this is "free association writing" whereby you write whatever comes in to your head. It's not supposed to be a diary or day planner or even a story. It should be whatever comes into your head. I do think three pages is a bit much though.

Yes, it's similar to freewriting. It's not meant to be a diary or planner, but I'm finding it quite difficult not to look back to yesterday or forward to the day ahead.

I think the three pages thing is so that you get over the 'blah blah I slept badly because X was snoring and there was a blackbird on the tree by the window at the crack of dawn' stage and into a more creative one. That's less likely after half a page or five minutes.

There are lots of videos about it on YouTube. Put Julia Cameron into the search to get the original concept, then you can amend it as much as you like. It's not quite the same as free writing, which has a starting point, such as a sentence like the ones in my post above. As nadaturbe says, Morning Pages are from The Artists Way, which is about writing, and is followed by a lot of people as a sort of therapeutic 'brain dump'. You don't need to read it again, though - it's not to be analysed.

I think I will switch to free writing, as I find that a lot easier.

I used to write every morning but then I got a dog 😂